I just received my new Dell Desktop PC and find that there’s Microsoft Office 2007 already installed with a trial period of 60 days only. Everytime you start up an Office 2007 application such as Word or Excel, it will prompt you to enter or get a 25 digit product key. I was able to find a simple hack just to get around this.
1. In Windows Explorer, browse to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Proof.en\
2. Open Proof.XML with Notepad.
3. Find these lines
<Feature Id=”SetupXmlFiles” Cost=”1248″>
<OptionRef Id=”AlwaysInstalled”/>
</Feature>
4. Change the AlwaysInsalled to neverInstalled, ex.
<OptionRef Id=”neverInstalled”/>
5. Save the Proof.xml file. In Windows Vista, you may need to take ownership and grant full access permission to yourself before able to modify the file.
You can now launch all Microsoft Office 2007 application such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and etc without prompting for activation.
That’s it. Just a reminder this is for informational purposes only. You can also get Microsoft Office 2007 at 10% discount off or buy Office 2007 and get turbo tax free.
hey i cannot save the file. it says…
it says
cannot create c:\programfiles\common files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Proof.en\Proof.XML file.
HELP!
I have the same problem, cannot create the file. Even with full acces control. Its frustrating.
If you cant save the Proof.XML file and you are on Windows Vista here is what you do… Go to notepad, Right click it and click “Run as Administator” then copy the Proof.XML text into the notepad you ran as administator and save it over the old Proof.XML
First you open proof file in notepad then delete the original proof file then you can save the new proof.
Note: Don’t delete the original proof before open in notepad u may lose your office 2007.
Fools Never Rules’……..!
I followed all the instructions and no luck, every time i start office 2007 i keep getting the activation request and nothing works, except the basics
if you use windows vista you must right click notepad and run as administrator then modify it
Save it to documents and then cut and paste it in the proof.en folder
ANYONE GETTING cannot create c:\programfiles\common files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Proof.en\Proof.XML file.
This is because it exist.
COPY THE ENTIRE FILE
Delete it the entire document
Right click on notepad
click run as administrator
paste the file
save it in the proof.en folder
It should work, at least it did with me
In fact, I had that same problem. Here’s what I did:
1. Copy Proof.XML and place it on the desktop. Open, edit and save as mentioned above.
2. Move it back to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Proof.en\Proof.XML and say yes when asked whether to overwrite.
[...] can get Office 2007 working without even a product key if you know how. The solution involves no key generators, serials or patches but just a simple edit of an xml file to buy you [...]
hi, just wondering what would be the downside to this ‘hack’?
I’ve read that MS office service packs and updates won’t work, but I’m not 100% sure about that since I had easily apply the updates before editing that proof.xml file. Apart from that, EVERYTHING is working, opening, editing, saving, and exporting doucments as usual.
Getting a legal copy is of course recommended or try out OpenOffice which is free.
Hey thanks man, for me it works, I also made a copy, saved in Documents, delete the original file and than just place my own to the folder.
Thanks a lot!!!
xx
Not working for me. I’m able to save the change in the proof.xml doc. But I’m not able to use Microsoft Office. I’ve tried restarting the computer, and still nothing. What am I doing wrong?
Not sure. Do you get any error messages? You mean MS Office 2007 doesn’t start up at all?
No error messages. Office programs start up, but no functionality. I still can’t create new messages/calendar appointments/etc in Outlook. Or new documents in any other Office programs.
I don’t have this problem and can’t be sure how you can go forward with this. I’m leaving this comment hoping that maybe someone else has the solution for this.
Hi,
i did this and it worked for a while and then it wont let me save. before when i did it, the documents in registry wouldnt open so how do i delete the stuff?
In Microsoft Student 2007, you can use it without the activation key of the hack, all that you have to do is on your desktop, right click, and you will get a series of options, scroll down to new, click word 2007 document. If this is done correctly a word document icon will apear on you desktop. Click it, It will ask you to enter the 25 digit product key, but press cancel, it will then ask you if you want to cancel the set u and click, yes. You will be able to use the the word document without any problems after this. Although every time you use it, the pop up will appear asking you to enter the product key, just ignor it. It becomes annoying but it is well worth not having to pay for it.
It works for me…thought it took me a little bit to figure it out.
It disables the activation message for office professional 2007 trial! now I can access word and excell! but functions are still disabled in outlook
any ideas?
this is only temporary…. after a few days you lose functionality… Microsoft would never make it that easy this easy to hack, all this does is remove the message asking for the product key
thousand thanks man! worked like a charm!
would’ve preffered open office if only it will let me make blog posts directly
That’s cool! Thanks!
Works correctly for me…
Thank you!
So I have granted full permission to myself on the OFFICE12 folder. The only problem is I dont have an Office Controller Setup file in OFFICE12, does anyone know why?
Oh god … so, i did what was suggested and now all I can do is to view files. But there’s not a move I can make. I can’t type in Word or delete or anything. Only thing changed is that I don’t see the annoying pop-up anymore.
So, I decided to buy the real thing.
Which I did.
And now it’s impossible to delete the trial version! Which means that I can’t even install the legal on …. Any ideas?
Undo what you did in the first place if this happens to you. Change neverInstalled to AlwaysInstalled
Thank you very much i used this for publisher and it worked fantastically. Hooray for screwing microsoft! also hello steve
This does not work for windows 7 these files do not even exist. At least I can not find them.
Worked like a charm for me as well. I downloaded the trial, never even opened it till after I edited the xml file, even updated to the latest sp and everything before I edited xml and WALA works awesome now! On Vista Business OS.
Thanks
P.S. Liza—> I’ve seen several people use this trick with Windows 7 and all say it works perfect, the last person to do this with Windows 7 I saw was yesterday, so you must be doing something wrong, check out some other sites, it’s not hard at all, you are only editing half a word in 1 line of code.
Office Setup Controller\Proof.en\ << doesn't exsist in Windows7 so Liza is right!!!
I did this and when Word opens it says its a trial version ant the very top, but doesnt prompt me for a licence key.
Did it work?
I would rather not wait until it expires to figure out whether I did it right or not.
Hey! Thanks! It worked for a couple days but now when I open it and try to type something it says, this modification is not allowed because the selection is locked. When I try to click on review to unprotect the document, I can not click on anything. Any suggestions?
ok i know some people are facing problem by proof xml crack, but some told that its still working, may be its because of update ms office in service pack 2.
well i’ll try to crck ms office in some genuine way….
but i need to spent a very few bugs….
if any one interested thn plz rpy
ur comment always welcome.
Fools Never Rules’………..!!!!!!
Genteeeee, conseguiii depois de muitas tentativaaas , no meu caso meu pc é windows vista , e pra conseguir vcs precisam ir em arquivos de programa, digitem na barrinha de pesquisar, acessorios, achem bloco de notas e com o lado direito do mause clique em executar como administrador e vera que dara certo !
”SetupXmlFiles” Cost=”1248″
Mine says, SetupXmlFiles” Cost=”1359
Does this have any reason why mine doesnt work when I try it?