Another thought. The file in question may be tripping your antivirus software which is then hiding the file within the 'cab' from your install program triggering a CRC check routine to fail. Make sure the antivirus signatures are up to date. Often not the case with bundleware on new machines, that can have many versions of antivirus software from different manufacturers installed and tripping over each other. Files that show false positives from 2003 should have been updated by eighteen years later to not falsely trigger your antivirus if it is updated and reputable.

Just be aware that when using older versions of MS Office, you may come up against file compatibility issues, either opening them yourself, or people trying to open files from you. Not really an issue if you're just doing basic stuff locally, but something to be aware of regardless.

I work in IT and only the other week we had a customer wondering why they couldn't open an Office '97 Access database on 365. To be fair, it did open, but was an absolute mess.

I had a sudden thought! In the back of a cupboard was an old TwinHead laptop I had bought in Hong Kong in 1998. I last used it in 2005 but in the case was a pirated copy (HK) of Office 2003. I could not find the product code so I fired it up and when it was up and running again on W98 I tried to establish whether the product code was hidden in the Office software but with no success.

The presentation was totally different to W7 and 10 so I could not find out anything about it.

The last effort so I am going to have to buy it.

There used to be key scanning software out there that could easily find the product key for you. Although in the case of pirated (cracked) copies, these very often circumvented the Microsoft checks so the key it used could well be useless anyway.

I stand corrected re the decommissioned computer programme installation discs; the eBay sellers - and there were several - all assured buyers that they were completely legal. I checked eBay a couple of days ago and the source has dried up so I guess Microsoft has warned them off.
Fareastdriver: Belarc Advisor is a free downloadable programme that gives a complete computer profile including installed software product codes. Very useful for key retrieval.

I had a similar problem recently.

My old computer had an education WORD as I worked for the school board and they installed it. I have now left the board and bought a new computer for similar reasons. (The old one was getting very laggy and the drive sometimes had to be interrogated more than once to get files.)

I bought a copy of 2016 Office. It loaded fine from MS but would not authenticate. Turns out it may have been a "Buy with computer only" copy. When MS Downloader first asks the input key it only checks for version before downloading the files. eg. If the key is a 2016 OFFICE key it will automatically download OFFICE2016. However when you are asked to input the key after downloading in order to authenticate MS checks the key against vendor type and previous use and may then disallow.

After about five weeks of back and forth my vendor offered me a copy of OFFICE 2019 which loaded just fine.

So if you original copy of 2003 was bought with your computer it almost certainly will not authenticate your new installation.

I have used a couple of other programs in which the key only opened the program in my computer and at least one of those has been running on my computers since about 1994 and runs just fine on W10. Sounds as though your problem is that your 2003 interrogates an MS server for authentication which gives them the opportunity to deny it each time you load it.

My problem with my current 2019 download is that it is a license for one particular computer only. If I lose the computer I lose the program. I am not actually buying the intellectual right to use indefinitely across platforms. (It was a lot cheaper though!)

A further thought

MS have a strange attitude to intellectual property. Years ago one of my kids bought an MS game. Somehow between purchase and installation the CD Rom got damaged. When we called them they refused to help even if we provided the receipt and the damaged disc. (And presumably they could check that the key had not been used.) We made all the arguments regarding licensing and intellectual property etc but to no avail. However they were unfortunate in the wronged kid. After several days of his phone calls and keeping a senior VP on the phone for an hour or two and a recorded delivery letter to Mr Gates home they sent him a new disc.

Chris, relax a bit, please. Your last two posts read like an explanation the gear needs to come down early in approach in order to use the wheel brakes for slowing the aeroplane. Also sounds logical but not exactly the way it works.

Buying second-hand licences is a minefield, 8/10 you get something partly dysfunctional. Possibly with workarounds that create even more restrictions.

The OP's 2003 should work just fine if installed properly, way back then the OEM restriction was just a legal wording of it (and it is still now if you manage to uninstall properly).

365 most definitely does not require you to save your files to the cloud. OneDrive is purely optional, and you can save anything you create locally without issue. Having said that, OneDrive has been a godsend for me - enabling access to my stuff across multiple devices.

I gave up with MS Office a couple of years ago when I bought a new computer with Win 10 and MS Office installed on SSD. The Office layout was so alien, I just could not get used to it. I downloaded and installed (free) Libre Office and it's fantastic. It is very easy to use, compatible with MS file structure and very fast. It may not have all the bells and whistles of Office, but who really needs them? I'd recommend it to anyone.

As others have already pointed out, Microsoft 365 does not force you to store your files on Onedrive, it's totally up to you where you save them to. I've been using it for years and it beats the CD version as it's always up to date and the annual subscription can usually be found heavily discounted. Having said that, Onedrive is a godsend for saving hard disk space and you can select which files are 'always available' for when you're working 'off grid'.

You should be aware of the risks of using OneDrive.

It has bugs which will once in a blue moon overwrite your local changes with older versions from the cloud.

I’ve run into this once, lost a week of engineering R&D. I don’t have the links handy describing the bugs.

Only use OneDrive if you have a separate reliable backup.

When you finished at the school, they probably would have terminated access to their computing facilities, including authentication to the school VL (volume licence) server, hence your VL copy (the cheaper version that Microsoft sell to your school as a bulk buy) is not authenticating any more. As you are not part of that program, as designed, it has stopped working - you are now inside the terms and conditions that it was originally provided. Licensing of Microsoft software, by design, has been a complex balance between marketing, sales, profits, and technical feasibility. You don't often get something for free! Authentication is done using unique fingerprints collected of your system, including specific unique motherboard, disk drive, and video card identifiers. It allows for change of some of these items to incorporate repairs, upgrades, and replacements, but will usually baulk if they are done all at once.

As well as the risk of bundled malware, a lot of the copies found on eBay, and pirate download sites are also VL versions, and need regular internet connection back to a licensing server to continue to function. Where Microsoft can verify the accompanying serial numbers are not legitimate, they can blacklist them. The other issue is can you trust a licensing server from your friendly pirate software peddler in upper Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Mexico, Pakistan, China, or Russia to keep their licensing server up, reliably, for ever, long after your money has been spent? Do you want to sponsor thieves? Do you want to run the risk of trusting their connection may be compromised, and also compromising your computer by association?

If you don't believe me, have a look in your event viewer log files as to how often your software contacts Microsoft to verify authenticity. You will be astonished! Yes it can be blocked, but like constipation, eventually something will give. A new software update will be released that will make the current authenticity bypass ineffective, and you will get nagged to get a legitimate version. Even some of the current privacy protection software found on the Internetz may keep you computing for a while, but they also have to be constantly updated, and the risks continue.

In the past, in a previous life, where a customer has come in with a computer that could not be economically repaired, I have usually had success with Microsoft telephone tech support in having the authentication tied to a single computer reset where evidence can be provided to confirm original ownership, and transferred to a new computer. In all cases, this is a time consuming exercise, and often the cost alternate of a fresh, legitimate, currently supported version far, far outweighs the time spent on keeping an old one functioning outside the terms it was originally sold for.

Older versions are not supported any more. Any bugs and security exploits are now unpatched. The recent spate of ransomeware can often be traced back to fixes and updates not being applied in a timely fashion. Why make it easy for the digital terrorists?

Is it worth it? Your time, your money!
For most it is an easy choice. Why heck, cost out the time you have spent reading the thirty off posts in this thread in real life money paying a technical support person by the hour, and compare it to buying a legitimate copy outright - that's right, you barely might come out in front!

From CRC failure, sounds like your CD/DVD is damaged.

I have successfully recovered CDs by washing them. Warm running tap, little detergent, stroke RADIALLY with clean fingertips, rinse, pat dry with new kitchen towel. Radially = centre to edge. Never round and round. I wouldn't dilly dally, get it done and the thing dried. CDs have say three copies of each sector on the disk, it can make good data as long as only one is damaged. If you rub round and round there is a chance you will damage more than one of the copies. This is a decent analogy of how they work, if you want more look up Reed-Solomon encoding.

There will be a better cleaning method on the internet.

Then copy the files to a folder on your disk. Do the install from there. If problems try to read the disk more than once. Merge files from various tries. Or maybe file recovery software.

Worth archiving old CDs/DVDs to HDD. Most software you can install from the files. Windows itself of course requires a boot disk. You can make an installable windows USB stick from a DVD. Needs software from internet of course?

I have ironed out the problems with Open Office so I am quitting whilst I'm ahead.

Thanks for all the help.

Congrats, probably the optimal solution. For future reference:

There are reliable 3rd party software repositories who host the original installation disks. Shipped with a trial access licence code, tehy should run fine and eventually accept your access key. Forget scratched CDs.

https://www.softlay.com/downloads/microsoft-office-2003
https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/detai...ce_pack_3.html
https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-..._4-170478.html

This problem intrigued me so I checked around online the other night. One person said that his successful 2003 installation depended on whether he was using a CD or DVD player. Afraid I can't find the link now.

As NAROBS says you can get M2 SSD motherboards, but you can also get cards that slot into pcie slots (graphics card ones) that are adaptors allowing you to fit M2 SSD cards.

this is an example, it’s expensive but you can get them for a fiver or so

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203493866...cAAOSwCIFgx5v~

I have an m2 on the motherboard and also one in the expansion slot as per the one above. You can also get cards that will hold 4 or more M2 SSD’s .