You need the product key that came with your Word installation. If you
no longer have it then take a look at this article on how to obtain a
new product key:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823570

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"lap" wrote in message
...
i've had my pc since oct 2002 and have never been able to get into
word. At
login stage it asks for a 25 digit reference number. the only one
i've got is
on the underside of the pc itself and every variation of this has
been used
to no avail. Does any one know of a solution? I have tried the
registry keys
option as per a article on this site but it said that this doesn't
always
work and it didn't. I'm using windows xp.
many thanks
novice lesley