For Office 97, Office 98, Office 2000, Office 2001 and Office XP, when does
the Word PID change?

Each time  one installs a version of Office, the PID gets assigned.
Does the PID remain constant if the version is re-installed?
Does the PID remain constant when an SR or SP is applied?

I thought that I'd seen an article (I know not where) a few years ago that
stated that for future, at that time, versions of Office, at least part of
the PID would remain constant. Does such an article exist?

Can I rely on all, or part, of a PID to remain constant on a given PC for a
given version of Word?
ASSuME that the Registry does not get hacked to obviate doing this.

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Hi Howard,

You'll get better information about this question if you'll post it to the
newsgroup at Microsoft.Public.office.setup

OK, I'm rarely so obedient, but I'll do as you suggest.
Thanx.

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Thanks. I don't have the answer, and don't know where it is, whereas the
people who monitor that newsgroup know it or know where to get it.

And they do not seem to answer.

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While that newsgroup may not be monitored by someone from Microsoft, still,
the people who do lurk there are more likely to know the answer than anyone
monitoring this newsgroup. The question is not a VBA question.

Since you haven't had any suggestions, let me ask you why you have
concluded that the Product ID changes? What do you see that demonstrates
this for any single Microsoft Product?

Generally when you are asked to enter the Product Identification Number,
that is validated by the intallation package, then wrapped inside the shell
of the complete Product ID and displayed back to you with the suggestion
that you write it down. Certain applications will then re-display that same
value (PID) in the help topic.

Are you seeing this change?

Well, it is a VBA question, since VBA provides for returning the PID and, I
expect that many VBA programs deal with the PID one way or another.

I am concerned only with the Word PID, which is the same as the Office PID
when installed as part of Office.
I've seen the PID change when an upgrade is installed.

Somebody named "Joe Blow" stated in the only response I got in another
forum:
----------------------------------------------
The PID should only change with a new installation or upgrade Office.

All office programs out of the same office package will have the same PID.

If you re-install office the last 5 digits of the PID will change, but the
rest remain the same.
Service Releases will change the version number, but not the PID.

The PID is broken down as follows:

The First five digits identify the which product (i.e. 50106 is Office 2000
Premium Upgrade)
The Next 3 digits Identifies how the product is distributed.  (i.e. 335
means it came off of an MSDN CD)
The Next 7 are the serial number.
The Final Five are generated at random during install.

If the first 15 digits are the same, it's the same product out of the same
box.
----------------------------------------------
I am seeking some official source confirming this info.
Where did "Joe Blow" get his/her info?

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Joe Blow's information is interesting. It would be interesting to know how
he knows (or believes he knows) what he posted. There is nothing in the
public (or internal non-confidential) content to verify his statements.

The following are true, but not officially documented:
The PID should only change with a new installation or upgrade Office.
All office programs out of the same office package will have the same PID.
Service Releases will change the version number, but not the PID.

This one is possibly true, but not documented:
If you re-install office the last 5 digits of the PID will change, but the
rest remain the same.

The rest of his statements make his reply sound as though he knows facts
that are not documented in any accessible Microsoft content. Perhaps he is
a Microsoft employee with reason to know whereof he speaks.

Microsoft is intensly interested in stopping or averting software piracy.
For that reason some things are not exposed public knowledge and the simple
composition of the PID may be confidential because of that.

On the other hand, it may be undocumented so that Microsoft is free to
change it at any time.

You might consider asking Joe Blow whether he knows of any publically
available Microsoft documentation that provides the information he related
to you.

By the way, Howard, I'm curious to know just which VBA method returns the
Word product identification number. There is a PID property you can set in
Access, but that deals with controlling access of groups or individuals to
tables. The initials PID there do not refer to product identification.

I posted the following in an Access newsgroup about 2 weeks ago.
---------------------------------------
If you have Access and Word installed as part of Office, the following might
suffice:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Sub GetPID()
    Dim strAssignedOrganization As String
    Dim strAssignedUserName As String
    Dim strGUID As String
    Dim strProductID As String
    Dim wdApp As Word.Application
    strGUID = Application.ProductCode
    Set wdApp = New Word.Application
    With wdApp
        With .Dialogs(wdDialogHelpAbout)
            strProductID = .APPSERIALNUMBER
            strAssignedUserName = .APPUSERNAME
            strAssignedOrganization = .APPORGANIZATION
        End With
    End With
    MsgBox strGUID & vbCr & strProductID & vbCr & strAssignedUserName & vbCr
& strAssignedOrganization
    wdApp.Quit
    Set wdApp = Nothing
End Sub

We mere mortals oft figure out things on our own.

What he sez makes cents, {*filter*}eye'd rather see documenation from msft.

Ayup, we all knew that by observation.

If what Joe Blow sez is tru, this has to be documented somewhere.

It makes sense that part of the PID identifies the product.
He says 50106 identifies Office 2000 Premium Upgrade.
That makes sense, as I have the Developer edition, so Office is really
Premium plus the Devo stuff and Ofice Developer has a PID that starts with
52788. Note that th eOD PID has a different structure.

Having 3 digits identify how the product was distributed, I guess, makes
sense.

What Joe is saying is that EVERY person who purchases the same product via
the same distribution media has several of the PID components in common.
Only the "serial number" and the "random number" might be different.

However, to usefully use the PID within a macro, I can rely only on the part
that is fixed for a given installation. Joe Blow is implying that this is
limited to the 7-digit serial number.

I'm sure there's some encoding in the PID that allows MSFT to detect which
structure the PID has, if not, that's a real design{*filter*}up. I'm not asking
them to reveal that.

Note that the structure of the PID for Office Developer is different than
that of Office Premium.
I have not looked into how to programmatically retrieve the PID of Office
DEvo Edition.

Only if they expose the algorithms relating the components. My question is
simpler, which remain constant?

They can just as well document the critter and state that it is subject to
change.
Heck, they do that for documented things without warning, e.g., changing the
interpretation of EditClear in Word 6 to be different in Word 7.

I have no idea who is Joe Blow. I got his response in, as I recall, a VB
newsgroup.

I see your code. Good technique. Thanks. Live and learn.

Why do you do it? What is the application?

Hello Howard,

I've examined the next two lines from your last message for some time. I
can't infer what you mean by "structure."

that of Office Premium.
DEvo Edition.
I used your code to get the PID from the Office 2000 developer's edition
from two of my machines.

Joe Blow says all PIDs have the same structure but not content.
All Microsoft products have a SKU (stock keeping unit) number that
distinguishes the exact components and the media/method of distribution.
So, Office 2000 Developer will have a different SKU than Office 2000
Premium. Joe's description of the purpose of the first 8 characters of the
PID conforms to the SKU. The exact version of the product and the exact
method of distribution.

There has to be a serial number component that identifies the specific CD
or other medium that you bought. That sounds like Joe's seven digit serial
number.

There has to be a fresh number to identify the exact Setup on the first
machine - the one where you send in your PID so that you get support. The
Serial number component plus the last 5 digits - randomly assigned at setup
time - constitute the license. When you call in the PID and your name you
have committed to having licensed the product to a specific setup.

If you call in again with the same serial number but a different last 5
digits that says you have installed the product from the box with the
serial number on it to a second setup.  That's OK if you had to fDisk,
format, and reinstall, or if you deleted that application from one machine
and are now installing it on a second machine. But if John Smith calls in
with the same serial number then it says your medium was borrowed by
someone else who is violating your license. Of course, if the SKU is for
the enterprise edition then the product can be installed from a network
server, and everyone entitled to a seat license for that product is
entitled to support. However, when a company buys an enterprise license
that means support goes through a central point, and authorized individuals
can call Microsoft for support.

Since you know where you exchanged information with Joe Blow, would it make
any sense for you to ask him whether he can point you to where to find
Microsoft documentation that explains what he said?

Under certain circumstances, one may wish to restrict use of a macro to
certain users.

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If you look at the PID for the Developer Edition, you'll note that it is
structured differently, and is a different number, than Office. Go to Start
| Programs | Microsoft Office 2000 Developer | About Microsoft Office
Developer.

I expect that the PID you got is actually for Office Premium. Look at the
Help About in, say, Word, that's the PID produced by the macro. The Devo PID
is different.

Good, that would indicate he knows what he's talking about.
But where is that SKU stuff documented?

Ayup. But it might actually be generated to include parameters not on the
CD.
I do not care how it is generated, just whether it is constant for that
instance of Word.
And whether it remains the same if I install on ump{*filter*} machines.

If I issue a key to use some software based on, say, user organization and
user name, it is relatively easy for users to copy that. But if the key
includes the serial number, then that lessens piracy.

I do not wish to base the key on the last 5 digits if that changes merely
because the user has re-installed.

I believe that the last 5 digits are not entirely random. I believe that it
includes "checkdigit(s)".

OK, I just did that, but the topic is so far down the list  of threads in
that newsgroup, not sure anybody will notice.