Is it possible to Uninstall XP 2002 before activation?

[CindyK]

A customer purchased a system with Office XP Small Business and activated the software. They thought it included Access (it didn't - they had the standard version), and when they saw they didn't have Access, they grabbed the CD Rom thinking that the OEM didn't do a full install. However, the grabbed the wrong CD - getting someone else's copy of Office professional 2002. They installed Access. Then when they went to start Access, they were asked to activate - but the activation message is telling them the software is already registered on another computer.

We need to UNINSTALL Access 2002 - they're going to install an older version that they are licensed for. We can't get there - the uninstall process asks for activation before it can be uninstalled, and we can't get it activated.

Microsoft tech support claims they can't help cause it's OEM, OEM tech support says not their problem cause it's not part of the original software (both being totally right technically).

Help - any thoughts other than reformatting the entire thing and starting over with a new activation key???

Cindy

 

[CindyK]

I'm answering my own post, but since I saw this same question posted a few times in other newsgroups, with no answer, I'll put it here! All we had to do was disconnect from the network and it then let us uninstall. It appears (I'm guessing here) that the activation wizard was looking for serial numbers on the LAN, found two of the same number, and then generated the message. I was confusing the concept with an XP OS install, which is tied to the computer's hardware.

Cindy K