I've been using Office Pro 2007 for about 3 years on an XP desktop. During that time I've had to reinstall XP twice due to a piece of buggy software and lately a virus attack that corrupted some XP files. Now that I have reinstalled Office I'm getting the message to activate it and it tells me that it fails the activation. So I do the "telephone call" to MS and after repeating the ID code from the warning window, the robot tells me that I have an invalid copy of Office. And hangs up without offering me a chance to speak with a human to describe my situation. Yet, I've successfully installed it at least twice before.

I've read numerous descriptions of the licensing and activation rules and am wondering if there is a limit to how many times Office can be installed on the same machine. I would think that if I purchased the product I should be allowed to keep reinstalling it on the same computer forever if the computer kept failing for other reasons.

Can anyone describe the actual rule that would apply in my situation and possibly direct me to someplace within MS where I can try to correct this situation?