I'm planning to do a clean reinstall of my system from Windows up, because it has become sluggish and unresponsive.

I have a home-built PC with an OEM version of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and a French Standard Edition of Office 2003 for Students and Teachers, both with the original discs and product keys.

However, since Office 2003 support has officially ended last April, I'm wondering whether I might get stuck in a situation where I would not be able to install it again, or make it run properly in the future.

Specifically :

I have read some horror stories of users trying to reinstall Office 2003 recently, and being met with a message that they have made too many activations (this not being true in some cases), and that they need to activate by telephone. However, the telephone number answers that it cannot be used for that software anymore.

Is Microsoft pulling the rug under legitimate buyers' feet and silently changing its activation rules in order to force people to upgrade ?

Also, I understand that there won't be any more updates to Office 2003, which opens in theory a security risk. I'm willing to run that risk. However, will I be able, at least, to bring my copy back to its April 2014 updated state ?

Microsoft is not clear about this. Its site suggests that it won't be possible, however there are still plenty of updates available for manual download. Office Watch does not seem overly concerned, and advises to grab Service Pack 3, just in case (which I did).

Will the automatic update feature work to build up again a patched end-of-life Office 2003 ? Will I have to pick and choose at random among hundreds of updates to be applied manually? Is SP 3 the freshest state, and would I have to add anything to it ?

I'd really be very angry if my copy of Office 2003 was rendered useless. I've invested a lot into it (learning, books, customization, etc), I don't have any money to burn, and besides I'm under the impression that the newer versions, not only bring very little improvement on what I have, but significantly destroy some of Office 2003 usability through the ribbon, greyish fonts for menus, and an interface which is strong on aesthetics and poor in readability.

Finally, is there a way to make a backup of that precious Office disk ?

Thanks for your insight.