On my home computer I have a version of Office 2002, I bought it in well...2002?
I don't use it very often on my home computer. The other day I opened Word and I got a pop up dialogue box that said something to the effect of "this is not an authorized version of MS office" and pointed me to the MS website to download some kind of authentication software.
Where did this come from? Never saw it before, ever

Any ideas?

Either a bootleg copy was loaded on the computer or you never activated the software. If this is a legal copy, try to activate it either online or by calling Microsoft.

It is also possible it is looking for the Genuine Advantage or some such name cheating protection scheme Microsoft implemented a while back.

When did you last run Update on this computer?

If you've already lost the CD's and are stuck, try googling "Hazar" and "forum".

Double check the message, it could have been asking to download software, but could only do it if it validated as an official windows installation. It's possible it's just checking to see if it's official or not before it gets the updates, it should have happened ages ago, but if you don't use it all that often it may not have gone for updates.

What is the exact wording of the message, there are two that are very close, but have very different meanings.

I think this is the key. There's an "update" Microsoft likes to force-feed Windows customers called Windows Genuine Advantage, which is essentially official Microsoft spyware that checks your computer to see if you've turned over all the personal information they want in connection with owning copies of their software. Nice, huh?

Not exactly correct, but either way. To the OP: If it is just WGA or product activation, as long as you are using a legit copy of Office (and didn't post/get the CD from the Internet) just follow the prompts and you should be fine.

Pay no attention to the tin foil hat brigade

i get the same message. have genuine copy. do not recall necessity of registering office 2002. have all the updates.

To Open Office! Nice, free, software with no need to hand over control to Mr Gates.

Link to V3 download page

This may be being triggered by recent court decisions requiring MS to take certain code out of previous versions of Office. However, I think the code removal applies only to Office 2003 and 2007. Not sure if Office 2002/XP is affected.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978951

This scenario doesn't quite add up, as described. Downloading something is never the solution if MS thinks that the software is not legal. Either this is a virus trying to get you to download some dangerous code, or the message is worded slightly differently than described.

If you are talking about Office XP (not sure what "Office 2002" is, unless it is a Mac version) that was the first Windows version of Office that required activation in order to run. You could not have run it for years without doing that back in 2002. It is possible that something might have happened that made the software "forget" that it was already activated. In which case it would ask you to activate the software, which you would either do "automatically" online, or as an alternative you would be given an 800 number you could call to have it done over the phone. But "downloading" is never part of the solution.

As other have mentioned this could be a prompt to download the MS Genuine Advantage software, but that isn't going to tell you that your copy of Office is illegal - it wouldn't know that until after you run Genuine Advantage. And then, as I mentioned, the solution would not be to download more software, but to provide a legal product key and activate the product.

Can you give us a more detailed message?

Isn't a Mac version. Last three Mac versions are 98, 2004 and 2008.

I think the individual components of Office XP are Word 2002, Excel 2002, etc. Easy to assume that the suite as a whole shares that label.

Office XP is also called Office 2002 because all the components are known as 2002 instead of XP.

They were trying to release it with XP (though the operating system xp was later in the year). It was stupid to have the package called one thing and the individual programs something else. Office XP contains Word 2002, not Word XP, so most people use the names as equal since it's not always easy to remember which way is which.

sends me here. does not like browser

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/off...CheckError=114

i have microsoft office professional edition 2003 registered to me, and with a registration number, when i ask in "help"

Microsoft wants to install an ActiveX program in the browser to setup the Genuine Advantage cheating checker. It does not matter whether the copy is a legal copy, they still want to check. They started this a few years back. The Update process should have loaded this for you a while back.

What are you doing that makes the message come up? Is this every time you open a Word document?

This is the MS Genuine Validation software. It is NOT saying that your software is invalid. This is usually triggered when you want to download a program or add-in that wants to check to see if you are running a valid copy of Windows.

All this message is telling you is that it can't run the check. It can run in Internet Explorer as a ActiveX control - or in another browser as a program file that you download and run. (That's what the "Validate Now" button does.)

However you do not have to validate anything to continue to run Office. Only if you want to download and run whatever new software you are trying to get.