How to get a copy of the Office 2003 Standard Retail CD?

[John Gray]

It's the usual story; a person has a valid Product Key for Office 2003 Standard - retail version - but has lost the original CD. Setting up a new UserID and starting any Office program requires access to SKU112.CAB.

I've tried the suggestions found from Google (starting WinWord /S, etc, and those in KB896866) without success, and the Technet Office 2003 Standard download doesn't contain SKU112.CAB (since it isn't the Retail version).

In desperation I even tried downloading a copy from the net, only to have it (not surprisingly) flagged up by my AV as virus-ridden.

Can anyone suggest a solution, please? Thanks!

[StuartR]

John,

I looked in the CD for my Office 2003 Professional Enterprise Edition and it doesn't have SKU112.CAB.
I searched on the Internet and I was very confused by the various articles I found, many of which suggested that this CAB file is not part of the installation CD, but gets created later.

What does this file do?

[John Gray]

Thanks! If you look at 896866, near the bottom, you will find a whole list of the SKUxxx.CAB which are included in the various versions of Office 2003 and its components. So there is a difference between (say) the Retail version of Office 2003 Standard and the Volume Licence version, and so on...

Why Microsoft make it so pestilentially difficult for people to use the software they paid for, I have no idea - What's wrong with the Product Key as security?