FrontPage 2003

Before I even begin, I will tell you flat out I know FrontPage is a crappy program. People love to loathe it. It's light years behind anything else out there and web developers have a ball making fun of people who use it. That being said, I'm seriously in need of a copy and do not have $250 to spend on eBay for it.

I arrived home on Friday to "Hey mom, your laptop won't boot up." The hard drive is corrupted and I have data on there I do not know if I will ever be able to retrieve. This is pretty catastrophic as it was the computer I used primarily for business. The most recent backup was also corrupted (that would be courtesy of an eight year old whose odds of reaching nine are declining daily). So I have lost everything for the past five months. Thank goodness I have the February backup! All email communication and personal accounting. I've reconciled myself to that. (Not really, but that's what I'm trying to telling myself) I'm praying I don't let something slip through the cracks with people who are depending on me.

At any rate, I maintain my business website and my UU congregation's website using FrontPage 2003. For years I have had the product key on my desk but been unable to find the software disk. Now that I need to install the program on my replacement PC, I have located the software disk but the product key that has been staring me in the face and mocking me daily has disappeared. I desperately need to change information on both websites but am unable to do so because I cannot install the software.

If anyone knows of anyone on the planet with an unused FrontPage 2003 license (available product key) I will negotiate from a position of sheer desperation but modest means. Please PM me if you know anyone who has upgraded to MicroSoft Expression or migrated to a new web publishing product and has an available license. I do not have the luxury of purchasing new software at this time nor do I have the time for the learning curve of a new program. FrontPage does what I need it to do at the moment and I'm kicking myself. Yes, I have no idea why the disk and the product key were separated from one another in the first place. I accept full responsibility for that disaster.

What are the odds someone in Customer Support at MicroSoft will believe me and give me a product key so I can reinstall on another computer? (They're customer support offices are closed right now which I find a bit odd considering they are a global company and it is already Monday morning somewhere.)

I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting this. If I am, please feel free to have the mods pull it. I honestly don't know.

Thanks!

with FrontPage 2003 websites. And Microsoft is giving it away for free:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=21581

I believe there is also a free version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition, that would allow modification to old FP sites.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=3092

If neither of those is a suitable solution, call Microsoft Office Customer Support @ 1-800-936-5700. If you had registered your product previously, they will give you a new product key instantly... Just tell them your circumstances.

If you have not registered your software, or MS refuses to give you a new product key... post back and I will see what I can dig up in the way of my old product keys.

And thanks for the links. I'm going to go browse those now.