my COA has wrong Product Key?!

[Joy S]

My computer crashed a little while back, deleting
EVERYTHING, which was bad enough. Now, as I try to use
the Microsoft Word, it tells me to enter the Product Key.
The Product Key on my Certificate of Authenticity is
located on my tower. So I put that in, only to find that
it is "invalid." I click on My Computer, then go to
Properties and the number listed there is inly 20
characters, when I need 25! What can I do? What is wrong?

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Joy;
The COA on the tower is for Windows.
The Properties of My Computer is the Product ID and not the Product
Key for Windows.
You need the COA for Word.
They are different and not interchangeable.
Look on the package the Word CD came.