Downgraded my new (to me) 8 core workstation to Windows 7 64 bit version.  (Windows 8 had a compatibility issue with an essential tool I use, and it annoyed me anyway even with Classic Shell).

Anyway, I know if you install the Office 97 disk using default settings you have to go back in and tweak the registry to get UAC working right again (this is out there if you search Office 97 and Windows 7).  

But I wondered if it were the office applications themselves or something different.

I ran the Office 97 installer CD, selected Word 97 only and unselected everything else except the text converters and help files I think.   Installed as administrator and it works fine with no impact to UAC.

It was mostly an experiment to see if it would work, and I do like that Office 97 does not have a bunch of "phone home" activation nonsense.  I paid for this disk years ago, and it cost a pretty penny.   Its fun that it still works on Windows 7.    Funny thing is, I read the docx converter still works with this version, so I should be able to open / close documents until I decide if I want to spring for a license for a full copy of Office 2010 on this box.  (I have that software on a few other machines, including my work machine that I can remote into anyway... so it may not be strictly necessary for me).

So there you go.  It occurs to me typing a few things on this old dinosaur of a word processor that there's really only two features in all the years since that have been meaningful upgrades to the Word system so far as I am concerned:  (1)  I like the newer versions' approach to tracking changes; and (2) the newer versions preview of fonts, as "rendered" in the pull down menu is nice.  Beyond that?  There really has not been a watershed change in the software.

For a fun experiment, get a Windows 3.1 machine running under DOSBOX and install Word 2.0.   Its actually a very good word processor for being decades old!

TLDR

But can i get the windows 8 key

I always liked Lotus AmiPro, I can even remember grumbling when it became "Word Pro".

yep you can only repackage 26 letters in the alphabet so many times.
WordStar for the win

that docx converter doesn't work very well. you should be able to get office 2007 on the cheap.

It's probable that I'll go with 2010 ultimately... it's on the same support timeline as Win 2007.   This was just a fun experiment....   I've actually got a copy of Word 6 running on Wind 3.1 in a dosbox environment too...

I've got MS Office 97 running on Win 98 SE. Why, I have no clue. I have Office 2011 and Office 2010 and use them once a month if even. Actually prefer Pages to Word…Libre Office isn't bad either.

If only I could get the Com ports to work right under dosbox…I wouldn't have a need for that Win 98 computer.

For Windows 98 you're better off running it on VirtualBox.

We use that quite a bit, because Word is so horrible at backwards compatibility.  Word 2007 and 2010 will not open many of the Word files we have, but Word 6.0 will open them just fine and save as RTF which newer versions of Word will open.z

Motorola RSS and Icon CS unfortunately does not work with the com port emulator under dosbox unfortunately. That's the only reason I keep the 98 machine, to run those series of dos softwares.