Office 2013 - Need to Activate WITHOUT creating MS Account!

For everyone still struggling with this when you buy a retail box or Product Keycard this is the solution I have been using for a while now. Doing this you don't have to mess with a Microsoft Account at all and the software will be activated just like previous versions - silently in the background after the install.

Check out the website below for downloads of the full Office 2013 installers from official Microsoft servers. Get the downloads you need (or all for safe keeping and future use in situations) and then you will have the offline installer so to speak. Using this there is an option to install the product using a serial number instead and then you just use the serial number that came with your retail box or Product Keycard without the need to create a Microsoft Account to tie it to with every installation.

Office 2013 Direct Download Links

http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/73-office-2013-direct-download-links

We are a small shop doing repairs of hardware and software for our customers and we are running into the exact same issue.

After opening an Office 2013 package and starting the installation, we had to call the customer to get their birth date (of all things). The customer almost refused, which would have left us with an unusable $200+ Office package. As it is I was forced to create a new MS account for the customer even though they didn't want one.

None of our customers want Office 365, so that is not a solution as it causes more problems than it's worth, and no one wants to pay $100 a year for Office. We will never purchase or recommend a customer purchase Office 365. In fact, after bringing Office 365 in for us to install, several of our customers have returned it to Staples, unopened, after discovering they have to pay $100 a year (MAJOR RIP-OFF).

So, here I am with a dead computer. I have saved all the pst files for the email accounts, and I am installing Office 2013 for the customer. I have to create an account they don't want, I have to give their email to MS, which they also don't want, and they told me to set the birth date to 1/1/2000 because they feel (and so do I) that it's none of MS's business.

Now, after nearing the end of the install, Microsoft in their fabulous wisdom  has decided they have to send some code to the customer's email address.

REALLY????

How stupid is this? Their old computer is toast, and I cannot access their email account. yet they want to send a code to that account. Freaking brilliant!

Man, I would fire whoever thought of that in an instant.

So, from this point on, we will be recommending people go with Coral office suite, or Open Office. I have had it with Microsoft and their stupid freaking ideas. Don't even get me started on the customer who forgot both his email and log-in passwords in Windows 8. That was a pure nightmare.

In short, get stuffed MS. We will be avoiding your products as much as possible from this point on.

I would like to use stronger words but then this commend would end up deleted.

This doesn't answer the question. The Administrator Portal is for Office 365 not Office 2013 on premise. The answer is that if you buy the individual licenses versus the subscription it is a nightmare to install and support.

+1 Ubuntu.  Free your self with Libre Office.

MS has a 30 0r 60 day money back guarantee for Office, so you can call them and get your money back.

Can he take it back to the store?  Maybe he should trade it in at the Apple store. :)

my farther-in-law is 91, all he doesn't believe in the internet and thus doesn't have an internet connection or email account, nor does he want one. all he uses his laptop for is the odd game of solitaire and writing his memoires for his own (and families) personal enjoyment.

some salesman at the local PC store (name omitted but they have a service dept that should be called 'Noclue' not 'Knowhow' but that's a different story) convinced him he should upgrade his old laptop to a modern touch screen windows 8.1 with office 2013.

now as far as he can tell he cant use this new machine without connecting to the internet and entering an email address, which he has no wish to to so.

Thanks Microsoft!!!! I've now got either a 400 mile round trip to pick up his new machine take it to the local library to get wifi access, create a couple off bogus accounts so it can be activated, or completely wiping win 8.1 and installing *Ubuntu* least that way everything will work without the need of internet access he'll still have his games, and free office for his memoires.