Office 2013 - Need to Activate WITHOUT creating MS Account!

The only answer I've found is to use Libre Office:

http://www.libreoffice.org/

My personal solution:

1- Buy the product, whichever version. Keep your proof of purchase and license key.

2- Go to your favorite Swede bucaneers website and get rid of that god awful DRM.

3- Never worry about it ever again.

Before you start calling me a thief, the thief in this case is Microsoft, trying to prevent me from using software I overpaid for.

Volume Licensing is $470 for the same basic product. The advantage is that when the computer is replaced, you just install office again, with no additional cost.  If you can go 5 years, replace the computer, install office again, and go another 5 years then it's cheaper than OEM licensing. My client has Office 2007, office 2010, or office 2013 on most of their computers.  it's rare to find people who don't know office, and it's hard to replace outlook, particularly since many people know the product  and it works well with their Exchange server.  So far, OEM office has provided the most cost effective solution. I believe I  need to recommend a replacement to my client unless Microsoft rethinks it's licensing strategy.

Why would anyone want to subscribe to Office 365?

Each buyer has to do a "cost vs benefit analysis" for their specific situation.

For a home consumer with 4 or 5 computers, or actually 4 or 5 "concurrent" users, then 365 becomes a simple buy. 

For a home user, like myself, with only one computer, 365 becomes much harder to justify (FYI, I don't use it for cost and technical reasons. I don't "like" Click-to-(not)-Run).  In that case, I would have to make extensive use (close to the max) of the "Skydrive" storage space and to use up all of the "free" Skype minutes before I may be able to justify the cost. 

On the other hand, for a single "home" user who has several computers (aka computer "geek") that he uses less than 5 at the same time, then being able to easily "move" Office licenses/installations between these computers may make it worth his while.

The same applies to business users. If they make extensive use of the additional features, they may be able to justify the costs. 365 features like:

• Skydrive storage(not one that I would recommend, I'm "paranoid")
• Office-on-Demand (but I hear that feature is being removed by the end of this year)
• SharePoint (actually, I see this as having real potential for many businesses, if they are willing to invest the time to make it work for them and their users!)
• Office 365 for Mobile devices (since it is bundled "free" with Office 365)
• and maybe they even consider removing user controlled "Windows Updates" as a benefit by reducing in house help desk calls!

But I agree, for many people I don't see the needed benefits in 365. I don't use it on my single computer.  I bought "Home and Student" versions of 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013 at a total cost of approx $600.  If I could have bought "Office 365" since 2003 I would have paid over $1100  (assuming the price didn't increase) ... 

I am still using all 4 versions on my computer (because I provide support for other people still using all 4 versions!). If I had "365" all of that time I would now only have access to 2013 ...

Why would anyone want to subscribe to Office 365? After the second year, depending on the version of office the client would have purchased, they could spending more than purchasing the software outright. After four years, they are almost spending as much as the full professional retail package would have cost them. My company is still using Office 2007, and it's working perfectly for our needs (as in, it has never once failed to do what we need). If we had of subscribed to a version of office at $100/year back then, it would have cost us $700 already. Because we bought it outright, we have saved about $300 per machine so far based on Microsoft's current subscription model. In fact, if we ever find that our current version will no longer meet our needs, and the only option available is a subscription from Microsoft, we will kiss Office goodbye.

After explaining this to some of my customers, they marched right back to the store they purchased 365 from and got their money back. Lucky for them they did not open the package.

Who in their right mind wants Microsoft in their pocket in perpetuity? Full retail versions of Office are still available.

One more thing you might want to note, is the huge comment you left on how to do something that should take five minutes and be simple enough that any user should be able to do it without having to read an encyclopedia.

This isn't rocket science, so why does Microsoft have to try and make it as complex as if it is (and almost as expensive)?

As I have already mentioned, we are no longer purchasing and installing Office for our customers. We will install Open Office free of charge, and if they absolutely require MS Office, they can deal with MS. We will no longer lose money on something that should be simple.