Office 2013 - Need to Activate WITHOUT creating MS Account!

I just came across this announcment about new help for migrating large customers to 365:

2014 09 03- announcing the new Office 365 deployment benefits for new customers! Find out about the new features and services here.

I am having the same problem. A have a large client in a competitive industry who buys the latest OEM version of office when computers are replaced. It's the cheapest way to provide office, spending $250 every 3 to 5 years.  Unfortunately, the computer has a warranty covered failure on the hard drive.  I have the product key that I sold to the client, but I have no idea of who was working at that desk when it was registered or if the email address even exists anymore. 

Microsoft should create a system where OEM installers and partners can register and manage OEM licensing.  We have a good system with volume licensing, why not OEM? Is Microsoft concerned that partners are going to rip them off by resetting and installing the same license over and over?

 I have techs going out, onsite @ $100/hr struggling to deal with this issue. At this point, I am left with two options;

Find a 'hack' and apply that, or abandon Microsoft Office and look for alternatives. 

Does anybody from Microsoft read these posts and deal with this issue? Bill, I loved the ice bucket challenge video, but I think the bucket of ice water would have been better used in your licensing department.

I haven't looked into details, so I'm just making a suggestion off the top of my head, but would it benefit your large client to looking into volume licensing with software assurance?  I don't know if this would be more cost-beneficial, the same or less than OEM licensing, but I'm pretty sure it removes the individual e-mail account requirement when installing as you'll be using a single license key instead of individual keys.  Might be something to research further and I think, overall your client might like the idea of a known annual cost not tied to any particular machine.

we order and sell dozens of Office 2013, so it doesn't appear to be discontinued.  Our retail pricing is approx. $250 for a OEM License. I know it is not transferable to a new computer, but a new computer is licensed for the life of the machine. Typically this is at least 4 years, so software costs have been about $60 per year.  Nothing that Microsoft offers comes close to this price.  the longer the machine lasts, the cheaper the software becomes.

Volume licensing starts at almost $500 for similar products. Many of our clients usually just require 'a' copy of office and outlook for email.  If I could still sell them office 2007, it would be sufficient.  I understand the many benefits of volume licensing and I am able to sell it occasionally, but from a purely cost perspective, volume licensing is much more expensive. 

Office is a good product and customers are use to it, but if licensing is going to become this difficult it....

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.

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 ...