Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

I manage IT services for several small businesses and periodically need to purchase new computers with Office. I just purchased a new Dell laptop with the OEM version of Office 2016 Home & Business. It will not let me activate it without adding it to a MS account.

I know this is a perennial question, beginning with Office 2013, that is a major headache for independent technical consultants that support small businesses, as I do. But I have never seen a solid answer as to how to get this installed on the computer without the MS account--just a lot of try this, try that. This is NOT Office 365, just Office H & B 2016!

 I will not:

• Add it to my MS account, or it will be forever stuck to me--which is inappropriate, since I will not own the computer or software once I am paid for the system by my client.
• Make my client set up a MS account just for this.
• Pry into my client's information to get his MS account information (if he even has one).

But I must have Office installed, activated, and updated before I give the system to my client. The activation dialog, in fact, gives me the option of using a product key instead of a login, but then proceeds to "Redeem Online"--which I believe will end up with the same result that requires a MS account.

At this point, I now have a bigger issue. I backed up the Program Data folder that contains the cached Office installation files, then uninstalled MS Office, hoping that a reinstall would give me some option to truly install without being forced to figure out a MS account for my client. The uninstallation removed the original setup folders. Good thing I backed it up, but then when I reinstall from any of those, it installs Office 2013, not Office 2016. And while it still validates the key when I click the option to use a key instead of a logon, it (as before) takes me to "Redeem Online".

Hello, Microsoft: this issue alone has just eliminated my entire profit from this project, given the time I have already spent trying to get this done, then uninstalling and attempting to reinstall.

I know there are versions that can be activated without a MS account, but I do not buy in bulk and can never seem to figure out which is which.

How do I get this installed for my client without being required to use a MS account?

Make a profit selling MS Office ? ............ dreamin. Its a time eating vortex since the MSaccount thing started. We are lemmings stuck between our clients and the master.

I recently retired from my IT practice, but if you read through the several years of comments here, you'll find that there is no solution that lets you avoid the MS account requirement.  That said, you need to figure out a system that is easy to remember and repeatable.  What I ultimately settled on was first creating an @outlook.com email account that used "Ofc" plus the Dell computer service tag as the name, for example ******@outlook.com.  Then created an MS account with that email address.  Use that account to activate Office.  As long as the computer exists, you have access to the service tag, and if you use the same password, you'll have that too.  Yes, it is a terrible nuisance, but you can add 15 minutes to your bill and associate it with Microsoft Office activation.  If that really matters to your client, they may decide to dump MS Office and move to LibreOffice or OpenOffice, although lack of an Outlook alternative was always a problem for me.

As to your other problem, it sounds like you created it.  You may just need to download 2016 from MS and start over.  A friend of mine did almost the same thing as you, and that was his ultimate solution.

No offense - but there are limitations to non-MS products and sometimes it is your customers who dictate the MS dependency. I use Libre Office for personal needs but is not completely compatible. You can make choices but often they are dictated to you.

I am with everyone else posting here. There is no such thing as an o365 device license and that is a real issue. There are things like Device CALs for Windows Server and Exchange that are device dependent but nothing office.

I work for a mid sized manufacturer. Virtually everyone touches office today and we are looking to make updates. The problem comes in with our Shop computers. 10 or so people may touch them but they don't have emails and all use Access, Excel and Word. Sure a viewer works here for Excel and Word BUT then you can not edit the documents. (And sometimes a user does use them to access their email with Outlook.) That's about 80 people who don't need a dedicated license for themselves but a device CAL works perfectly.

It's bad enough we have to buy Server CALs for them. But to have to spend $110 each or ~$9000 a YEAR to have them minimally use Office (but for critical needs) does not work. It is wasteful and simply a money grab.

We are certainly looking into Libre Office more closely for these users at least. The learning curve is not pretty for our user base though.

I see a very high deficit of your brain features. MS Office causes more trouble than it's features could ever compensate. Writing faulty elaborates won't solve your issue, but will drain your lifetime for sure. Don't like it? Leave it!

Welcome to the club.  There is no way around this.  My solution has been to set up email accounts for each of my clients under my company domain for managing these.  Yes, it's a complete pain in the ass.  Yes, it adds hours to installing and managing Office.  And yes, I charge my clients for the time I have to spend managing this nonsense.  I call it "The Microsoft Tax".  The clients understand and accept this as a cost of using Office, and prefer just paying me to manage this insanity than having to deal with it themselves.  They have better things to do with their time.

I would also remind those who are looking at alternatives like LibreOffice to investigate eM Client for outlook replacement. That product has smoothed many of my clients transitions away from MS Office as it is a functional replacement against an exchange server.