Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

Re #1:  The only way you can convince MS is to hit them in the wallet.  Convince your people to return the Office licenses and explain to the vendor WHY! 

A less militant approach is for all of you with this concern to vote for the following suggestion at UserVoice.  Add comment explaining how many machines (potentially lost customers) you have this problem with:

·      Don’t want Office 2016 tied to Userid -https://office.uservoice.com/forums/285186-general/suggestions/10517283-allow-activation-without-the-need-of-a-ms-mail-acc

Re #2:  I too have been tracking this issue. There are several similar questions in the forum.  The problem does not exist only at Dell. It seems they have suffered the most hits, but it is spreading.  I have a link from another question with the same problem with ASUS. I am sure that I read another question with the problem at yet a third builder (forgot to collect the link).

Given that the problem has spread to at a minimum of 2 vendors, if not more, I agree with your speculation that the problem is at MS, not at DELL nor the other vendors.

A really cynical person would say that it is being by MS intentionally, to "encourage" you small businesses to switch to 365 ... <sigh>

Here are the other similar links I've collected so far

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2016-office_install/activating-office-2016-oem-license/bf55e024-1d6c-4522-bf2c-c9e57f153275   4 me too’s, DELL

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2016-office_install/office-2016-bad-product-key/74d463e8-f052-46aa-9738-713a8764e694 DELL  (not yet resolved in this question)

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_365hp-office_account/office-365-doesnt-recognize-my-microsoft-account/09e14bb1-bfcd-452b-8de7-1b7fe19e83c9

• 124 “ME TOO’S!” - account not recognized

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2016-office_install/login-says-emailphone-number-doesnt-match-software/90c3ce34-c8fc-44c8-91b2-d7bd5ea1ca22 3 “me too’s” in the first few hours! - account not recognized

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_365hp-office_account/product-key-valid-but-redeemed-with-a-different/e73ddb43-df0d-4e8e-83a6-5b738fcbd94c  ASUS

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2016-office_install/office-2016-activation-key-already-in-use/68931ba9-53ef-46d0-ab1a-4fd7457dda2d

• already activated with unknown hotmail

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-office_install/licensing-issue-with-mix-of-office-2013-oem-volume/ed90445a-af5b-4ffa-acaf-9a31038fc8c3 (Dell OEM Pro)

There are indeed 2 problems mentioned here.  The main problem is from the OP and is that we have to associate an MS account with each copy of Office.  The second problem we uncovered is that OEM versions of Office seem to already be activated before we open the boxes.

Here is a solution to problem number 2 I mentioned before, but bears repeating:  When purchasing computers from Dell or other OEMs with the need to get Office 2016, DON'T BUY IT FROM THE OEM.  Purchase it from independent shops like NewEgg or get a Microsoft Volume License.  Those items seem to be untainted.

Many people are claiming this could be a Microsoft database issue.  That makes no sense, since someone has to associate a Microsoft account with the activation code in order to get the product key.  It also makes no sense because independent purchases at shops like NewEgg are not having problems.

It was mentioned that other OEMs are having problems other than Dell. So that we have our facts straight to figure this out, what other OEM computer  purchases that come with Office 2016 are arriving with the Office activation key already being used and associated with a Microsoft account?  Is it Lenovo?  HP?  Who?

I would completely believe that other OEMs have the same issue if this is indeed a piracy ring targeting and stealing activation codes.  That does not mean that independent shops would never have the same problem, but the longer assembly line at Dell and other OEMs give more opportunity to steal them.

I can hear it now, "Shut up, Wesley!"

Quite apart from the Office 2016 Live-related activation issues, I have found of late that virtually all the copies of retail Office 2013 I buy online require telephone activation on the basis that they have been previously activated. When I put these facts together, it gave me pause for thought. Since MS has not seen fit to shed any light on the subject, and we are all reduced to speculation anyway, here is one more theory for the books, and for once I think I have a logical (if entirely unworkable for us as customers) theory.

Let's say that Microsoft had recently seen a dramatic increase in the number of dual activations of Office 2013, that is, activations requiring telephone activation due to prior activation on different hardware. This leaves us with only five possibilities:

1. An actual problem in the MS licensing database (i.e. mis-reporting licenses as activated when they are not).
2. An inside job at Microsoft (some MS employee selling the information on the side)
3. Theft of licenses at some middle point. This is not likely, given the number of places this is popping up, unless there is some bottleneck in the outbound flow of license information where license information could be intercepted en masse.
4. A breach of Microsoft security wherein some outside entity has accessed the license database.
5. Someone has cracked the code and figured out how to generate license keys on their own (anyone remember the Windows 98 license key algorithm: the key just had to be modal 7)? We know that there must be some algorithm, since the product key at the outset of installation can pass validation without an internet connection.

Regardless of the reason, requiring an e-mail address for activation would certainly put an end to this. This, in fact, is how many larger and less ubiquitous software packages function. For example, this is how QuickBooks works, and it most certainly is this way with larger industry-specific applications such as SolidWorks and MasterCAM. In fact, many of these go a step further and require a USB dongle or hasp.

But this is not a $50,000 enterprise-level transportation dispatch package. It is not a $5,000 engineering application that goes on one or two computers; it is not even $175 QuickBooks that goes on five computers. It is, in fact, Microsoft Office that goes on virtually every computer in an enterprise(not literally, but true enough in my world supporting small business networks). So, as I see it, the problem is fourfold:

1. It requires a Live ID, not just an e-mail address. This would be similar to Intuit creating an Intuit account based on the user's e-mail address. It is just a way to create an account. Fair enough, if it were not for all the other complications.
2. Limited number of product keys that can be tied to one Live account. While the intent may be to ensure that no rogue organization runs amok with stolen licenses, registering them en masse under a single account, the effect is a mess for many legitimate end users.
3. Unlike more substantial products, there is no de-activation process wherein a user can simply go online, deactivate the product, then re-activate it on the same computer or another computer. (I fully understand that OEM licensing is limited to the original hardware, so this comment is with respect to the retail version only.) And there is no accomodation made, even with the OEM version, when selling a computer. With many larger systems, there is an ownership transfer process. But MS provides no way to transfer a license from one account to another. This makes the buyout value of used computers virtually nil, since it will practically force the buyer to purchase a new copy of Office.
4. Here is the big one: because this product goes onto virtually every computer, any complexity regarding setup is multipled exponentially compared to applications that go on maybe 10% of a business' computers. This makes individual e-mail-related activation a show-stopping monster, at least for those of us attempting to support many client businesses.

So, if my scenario is correct, one that gives MS all the benefit of the doubt, it was still a shock to encounter this for the first time, and the solution is simply unworkable in the small business marketplace. It may have seemed to MS that this was just the next natural step in (legitimate) intellectual property rights protection, the fact that the new activation requirements were not prominent somewhere tells me that Microsoft has once again misjudged (or simply did not care about) the complications this would provide for the end user or small business support operator. This might seem like an isolated issue were it not for that horrible Windows Vista, Windows 8 (which seemed to be nothing more than Microsoft' attempt to look like an iPad), and Windows 10, which denies the user such simple things as real control over Windows update.

So, despite the fact that I buy, legitimately, every copy of Office that I install for my customers and the pain I feel on Microsoft's part regarding loss of revenue due to piracy, the solution remains too time-consuming and otherwise unworkable for me to consider Office a viable option for my clients.

Brian, I thank you for starting this and still continuing after all this time.  Today I am battling this issue and my web queries led me here.  I have called and complained to no avail and basically been left orphaned and adrift with zero resolution.  As of today, I am going to start researching alternative technologies to solve this problem, for I have no hope that Microsoft will change the policy and fix this at all.  Your last line sums this up quite nicely;

"So, despite the fact that I buy, legitimately, every copy of Office that I install for my customers and the pain I feel on Microsoft's part regarding loss of revenue due to piracy, the solution remains too time-consuming and otherwise unworkable for me to consider Office a viable option for my clients."

Thanks Brian, its nice to know there are like minded folks out there.

So, despite the fact that I buy, legitimately, every copy of Office that I install for my customers and the pain I feel on Microsoft's part regarding loss of revenue due to piracy, the solution remains too time-consuming and otherwise unworkable for me to consider Office a viable option for my clients.

Brian,

Where are you legitimately buying your copies of Office 2013?