Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

What you are calling an "activation key" was known as a "PIN", Product ID Number.  It was 27 characters long (vs 25 for Product Key) found on a "Product Key Card".  Here is a page to submit 2010 PINS: https://getkey.office.com/office2010/ 

But I have not heard of 2016 using PINS.

You are absolutely correct, a PIN is a one time use CODE. The user MUST write it down CAREFULLY (or print sreen or print to PDF). It CANNOT be resubmitted.

And yes, MS has extended that sort of "protection" to Office 2013 and 2016 Product keys.  As you noted, MS "improved" the way product keys are stored on the computer.  We can now only "extract" the last 5 char of the key.  Just enough to uniquely ID the full key that MS expects the USER to have recorded somewhere.  Unfortunately too many people do not know this and don't write it down. When they have to re-install at some future time, MS is more than happy to sell them a new key.  This is partly alieveated for Office 2016 because the 2016 install process FORCES you to associate the key to an email account.   That is fine, except just a couple of hours ago I saw a posting saying the person could not remember what email account they used to activate an Office license.

I don't think there is a pin for Office 2016. And you can easily change the activation product key using this command (use the product key reveal from your LiveID account, not the one on the packaging box:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx

Sorry may have missed this, but how many activations can I have per live account?

without having to do phone activations.

In the past, I've seen reports up to 30. But more recently the number seems to be trending down. Latest reports say less than 20.

The best solution I've seen is to keep it 1:1.  Create a unique account name based on the computer serial number and a generic password (yes, I know that is a bad practice, but MS is not making this easy). 

DIY Process for Managing Office 2013/365 licenses – Limit 20? 30? LESS? licenses/account(?)

Here is another idea that some people are using:

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The best solution someone else came up with that I am now using is to create an account with the unique service codes that come with most computers with a generic password.  I use only Dell so it is pretty uniform and using the same password on all systems I don't have to keep track of them.  If I have to redo something, the service tag convention will always give me access to the correct account corresponding the the exact system I am working on.  Hope this helps.

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Read this reply on Microsoft Community.

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For those visiting this thread in 2015 (or later):

UNOFFICIAL “OFFICE 2013 FOR BUSINESS” MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE:

I ran into the issues discussed in this thread with Microsoft Office 2013 for Business as well; I support multiple companies as a tech consultant & had to create a manual workflow for this.  It is not a professional move by Microsoft at all, but I’d imagine that it is by design: they want you to buy a monthly 365 subscription, so they’re providing the minimum level of effort required to manage anything other than a bulk open-license KMS/MAK mass-activation service.  The bottom line is that you have to manage the license key list manually yourself, sorted by order of activation - otherwise you are screwed.  If you’re already past that point, then you’re in for a research project, which is annoying, but only has to be done once.  This is what you need to know:

1.    For the 2013 Home & Business version, Microsoft requires an Office license key to be activated against an MS Live account.  See #2 & #3 below.

2.    Although that email address is required for activation, that account can be de-coupled within an Office program after installation (it will default over to say the local domain account you’re logged into), so you don’t have to worry about having to manage your Microsoft activation “admin” account email address on every single computer (ex. Word: File > Account > “Sign out”).  The sign-out is a one-time requirement & enables the computer to be “standalone”.

3.    The MS Live account can be based on any email address, so you can do ___@___.___ to have an in-house “admin account for managing the license keys.

4.    You can only activate 30 products (2013 Office family products, that is) per Live account (Office, Project, etc.).  You can, of course, have multiple accounts since accounts are simply tied to a unique email address - so just make more email addresses.

5.    I create a generic email address at each company I support (ex. ___@___.___).  If they have more than 30 accounts, I created a second account (ex. ___@___.___).  Technically they should be going with a MAK or KMS solution for a larger quantity of installations,, but I support many businesses with less than 300 users who don’t have the infrastructure or buying workflow to setup app servers or who don’t want to buy in bulk.  A lot of smaller companies buy computers on an as-needed basis & have no interest in buying licenses in bulk, especially since the cost for an open license is nearly twice as much as a single one-off license from a reseller like Amazon.

6.    The keys are numbered based on the date & time when you registered them at office.com/setup - but Microsoft does not track the order for you, and the order listed in your account has no relevance to the actual order.  The information is hidden in a Microsoft database & it not visible in your account.  Thus, it is YOUR JOB to track them manually.  I use a simple Excel spreadsheet (or if the company doesn’t have much in the way of email, just setup a Gmail account to pair the Live account to, then use a Google Docs spreadsheet).  I have the following column headers:

1)    Live account email address (if they’re planning on having more than 30 keys, since the email address must be different for the second group of 30 keys)

2)    Activation number (1 through 30)

3)    The license number itself

4)    A computer identified (asset ID, username, workstation name, anything to know which computer it was installed on)

If the company has more than 30 keys, I create a new sheet in the Excel workbook to track the additional licenses.  Regarding licenses, you have 3 choices:

1. OEM (comes with the computer, say a Dell computer pre-loaded with Digital Delivery or a keycard)

2. Physical keycard (the ones in the small box)

3. Digital key delivery

Amazon has digital key delivery, which lets you buy a key instantly.  It’s nice to have instant delivery, but that Amazon account has to be tied to an email address & managed by somebody, so it may be easier to have physical product keycards.  Price is typically the same as the download version.

4. If you pick the wrong number when activating Office, you can reset it by going into Programs & Features, right-clicking on the Office program, clicking Change, and selecting Online Repair.  This resets it to asking you to sign into to activate again (the old command-line re-arm commands don’t work like previous versions of Office).  However, this takes a LONG TIME.  It’s MUCH faster to simply un-install & reinstall Office.  Speaking of that, you can download an image of the installer from your Live account.  Find a Microsoft Office listing under My Account, then go to Install from a disc > I want to burn a disc > Download (green button).  It will download an IMG file, which you can either burn to a disc with something like ImgBurn, or mount with something like Pismo File Mount (install, then right-click and select “Quick Mount” to temporarily convert it to a read-only folder).

I drag out the installation folder & just use that, either off the company’s file server, or off my personal USB stick.  This is the fastest way to install & re-install; otherwise you have to stream the installation from the Internet, which can take a super long time.  If you need to reinstall or transfer the license to new hardware, but get an error that the key was already activated, you can call in using the number on the Microsoft activation

5. I activate all keys by registering them on the Live account first, rather than when doing setup on the computer.  That way, on the local computer, I just install Office for Business from the folder off my USB stick, sign in with the email account, select the number I want to use, and it’s ready to go.  To do that, first login to your Live account: https://login.live.com/

Once you are logged in, type in your key code here:

https://officesetup.getmicrosoftkey.com/

Then write it down in your personal license tracking spreadsheet - which email address you used (the Live account), which computer it’s going on, which number it is, and what the license number is.  This lets you easily reference it later.

6. If you need to transfer the license (or have changed hardware & it freaks out), install it & select the number from the list, then call them to reactivate it.  When it asks you how many computers you’ve installed it on, say “one”, then it walk you through activating it on the new computer or replacement hardware.

All of this could be solved if Microsoft would simply provide you with a numbered list based the date you registered the key in your Live account.  It’s also ridiculous that they limit each account to 30 products, and further ridiculous that they require an email address simply to register a standard piece of software.  Fortunately, these workarounds DO work.  You can de-couple your Live account after Office is installed & activated.  You can create a second email account for the next batch of 30 licenses.  You can track the licenses & associated information manually in a spreadsheet.  It’s just extremely annoying.

I did not realize all of this the first time I did it.  I had already installed 19 keys, and needed to reinstall Office on a computer that had the original hard drive fail.  Boy, what a nightmare that was!  To add more salt to the wound, you can’t just pull a key out using a key finder - the best you can do is find the last 5 digits or so of the key, because of the way Microsoft requires online activation now - it doesn’t actually store the installed key on the computer in an accessible manner (not that it would matter - you’d still have to know what number it corresponds to in your Live account anyway, so you HAVE to keep track of it in a personal spreadsheet regardless).

Microsoft makes you register an email for Live account to activate Office & store your license keys in.  Each account can hold 30 license keys, and you can add more accounts by creating a different email address (doesn’t have to be a Microsoft email).  However - and this is the core problem identified by this thread - they don’t track the order, so you have to do that yourself - #1, #2, #3, #4, etc. - because when you install Office, it asks you for which number it is, not what license key it is (which is horribly stupid).  This is based on the time & date activated, so #1 would be the one you registered on Live last week, #2 would be the one you registered 3 days ago, and #3 would be the one you registered today.  They do not make that information visible, so it’s easy to create a big mess if you don’t track it.

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Hey Rob:

No, MS has moved completely to online download installation. They ASSume that everyone has highspeed internet connections with unlimited download capacity. Even if you pay extra to buy the "backup disk", apparently you just get the CTR installer stub that requires internet connection to complete the install.  Only through the MyAccount page can you get the full "offline" installer file (and that is only a recent improvement!) .

I wish I had seen these instructions just a few hours ago when I was trying to do a local install of Office 2016.  My install had a couple of rude surprises for me.

First I got this message, when it was blatantly wrong since Word clearly indicated that it was signed in, and when I checked File menu > Account command it showed it was activated :

The second surprise came the next time I logged in to Windows.  My former, carefully crafted, Windows local account had been converted into an account tied into the same email account. Which is something I most emphatically did not want!

I give up.  I've been wrestling with this since last fall.  If you must have a microsoft (I'm sorry.  That company no longer warrants capitalization), account, then creating a bogus outlook.com email seems to be an answer.  I made the mistake of associating the Office H&B key with my Office 365 admin account, and now it has added a $15 a month premium charge to my account.  So I paid $200 to Dell, and I've been paying $6 a month for exchange online, and now I've also got $15 a month premium subscription.  Tech support says don't worry, the extra account will go away.  At least I think that's what he said, as I could only understand one word out of every three.  BS.  However, I'm going to "go away" alright myself.  Two words for my next computer:  Open Office.  I've had it.  I may even vote Democrat and urge another shot at breaking up microsoft.  That company is too big to be allowed to continue.

BTW, anyone notice that when tech support connects to your computer to "help", at the end they direct you to the evaluation screen to the five star rating?