Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

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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?

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Anonymous

2016-07-29T00:43:35+00:00

Beside Thunderbird, Zimbra Desktop is a good alternative to Outlook. These are free too. https://www.zimbra.com/zimbra-desktop/
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Anonymous

2016-07-29T00:45:22+00:00

The main frustration is the flawed activation process, not the download. You can always download and burn into a disc or copied into a thumbdrive or in a network shared folder etc.
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Anonymous

2016-07-29T00:53:44+00:00
When you download, make sure it is the Offline Installer. If you save the normal installer file it will be a small "stub" that still requires download of files from internet to complete the install.

Here are some more articles I've collected about alternatives to Outlook

What is Slack and Is It Better Than Email?

https://www.petri.com/what-is-slack-and-is-it-better-than-email

Slack only allows invited team members to send messages to a channel. Private channels can also be created for more sensitive conversations, and there’s also the ability to send direct messages.

Slack wasn’t designed for external communication

Slack is going to eat your old office software alive

http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/10/05/slack-is-going-to-eat-your-old-office-software-alive/

Slack, the team messaging service that’s been labelled as an “email killer,” is going to kill far more than just email.

Five top alternatives to Microsoft Outlook

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-top-alternatives-to-microsoft-outlook/1147?tag=content;siu-container

Thunderbird, Zimbra Desktop, Claws Mail, eM Client and Pegasus Mail

November 14, 2011

Is Thunderbird more secure than Outlook 2010?

http://ask-leo.com/is\_thunderbird\_more\_secure\_than\_outlook\_2010.html

Sunbird Standalone Scheduler / Lightning Scheduler integrates with Thunderbird

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/

You may prefer**Lightning**if...
- you send or receive meeting invitations via email
- you already use Mozilla Thunderbird for email
- you customize your applications with add-ons (such as extensions or themes)
You may prefer**Sunbird**if...
- you prefer your calendar to be separate from your email client
- you don’t currently use Mozilla Thunderbird for your email
- you don’t like adding add-ons (such as extensions or themes) to your applications
Thunderbird - Freeware equivalent to Outlook

http://ask-leo.com/thunderbird\_a\_free\_open\_source\_and\_powerful\_e-mail\_client.html

Of course, for home users who don’t have to connect to a MS Exchange Server, you may simply want to go with a freeware equivalent to Outlook. One of those is Thunderbird

There is actually an add-in that allows TBird to connect to Exchange Server - haven’t used it myself...

Great Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook

http://maketecheasier.com/5-great-alternatives-to-microsoft-outlook/2011/06/21

Free Zimbra Desktop Email Client Plays Well With Webmail

http://www.pcworld.com/article/257453/free\_zimbra\_desktop\_e-mail\_client\_plays\_well\_with\_webmail.html

Zimbra Desktop includes all of the staple elements of a desktop e-mail client, such as a mail interface, a calendar, task lists, an offline mode, et cetera. The app also includes a section that allows users to keep tabs on social hotsposts like Twitter and Facebook; more business-friendly services like WebEx and LinkedIn; and general services like Yahoo Web Search and Local lookups.

Zimbra Desktop supports POP and IMAP e-mail out of the box, along with Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail

How do Outlook, Outlook Express, and Outlook.com relate?

http://ask-leo.com/how\_do\_outlook\_outlook\_express\_and\_outlookcom\_relate.html

2012 09 27- Gmail vs. Outlook.com: Which offers the best email in the cloud

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010598/gmail-vs-outlook-com-which-offers-the-best-e-mail-in-the-cloud.html#tk.nl\_secur

Switch Webmail Providers Without Losing All Your Email

http://www.howtogeek.com/122790/how-to-switch-webmail-providers-without-losing-all-your-e-mail/

Eudora OSE

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Eudora_OSE

Eudora OSE is the Open Source Edition of one of the internet’s most pioneering and enduring applications. It is a re-imagining and re-implementation of classic Eudora features on top of the Mozilla Thunderbird codebase. Eudora OSE offers users the classic look and feel of the toolbars and menus they’re used to, plus more powerful interface customization than ever before. Where these options were formerly defaults limited to the particular operating system you were running, now both the 2- and 3-pane layouts from the classic Mac and Windows versions of Eudora are available in one integrated package.

Mail Viewer – View Stand Alone Email Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird databases

http://www.technibble.com/mail-viewer-view-stand-alone-e-mail-databases/

Mail Viewer is a free and portable application to view standalone Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail and Thunderbird databases. By standalone, I mean it will display a list of the e-mails contained in the databases without actually setting up the e-mail client the file belongs to. Mail Viewer allows you to view most of what you can in an ordinary e-mail client such as view single e-mails, attachments and HTML preview. It also features powerful search and filtering capabilities to find specific e-mails inside the databases.

Review: The revolutionary mail client PostBox

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/review-the-revolutionary-mail-client-postbox/6342
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Anonymous

2016-08-03T14:40:37+00:00

Totally agree, Microsoft Office is on a couple of key computers in our business and every other computer has LibreOffice. LibreOffice is a enhanced version of OpenOffice and has many improvements including using the same shortcut keys for most shortcuts in Calc Spreadsheet.

Not sure about security of Thunderbird vs Outlook but I can tell you we have 10 clients running Thunderbird with no issues and one that insists on running Outlook, guess which one I spend the most time fixing/maintaining, yep Outlook. Can't count how many times a year I receive a email from someone running Outlook and all I receive is a Winmail.dat file. I finally created a PDF document to sent out telling them how to correct their Outlook Clients....

On top of that Microsoft still seems to believe that the entire world has unlimited gigabyte internet, nope not where I live. Top internet package here is a marginal connection with only 10 Mbs down, 750k up and latency at best in the 50ms, often as high as 200ms.

With 50 computers in our facility our internet has slowed to a crawl, emails timeout all the time, downloads are slow. I have already started to roll out Linux, looks like that's the way to go in the future, at least then you can control the operating system bandwidth better even though it might require a little more work on my part. Bonus is LibreOffice is smoking fast on Linux. :-)
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Anonymous

2016-08-10T19:03:50+00:00

This is not helpful in the least. Read the posts and try to provide a reasonable answer.
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