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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:
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?
Processes in Microsoft 365 for setting up Office apps, redeeming product keys, and activating licenses.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
SB
Please do not think that I am all out for defending Microsoft. Microsoft only produced stand alone Office 2013/2016 because they had to do so. Microsoft's plan, if they could, is to have all customers using a subscription service. At every turn they push uninvited Office 365 onto customers.
Nope you're not missing anything, you agree to the terms when you install their software, if you don't agree, don't install it.
As far as office licenses go I'm pretty sure it's always been licensed to the person, not to the computer. Along with that I'm pretty sure you've never been able to resell Office even with a old computer.
Couple of small points:
Todd:
Sorry, but you are mistaken on a couple of points.
Prior to 2013/2016, although a person owned the hardware and therefore the Office license, office was license was associated to the hardware (based on a "signature" containing elements of hardware and software IDs). There was no userid component.
Office "Retail" licenses could be sold / transferred to other owners.
<extract from Office 2010 MS License terms document>
The first user of the software may make a one-time transfer of the software and this agreement, by transferring the genuine proof of license directly to a third party. The first user must remove the software before transferring it separately from the licensed device. The first user may not retain any copies of the software. Before any permitted transfer, the other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use of the software. If the software is an upgrade, any transfer must also include all prior versions of the software.
</snip>
That being said, there were specific license types that could not be transferred to other hardware such as the OEM (factory installed and activated) license mentioned by RonB. As well there was the PKC (Product Key Card), NFR, MLK (Medialess Kit), POSA (Point of Sale Activation) and ESD (Electronic Software Download).
However, since all of these licenses were permanently tied to the hardware, ownership could be transferred to the new owner of the hardware!
I'm not impressed with this activation change...at all. I have zero desire to create and manage live accounts for my users, and before someone bought a few laptops with OEM Office 2016 licenses, I had no need to either. What business in its right mind wants its end users to be the ones signing up for and managing their software licensing? How, as their IT staff, am I supposed to manage this without having to keep track of an account for each user, and hoping they don't change the password on me? Our users don't own these licenses, the company does. Even very small businesses are likely to have one person handling the installation and licensing of Office on the businesses PC's. This activation model in NO WAY matches the use case of any small business I've been involved with.
The Click2Run stupidity was bad enough with our Volume Licenses (Yes Virginia, not everyone needs every single Office product installed), but this OEM activation requiring a Live account nonsense is unacceptable. I'm debating sending the laptops back to the manufacturer just so I can have them re-ordered WITHOUT Office licenses. I won't even get started on O365, as that is a whole different thread, but suffice it to say that, now that I've been bitten by OEM licenses, I've had a bad experience with no less than three different licensing schemes for Office 2016. To top it all off, so far I haven't seen a single feature in Office 2016 that matters to our organization. The ONLY reason I'm buying 2016 licenses is because that's all I can get. All Office 2016 has done is motivate me to push for an evaluation of LibreOffice as a possible alternative to Office for some of our users next year.