Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

And I thanked you for posting the official response.

Not sure what you want, other than worship and agreement?

If you go back and look, all my responses were respectful to you and your effort.

I hope you find peace.

cpw...

so 4.5 hrs more of my life wasted and no answers in sight. Chat support, Phone support, Dell support. Nobody can fix this garbage. Sick of it!!

Bottom line is this system of theirs does not work or many many reasons and in many many scenarios. It is designed solely for consumer level single user only. It has no place in business environments and is costing all of us real dollars in lost time, productivity, and client relationships.

I DON'T WANT TO HEAR EXCUSES ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!

DY this is an extract from advice to vendors re OEM Office 2013;

How do I install and activate Office Home & Business 2013 on behalf of the customer?

Step 1: Download and install Office at Office.com/setup. The customer will need to enter their Microsoft Account information (email address and password).

Step 2: Activate Office using the same Microsoft account **IMPORTANT:**The Microsoft account must be uniquely owned and accessible by the end customer. It will be the customer’s key to re-install Office in the future and access Office online services. End customers cannot use their Office subscription<br> until they have redeemed Office with a Microsoft account on Office.com/setup, and signed in. It is critical to guide end customers through the process to ensure activation.

You may get some assistance at: OEM Partner Center http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/pages/index.aspx

I've read through this a few times trying to figure out what Microsoft is really saying. Clearly this is to the OEM vendor, like Dell, who sells my clients their PCs with Office. It says that Dell can't install or activate Office for the end user.  But I'm not the OEM vendor. I'm a technician who is an agent of the end user and I'm hired to do the technical work because the end user does not want to do it themselves.  That is clearly why they hired me. They don't want to download the software. They don't want to install it. They don't want to have to track 1 or dozens of Microsoft accounts. While it is absolutely proper for the end user to have access information to those created Microsoft accounts created in their name, they normally don't want to worry about any of it.  Again, that is why they hire me.

Many have posted that the number of office activations linked to a single Microsoft account varies. While Ron tells us the official Microsoft numbers which are fairly large (I don't remember his exact quote), many have real experience that differs greatly with it being just a few activations being allowed. So, experimentally, we find the process to be unreliable. Further, it has been posted a number of times Microsoft deactivates those accounts, stranding the end user and causing a great deal of difficulty.  So, even if the end user does everything that Microsoft demands, Microsoft is still cutting off those accounts.

Ron, while your information from Microsoft is good and we thank you for your input, real life experience shows us that it is inaccurate and troublesome.  Ron, please understand that I'm not saying you are inaccurate and troublesome - just the information you pointed out.

As post after post has pointed out, the only ways out of the situation using Microsoft's products are to use Volume Licensing or Office 325 subscriptions - both of which cost much more than the retail or OEM software.  As others pointed out, there are other non-Microsoft Office solutions that are also viable and listed in this thread.

My hope is that some day Microsoft will see how their own Partners are suffering and complaining and finally do something to help us and their own end users.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we all agree that the procedure is not working.  This thread has run for a while, and if anyone at Microsoft cared, there would have been a solution created.  I think we just hear from people outside the U.S. who are just glad to have jobs, and so they give us their best--but useless--efforts.  Example.  There is a Windows 7 Update problem thread that has been running for over five years.  Over that time solutions and workarounds have been presented, while all along the way changes to W7 have created new update issues and at the same time invalidating previous solutions.  Now there is also a Windows 10 update problem that has had an equally impressive (and in some cases destructive) beginning.

It is clear to me at least that the very top management at Microsoft has moved on to other interests with their billions of dollars that we provided them.  Maybe if Bill Gates had a few billions of his wealth threatened by a government breakup of Microsoft or simply a loss of business to Apple, he could turn his attention away from gun control, minimum wage hikes, and other leftist endeavors and get the next management level down to fix their endlessly buggy, unreliable, and overpriced software.  In truth, Office has not really improved since about version 2003, and Windows 7 was the last semi-reliable desktop computer operating system.  Server OS's are always a disaster until their "R2" versions (which are not provided as free updates, so never buy a Windows Server OS until R2!)

That's it.  This problem is not going to be fixed.  Neither are the others.  The only answer is to not use troublesome Microsoft products whenever possible.  I've shown Open Office and Libre Office to a couple of small client businesses, and they were both quite interested.  One asked me why the heck had I not suggested Open Office sooner.  My "mainstream software" explanation was OK, but I think he was still disappointed that I hadn't at least suggested it--which I will from now on for every client who doesn't need Outlook.  Oh, and I think I've found a fix for the W7 Update problem. 

And...FWIW, when I retire from my IT career, I am going all-Apple.  I don't want to have to call some joker like me for help!  We're already all Apple phones and tablets, and our PC's are aging.

My "mainstream software" explanation was OK, but I think he was still disappointed that I hadn't at least suggested it--which I will from now on for every client who doesn't need Outlook.   

wburychka, I posted a great solution to the outlook replacement problem some pages back - I am rolling it out to more and more clients who are very happy with it as a fully functional outlook replacement (that works with exchange server). Check out "eM Client" at emclient.com

I am in no way affiliated with them but I am using their product live in small business environments now, and it is a rock solid replacement to outlook.

As for Microsoft not bothering with threads like this - I agree completely, they simply do not care. However by keeping this thread alive and swelling it, it serves to chip away at those "billions of dollars" you mention. By presenting alternatives it will slowly sway the balance. Even the mighty can fall.