Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

My friends, like you, I have suffered with clients' purchases of Office.  However, I believe our worries are almost at an end.  Dell now is a reseller of the subscription version of Office.  I discovered this when a client called me to set up two new Dell computers (ordered through a Dell sales rep--their first mistake, I know.)  They had bought a one year subscription to Office for each of them.  Price was the same price Microsoft charges--$99 for a year.  However, it appears that Dell has inserted itself into the installation of the Office 365 subscription, although the process at Dell isn't fully invented yet, as my client could not get logged into the Dell interface.

So...show of hands.  Who believes an Office 365 subscription will be simpler with a Dell account inserted between the user and Microsoft?  No one?  I advised my client to call the Dell salesman back and get a credit for that purchase.  If you want a Microsoft subscription--and a number of my clients have opted for it--just go to Microsoft to get it.  Unlike the outright purchase, Dell does not sell the subscription at a discount from Microsoft's direct price.

The day Microsoft warned about with the announcement of Office 2013 is almost here.  No more Office as a one time license charge. The demand for Open Office and Libre Office is about to increase.  I'm thinking of retiring as a Microsoft Partner.  When I do and my software licenses are gone, I'm pretty sure the prospect of $8.25 a month for the rest of my life, is going to lose out to Open Office.  I'll keep my $4 Office 365 mailbox but use other software.

Russ:

Yes some machines have been coming from the factory with "preactiveated" 365 installed. for about a year now (right after 365 was released). The user clicks on an icon and provides their email and activation is complete.  But it is consumer Office licenses, 365 Personal. I have not seen it for business licenes. Have you?

Volume licenses are not a solution, they are MUCH more expensive.  Volume licenses are open to anyone. There is a neat trick you need to be aware of. The minimum Volume license purchase is 5 licenses. After you have those first 5, you can buy additional ones one at a time.  The trick is simple.  It does not matter what 5 licenses you buy. So you buy one Office license, then look through the product list and find the cheapest product. At one time that was a Map tool.  If you are looking to do volume licenses at home, I would suggest also getting the upgrade to Win 10 Professional as one of the licenses. That way you will have built in support for Hyper-V, the virtual computer tech you can use to separate Office from Visio/Projetct.

Office has always been exclusive about which key it will allow to activate an installed copy of Office. They must both be the same bundle.  So a 365 Business key will not activate a 365 Home/Personal installation.  Yes it is a PITA, but nothing new.

Yes, you can download the full "offline installer" from the MyAccount site. I simply don't know if that is an option open to business users. I haven't had the option to try either consumer or business offline installers, but I expect they will require an email account and product key to install and activate.

Yes, the "improvements" MS made to the 2016/365 installer have made mixing Visio/Project with other Office installations "an adventure".  In theory they have fixed that problem for business users. But I think Consumers are still having issues.

Supported scenarios for installing different versions of Office, Visio, and Project on the same computer– Different Years and MSI vs CTR.

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/mt712177%28v=office.16%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

This is an EXCELLENT resource.

Starting on October 11, 2016, Office 2013 software that uses Click-to-Run can be installed on the same computer with Office 2016 software that uses Click-to-Run.

We can also Use the Office Deployment Tool to install volume licensed editions of Visio 2016 and Project 2016 .

Note:  The MAK keys currently available on the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) aren’t compatible with this specific installation scenario. We’re working on a solution, but we currently don’t have a date when we expect the solution to be available. KMS activation is available.

See also

Visio 2016 – Deployment Guide for Admins

Project 2016 – Deployment Guide for Admins

The following table covers the two general rules for which installation scenarios are supported and provides some examples.

To address the last 3 replies - Office 365 is not an option... my company refuses to use a subscription based service.  I have actually tried to push them toward that but until it is the only option they wish to purchase the software outright for each machine.

@Rohn007 - We are a business (as previously stated) and we purchase between 15 and 30 or so licenses per year.  Buying the minimum of 5 to begin with is no big deal as we will always need more than that.  Additionally I already mentioned that you can use the Office Deployment Tool to add other non Click-To-Run products such as Visio... so you're not telling us anything new there.  It still proved to be a pain in the rear quite honestly.

As for the people that keep throwing 2013 into the mix.. please stop.  This thread is for 2016 and reinstallation for 2013 is *not* the same.  Why?  Because 2013 does not require you to sign in to a registered MS account that it associated with the product in order to activate - 2016 does.  This is the issue that started this thread.  That is why leaving a customer with re-installation media doesn't solve the problem either (for those that contract and deal with individual end-users).  Most people don't like needing yet another account somewhere and the contractor setting the computer up for them and then likely never seeing the customer again isn't going to use an account of his own.  For those like myself working in an enterprise environment... the company wants to own the software and by letting our employees register an account they now own it, not us.  If they leave we also can't reinstall it later should we reimage the machine as the product is married to the hardware and still requires a login to the MS account registered with it... which we no longer know if the employee has left the company. 

We have been using a single company account (we didn't like having to create something like that... and need to make more once the max number of registrations are reached) and registering with that... but that had become cumbersome very quickly - we have to keep track of all of the installations along with the date of install and upon reinstallation when we're asked to login in with the correct account to activate the product there is a long list of the same product name to choose from with only a number in paranthesis next to it with no way to tell which is the correct one (and you MUST choose the correct one otherwise it will not work).  To that end I discovered it best to log in to the MS account online, go to "My Account" and you will not only see a list of all installations registered to that account but also the date of install so you may match it to the machine it belongs to... you then click "install" and it downloads the installer and will activate - THIS IS A MAJOR PAIN IN THE A**... especially when you have to manage a fleet of PC's. 

To that end purchasing the volume license ended all for that for us.  We purchase the licenses as needed and install the software anytime the good old fashioned way - easy peasy.  We also no longer have to fiddle with the Office Deployment Tool for additional Office software such as Visio and Project since the original Office install used an MSI to install and not Click-To-Run... again, it is now easy peasy.

As I already stated, VL wouldn't be a solution for individual contractors... but many of the people I see in this thread (as well as others) are working for a business such as myself and this works great if you have more than a few computers to service.

It's silly IMO how some mention all kinds of hoops to jump through in order to make things works with how  MS is trying to feed it to you... and it totally missed the original point.

Just my two cents.  If it helps you great (it's working great my my company) if not then so be it.