Why does signing out suddenly de-activate office?

Anonymous
2020-07-16T15:23:12+00:00

I have office 365. I used to be able to sign out of an office application and the application still worked. I recently made the mistake of updating the office application where Office 365 is now Microsoft 365. It now seems I HAVE to sign in and stay signed in on my own computer where I downloaded and installed my office products to keep using MS Office. When I sign out, the office product deactivates. I don't want to be signed in to use the product that I paid for. It now means that everyone in my family who use the same computer also use my Office account with my name on each office application. Why did this policy change and can we get the previous policy back?

At https://www.reddit.com/r/Office365/comments/fyzfe6/how_to_logout_from_office_365_word_without/ a user commented:

"Yes you used to be able to sign out of Office 365 and it would still stay activated based on the original MS account that has the Office 365 subscription on it... BUT NOW since they changed the name to Microsoft 365 the NEW installers/program are different and if you sign out then it will deactivate Office and make you sign back in... if you updated from an older install then it still seems to let you log out even with the newest updates... but if you did an Online repair then you will be forced to stay signed in... once signed in with a valid subscription account you can sign in with any another microsoft account instead and it will keep the activation still.."

Please revert this manner of using Office products that have been paid for.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-30T10:31:13+00:00

    I tried that and id didn't make any difference for me ...

    If you start the services.msc applet using Run As admin you can change the start type from automat, or Manual, to Disabled.  That won't restart at all.

    I also tried stopping the "Microsoft Office Click to Run" service. That didn't help either.

    .

    I too noticed a difference, for the worse, in how things run/not.  Previously I noted that unplugging my network connection would allow me to use it. No more. Nothing I do will allow me to use it without signing in.

    This sucks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-30T08:29:17+00:00

    Here's a slightly new thing. If I open Word and sign out, close Word, then open task manager and find "Service Host: Web Account Manager" and end that task, when I then open Word again I can use Word. It now says that it is an unlicensed product, but it retains functionality. It's only for a short while though until the "Service Host: Web Account Manager" restarts automatically after a few minutes. Once that service restarts, the Office product deactivates again and you get the pop-up again to sign in. 

    EDIT:

    I thought maybe disabling the service would work (instead of ending the task), but alas. Within task manager, I went to services, located 'web account manager', and disabled that service (all while signed out of Word). I restarted my laptop and opened word. It still deactivated my Office product and showed the pop-up window to sign in, only now it gets stuck after the screen where you enter your email address, you're not provided with the screen to enter your password. You can only proceed with the 'web account manager' service enabled. I'm assuming it's then the 'service host' task that's is showing the pop-up sign-in window.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T21:10:45+00:00

    No, that's not it for me, I checked it at the very beginning when I encountered the problem, I always have these options like that.

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  4. Stefan Blom 353.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-07-24T18:43:17+00:00

    At File > Options > Save, select the option "Save to Computer by default" and specify a default location for documents. Also, clear the option to "Show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required."

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T15:44:51+00:00

    tried, doesn't work for me. Whenever I sign out (even with your suggested method) I get a notification pop-up that states if your ready to edit files again o this machine, sign back in. I did exactly your steps (several times) but it remained deactivated and could not do anything.

    I'm giving up. Thanks all for replying and trying!

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