My customer wanted to know if Office 2016 copy was activated correctly on one of their computers. The story why it was necessary is told below.
Did Your Office 2016 or Office 2016 License Successfully Activate?
After the installation and activation of Office 2016 or Office 365 on your computer, you can make sure that your Office copy is activated correctly in the command prompt using ospp.vbs script included in Office.
First of all, you need to know the bitness of your Office (32- or 64-bit). To do it, start any Office program (Word, Excel, Outlook) and select File -> Office account -> About. In the next window the bitness of your copy will be shown. (In our example, it is 32-bit.)
Run the command prompt with the administrator privileges and go to the directory, which path depends on the bitness and versions of your Windows and Office:
- If you are using Windows x64 and Office 32-bit (the most typical case):
CD %SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16 - Windows x86 and Office 32-bit:
CD %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 - Windows x64 and Office 64-bit:
CD %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16
Check Office activation status with the following command:
cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus
According to the information the tool provides, this Office2016 copy is activated (LICENSE STATUS: —LICENSED—) on the KMS server (KMS machine name) using the GVLK for Office 2016 Pro Plus (Last 5 characters of installed product key). The license will be active for 176 days (REMAINING GRACE). If the KMS server is available, the license is automatically renewed for 180 days every 7 days (KMS Activation FAQ).
PRODUCT ID: 00339-10000-00000-AA224
SKU ID: d450596f-894d-49e0-966a-fd39ed4c4c64
LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
BETA EXPIRATION: 01.01.1601
LICENSE STATUS: ---LICENSED---
REMAINING GRACE: 176 days (253510 minute(s) before expiring)
Last 5 characters of installed product key: WFG99
Activation Type Configuration: ALL
KMS machine name from DNS: woshub.com:1688
KMS machine registry override defined: woshub.com:1688
Activation Interval: 120 minutes
Renewal Interval: 10080 minutes
KMS host caching: Enabled
- MAK edition — MAK activation is used
- Retail edition – a retail product activated using a retail key
Removing Office 2016 Activation Window: Let’s Get Started
As we have seen earlier, the version of Office 2016 installed on this computer is activated, however when trying to start any Office products the following window appears:
Choose one
- Try – Get a free trial of Office 365
- Buy – Buy Office from the Microsoft Store
- Activate – Enter you Product Key or sign in
You can close this window that doesn’t restrict any Office features, but it appears every time when you start any of the products, that is terribly annoying. I could find out how to remove this activation window.
As it turned out the problem is related to the preinstalled Office 365 that had been uninstalled to install Office 2016 instead. I tried to use the removal tools offered on Microsoft website to remove this window, but they didn’t help.
The only feasible way was to remove the registry key (depending on the bitness of the system):
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM
It is faster to do it in PowerShell:
Remove-Item –Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM” –Recurse
Remove-Item –Path “HKLM:\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM” –Recurse
Just close all Office applications and start them again. The Office activation notification will disappear.