MS-Office (not 365) Licensing & linkage to MS-Account Questions

[britechguy]

OK, I have an existing license for MS-Office 2016 Pro (retail) that I have previously installed on one machine, and am taking it off of that machine (I never do this until immediately after I have it on its new destination machine, which is where I'm at right now).

When going through the whole install process, I did the usual of going to the Office setup site, logged in to my Microsoft Account (which is noted as part of the process), entered the product key I have (which was confirmed), after which Office downloaded and installed.

The activation wizard comes up the first time I open Word. I elect the telephone activation method (as I like to have a permanent record of the activation code) and get through that without a hitch. This ends the background.

1. Where is it that I can find this Office digital license/entitlement or whatever you wish to call it in my Microsoft Account? It's not under subscriptions, and I've never been able to locate it. Maybe it just isn't there for installable versions, even though Microsoft is clearly linking something with my account as part of the download and install process.

2. (This is a curiosity question, as I've never done it or needed to do it.) When you go through the telephone activation process you're explicitly encouraged to record the activation code and told you can use it later. Has anyone ever done so? If I were to do a nuke and pave on my machine, but use the Office installer I downloaded that is linked to that product key, would I just be able to elect telephone activation, but not need to call and just enter this previously supplied activation code in the boxes like one does when doing the initial install and activation?

It seems to me that the Office installers that you fetch these days are directly linked to the product key you entered to get them, rather than being generic, but maybe I'm wrong about that. I am certain that I may not be understanding exactly how MS is handling non-365 office software as far as the whole download and activation process goes "under the hood." Since everything since Office 2016 shares the same DNA, up to and including the yet-to-be-released Office 2021, I'd have to believe the mechanisms used for all the non-subscription versions is either very similar if not exactly the same.

Any light that can be thrown would be appreciated.

 

[Markverhyden]

I just went through a purchase, Office Mac 2019, recently because I had dumped an M365 license. Used the online registration, I'll only use the telephone if online fails. The activation code is just a record of the activation against a license. Don't think I ever used it.

The direct purchase, at least with the Mac version, only shows the license purchased in https://account.microsoft.com/services, not the number of machines/activations. I know the Wintel version of O/M365 does show installations as you can deauth machines. At least the last time I looked at a customer account.

 

[britechguy]

Mark,

Thanks. There's definitely nothing on that same page for me with regard to Office 2016. Of course, I bought this quite a while back now and not directly from MS, but given the information they ask for at Office setup and that your account is required to be active at the time, it's a mystery to me why nothing's there.

No crises here, just curious about what others are experiencing "out in the wild."

 

[mikeroq]

Mark,

Thanks. There's definitely nothing on that same page for me with regard to Office 2016. Of course, I bought this quite a while back now and not directly from MS, but given the information they ask for at Office setup and that your account is required to be active at the time, it's a mystery to me why nothing's there.

No crises here, just curious about what others are experiencing "out in the wild."

I had a few, one was a Professional that did not tie to an account. The key you got from the card could be directly input into Office to activate it. That is probably what you have here.

 

[mikeroq]

Also I don't use the exe installers much. I have the img files downloaded to install with. I try to record every keypair too and account it is tied to.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The above link is where it appears...

I used to go to https://office.com/myaccount to find these, but now that redirects to https://account.microsoft.com/services/

I have Office 2013, 2016, and 2019 installs in a list that all belong to a client, over 30 of them... as this was all before he finally grew a brain and decided this was all too much work and let me M365 him.

Note the product key listed on this site is not the one that you put in from the card or purchase order. But the key on the site is the one you need if you want to activate by simply stuffing in the product key. Phone activation and online activation is for the birds... I'm not logging into everything to get this stuff going. I just install it, and copy / paste the key.

 

[britechguy]

Well, as I said, and apparently it's not believed, what several of you are seeing in the referenced "services" page is not there, plain and simple, in my case. I just did the reinstall and activation this morning, following the MS prompts.

I used an EXE installer, downloaded from the MS-Office setup site that you get after you've entered the old, traditional 25-character product key.

All I can report is what I'm finding.

I do thank others for their reports about what their finding, but those situations are not congruent with mine.

 

[Markverhyden]

Mark,

Thanks. There's definitely nothing on that same page for me with regard to Office 2016. Of course, I bought this quite a while back now and not directly from MS, but given the information they ask for at Office setup and that your account is required to be active at the time, it's a mystery to me why nothing's there.

No crises here, just curious about what others are experiencing "out in the wild."

Mine wasn't purchased from them either, from an outfit called eksoftware.com. To be honest I've avoided getting any kind of account like that in the past. This is literally the first time I've done an account to register a purchased retail license as there was no way for me to plug in the license key into the install in any way, fashion or form.

Almost forgot Brian. For grins did you try a icognito/private browser page?

 

[Markverhyden]

The above link is where it appears...

I used to go to https://office.com/myaccount to find these, but now that redirects to https://account.microsoft.com/services/

I have Office 2013, 2016, and 2019 installs in a list that all belong to a client, over 30 of them... as this was all before he finally grew a brain and decided this was all too much work and let me M365 him.

Note the product key listed on this site is not the one that you put in from the card or purchase order. But the key on the site is the one you need if you want to activate by simply stuffing in the product key. Phone activation and online activation is for the birds... I'm not logging into everything to get this stuff going. I just install it, and copy / paste the key.

Out of curiosity were those purchases direct or through a third party?

 

[mikeroq]

Well, as I said, and apparently it's not believed, what several of you are seeing in the referenced "services" page is not there, plain and simple, in my case. I just did the reinstall and activation this morning, following the MS prompts.

I used an EXE installer, downloaded from the MS-Office setup site that you get after you've entered the old, traditional 25-character product key.

All I can report is what I'm finding.

I do thank others for their reports about what their finding, but those situations are not congruent with mine.

Did you miss my post? You will find that your key should enter directly into Office since it is one that does not get tied to an account.

 

[britechguy]

Did you miss my post?

No, but I thought it obvious that yours was not one to which I was alluding. I thank you for your input as well.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Out of curiosity were those purchases direct or through a third party?

A mix, some were direct, some were keys added to the account via https://office.com/setup.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Mark,

Thanks. There's definitely nothing on that same page for me with regard to Office 2016. Of course, I bought this quite a while back now and not directly from MS, but given the information they ask for at Office setup and that your account is required to be active at the time, it's a mystery to me why nothing's there.

No crises here, just curious about what others are experiencing "out in the wild."

Did you buy it in the gray market? If M$ has canceled the key as invalid it will NOT show up in your account. Seen that with some purchases I made with Discount Mountain.

 

[britechguy]

Did you buy it in the gray market? If M$ has canceled the key as invalid it will NOT show up in your account.

For this one I almost certainly did, but it's a while ago. But what I can't figure out is why they would activate it were it "cancelled as invalid." And, in this case, activating it again, as I did already have it installed on another machine previously.

This is not an argument I want to get into, but if the very entity that is responsible for managing licensing (and the validity of individual licenses) is not doing so then where does that leave us?

I went through Microsoft's own prescribed steps to activate, using phone activation, and honestly answered (as I have removed the other copy after this one activated successfully) I had one machine on which it was installed. They gave me one of the old-fashioned, ungodly long activation keys, and away I went. I'd also hope that part of the uninstall process on the machine on which it was originally installed is reporting back to the Microsoft mothership that it has been uninstalled so that they can keep track of whether my claim of "one machine" (or anyone's claims with regard to number of installs active) is true or not.

If the license isn't valid then Microsoft should not be activating it. They're (literally) the keeper of the keys, and if they don't know all of this stuff then no one does. (But there have been go-rounds about this before, and it appears that MS is getting significantly more lax with regard to license enforcement.)

 

[nlinecomputers]

Simple. It

For this one I almost certainly did, but it's a while ago. But what I can't figure out is why they would activate it were it "cancelled as invalid." And, in this case, activating it again, as I did already have it installed on another machine previously.

This is not an argument I want to get into, but if the very entity that is responsible for managing licensing (and the validity of individual licenses) is not doing so then where does that leave us?

I went through Microsoft's own prescribed steps to activate, using phone activation, and honestly answered (as I have removed the other copy after this one activated successfully) I had one machine on which it was installed. They gave me one of the old-fashioned, ungodly long activation keys, and away I went. I'd also hope that part of the uninstall process on the machine on which it was originally installed is reporting back to the Microsoft mothership that it has been uninstalled so that they can keep track of whether my claim of "one machine" (or anyone's claims with regard to number of installs active) is true or not.

If the license isn't valid then Microsoft should not be activating it. They're (literally) the keeper of the keys, and if they don't know all of this stuff then no one does. (But there have been go-rounds about this before, and it appears that MS is getting significantly more lax with regard to license enforcement.)

Simple, It's a valid key that wasn't reported when you installed it. Obviously between the time you installed it, someone else tried and invalidated it. And frankly, Microsoft is a drug dealer. They allow a limited amount of piracy so that you make use of it and get where you can't do without it and be forced to pay up in full like you should have to begin with.

 

[britechguy]

Simple, It's a valid key that wasn't reported when you installed it. Obviously between the time you installed it, someone else tried and invalidated it.

You seem to be missing my point. I agree that the above scenario could absolutely happen, but if it did happen, then when I went to install again yesterday it should have already been an invalid key.

You (the generic you, and Microsoft you) can't have it both ways at any moment in time. A key, when presented, should either be valid, or not valid, at that moment in time. If Microsoft accepts it, whether for me or someone else, then it is, as far as I'm concerned, a valid key. And they should not, ever, be deactivating something that they have accepted as valid and activated. And I guess that could and would allow piracy if they were allowing the same key to activate for some period of time before whatever trigger it is that makes them say, "No more!!"

But if I, as the end user, following MS's own prescribed validation method cannot rely upon the results "sticking" after having gone through the process something's wrong. I should not be responsible for knowing or not knowing whether a given key, at a given moment in time, is valid or not. That's abso-friggin'-lutely not my job; it's theirs.

 

[Markverhyden]

You seem to be missing my point. I agree that the above scenario could absolutely happen, but if it did happen, then when I went to install again yesterday it should have already been an invalid key.

M$ will certainly manually validate keys that should not work. Seen that many times. So having been some kind of grey market purchase I can now see why it's not showing up in your account. Wouldn't be the first time the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

 

[Markverhyden]

And frankly, Microsoft is a drug dealer. They allow a limited amount of piracy so that you make use of it and get where you can't do without it and be forced to pay up in full like you should have to begin with.

Exactly. That's why they only go after really serious offenders. It's why we can still do an upgrade on W7, etc, no questions asked.

 

[nlinecomputers]

You seem to be missing my point. I agree that the above scenario could absolutely happen, but if it did happen, then when I went to install again yesterday it should have already been an invalid key.

You (the generic you, and Microsoft you) can't have it both ways at any moment in time. A key, when presented, should either be valid, or not valid, at that moment in time. If Microsoft accepts it, whether for me or someone else, then it is, as far as I'm concerned, a valid key. And they should not, ever, be deactivating something that they have accepted as valid and activated. And I guess that could and would allow piracy if they were allowing the same key to activate for some period of time before whatever trigger it is that makes them say, "No more!!"

But if I, as the end user, following MS's own prescribed validation method cannot rely upon the results "sticking" after having gone through the process something's wrong. I should not be responsible for knowing or not knowing whether a given key, at a given moment in time, is valid or not. That's abso-friggin'-lutely not my job; it's theirs.

I’m not missing your point. You are missing mine. They invalidated your key. But they allowed it to install anyway via the key you recorded. The phone method doesn’t involve Microsoft servers so there is no direct method revalidate your key. Simply put you got away with it. If you tried online activation it would not work. Or if you called in and tried to get a new validation key.

 

[mikeroq]

@britechguy did you get this key digital when you bought it or physical card?