License and registration, please

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ISSUE 19.13 • 2022-03-28 MICROSOFT 365 By Peter Deegan Knowing exactly which version of Office you have is important, but many people forget or don’t
[See the full post at: License and registration, please]

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IT Manager Geek, lmacri, Lars220, MHCLV941, abbodi86

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Of all the subscriptions out there, I think Office 365 is the best value for your money… IF you are sharing it with your family. We have all five copies installed. Plus each person has a TB on One Drive. Not a bad deal for what you get, especially compared to Adobe or others out there.

If you can get a deal on it, so much the better. But it is well worth the money.

That being said, I wish I could get a deal on Adobe, but you are looking at more than double what you pay for Office 365. Fortunately there are alternatives to Adobe, but is a whole separate discussion.

 

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WSlagunacreek wrote:

We have all five copies installed.

That five was increased to six about four years ago, in case you need one more user (for unlimited device installations, and up to five concurrent sessions per user):

You’re about to get even more from your Office 365 Home or Personal subscription!

Important news about your Microsoft 365 subscription

Share your Microsoft 365 Family subscription

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Subscription details or expiration date can show up with ospp.vbs (for old ones) or running powershell script vNextDiag.ps1 (exist in the same folder with ospp.vbs) for newer ones

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Hi @abbodi86,
When I bought my Dell laptop, it came with Office 2016 on it. I wanted to check to see if it was an OEM product, as Deegan suggests.
I have been looking at the post of @OldMainFrameGuy, who had the same question I have.
My output from the command prompt looks similar to his in that it says that the grace period has expired (I’ve put it in bold):
c:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16>cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

—Processing————————–
—————————————
PRODUCT ID: 00344-20000-00000-AA375
SKU ID: 1ecbf9c7-7c43-483e-b2ad-06ef5c5744c4
LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16HomeStudentR_Grace edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, RETAIL(Grace) channel
BETA EXPIRATION: 01/01/1601
LICENSE STATUS: —NOTIFICATIONS—
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F009
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the grace period expired.
Last 5 characters of installed product key: DJ3QD
—————————————
PRODUCT ID: 00334-38958-22396-AA331
SKU ID: c28acdb8-d8b3-4199-baa4-024d09e97c99
LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16HomeStudentR_Retail edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, RETAIL channel
BETA EXPIRATION: 01/01/1601
LICENSE STATUS: —LICENSED—
Last 5 characters of installed product key: 2374K
—————————————
—————————————
—Exiting—————————–

So, then I tried the “vNextDiag.ps1” command and the output starts out the same as that from @OldMainFrameGuy, but then it doesn’t finish the same way, because under the “Device licenses found” header, it says “No licenses found” (again in bold):
c:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16>powershell -ep unrestricted -nop -c “iex .vNextDiag.ps1”

========== Mode per ProductReleaseId ==========
No registry keys found.

========== Shared Computer Licensing ==========
SharedComputerLicensing = Disabled
No tokens found.

========== vNext licenses found ==========
No licenses found.

========== Device licenses found ==========
No licenses found.

c:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16>

But, if I go to Microsoft Stores, there is a record of my purchase:

So, do I have a OEM product, as described in the Newsletter, or not?
Is it good until 2025? Could I put it on a new computer, should I need to?

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It appears to not be an OEM version.

Both installed keys have the magic word ‘Retail’ in the licence name / description lines.

Peter Deegan

 

 

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abbodi86

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Peter Deegan wrote:

It appears to not be an OEM version

So, does that mean that I could move it to a new computer, if the old computer fails.

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Based on the info provided, it’s a retail purchase that can be moved to another computer.

MAKE SURE you keep the full Office product key saved. You’ll need it for any future install.

Many people lose their product keys and have to buy the same thing again.

Peter Deegan

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oldfry

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Peter:  How do you move a license (or reinstall it)?   Does it need to be uninstalled first?   Can I just reinstall Office on the same PC (if I was reinstalling Windows) or install it on a new PC, given that I would no longer be using the original PC?

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WCHS

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In theory, you should uninstall from the old computer before installing with the same product key on the new machine.

In practice, you can just install on the new computer.

Sometimes you can’t uninstall from the old machine because it’s broken.

If it’s on the same computer, there should not be a problem. MS Activation should be able to tell that it’s the same hardware and allow reinstall at any time/

There’s a limit on one install / activation on new hardware every 90 days which should be enough.  In the rare case that a reinstall is needed within 90 days (say a computer is faulty and is totally replaced), you’re given a number to call at MS Support.  Explain the situation and they seem to invariably allow the install.

Peter Deegan

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Peter: I could not find the piece of information most important to me: where  is the license key hidden?  I had occasion when MS asked me for it when I reinstalled Office after a crash and could not find the  thing.  My IT guy fixed things but never told me how or what or where the key was.  Can you help.  Many thanks.  Eric

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Thanks.  Apparently, Microsoft has a master plan effective in about 4 years when multiple versions go off support.  I am not a subscription guy – so, I will probably move over to Libre Office or similar if online office becomes the lone alternative.

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Everyone with a retail, perpetual licence Office should keep the licence key safe so the software can be installed again.

There are tools to recover Office licence keys from a machine.  For example https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html  Try a web search which includes your Office version.

Note for other readers: this does NOT apply to subscription Office 365.

Peter Deegan

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Nirsoft’s ProduKey doesn’t work for versions of Office after Office 2010 (if you can get past your antivirus software).   I tried Belarc Advisor which has never failed me and it has no idea what my Office 2021 key is.   It says “Key: none activated”.

Fortunately, I have the key in a file on my PC since there’s apparently no way known to the universe to retrieve it.

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I don’t think this question was answered in a way I could understand.  Is there no simple way to access the place where the key is hidden?  So much of MS is a simple solution – if only you know about it.  e.g., sharing files and folders via One Drive.  Thanks,

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There are many places, that’s why there are many different ways to get the keys.
You need to use the method appropriate to your software / that works for you.

cheers, Paul

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FWIIW, I found my Office 2016 [32-bit] Product Key in my Microsoft Account by clicking on the “Services & Subscriptions” tab. Although it came on my laptop when I ordered it in 2016 from the vendor (Dell), it is not an OEM edition. I found that out from the cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus command when in the c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16 directory, using the Command Prompt (as Deegan instructs in the Newsletter).

I also found my Office 2019 [64-bit] listed under the same Microsoft Account tab. It came on a 2nd laptop when I ordered it in 2019 from Dell. It is an OEM edition (revealed by the cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus command when in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 directory) and consequently no product key is listed under the Microsoft Account “Services & Subscriptions” tab.

So, being able to find the Product Key this way depends on whether it is in your Microsoft Account (if you have one) and whether it is an OEM edition or not.

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I bought a $49 license for Office 2021 from ghacks.net.   Everything seems to be working OK but when I ran the cscript command I saw this:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

—Processing————————–
—————————————
PRODUCT ID: 00469-80000-00000-AA967
SKU ID: cd18ecc0-466a-45d4-8d2e-8c4fa48ae591
LICENSE NAME: Office 21, Office21ProPlus2021R_Grace edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 21, RETAIL(Grace) channel
LICENSE STATUS: —NOTIFICATIONS—
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F009
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the grace period expired.
Last 5 characters of installed product key: PG343
—————————————
—————————————
—Exiting—————————–

Any idea if this is just going to stop running?   I can’t imagine that Microsoft would allow ghacks.net to sell $49 licenses if it was illegal or shady but you never know.

 

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could you run this command in the same location?
powershell -ep unrestricted -nop -c "iex .\vNextDiag.ps1"

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OldMainframeGuy

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Results:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>powershell -ep unrestricted -nop -c “iex .\vNextDiag.ps1”

========== Mode per ProductReleaseId ==========
proplus2021retail = vNext

========== Shared Computer Licensing ==========
No registry keys found.

========== vNext licenses found ==========
No licenses found.

========== Device licenses found ==========
{
“Version”: “Perpetual”,
“Type”: “Device|Perpetual”,
“Product”: “ProPlus2021Retail”,
“Acid”: “8d77de46-78fb-428d-b8c4-c4a078e8912d”,
“DeviceId”: null,
“LicenseState”: “Licensed”,
“EntitlementStatus”: “Provisioned”,
“EntitlementExpiration”: “9999-12-31T23:59:59.9999999Z”,
“ReasonCode”: null,
“NotBefore”: “2022-02-11T17:12:33.6834174Z”,
“NotAfter”: “2023-02-12T17:12:33.6834174Z”,
“NextRenewal”: “2022-03-14T22:12:33.6834174Z”,
“TenantId”: null,
“LicenseId”: “CWW_a96564f5-a835-4822-9f93-9ffd8ac81c04_a96564f5-a835-4822-9f93-9ffd8ac81c04_badbbf135ea84a878ebccdca0a1da491:ee1c516292d4f4e766”
}

How should I interpret this?  It seems less ominous that the previous results.

Rob

 

 

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It means your Office 2021 license is proper and valid

vNext is the new license mechanism for Office Click To Run
the key(s) shown with ospp.vbs is just placebo, it doesn’t affect or reflect the real vNext license

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OldMainframeGuy

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Thank you; I feel better now.  I’m still not sure how these vendors can sell licenses at such deep discounts but everybody says they’re valid so I won’t look for trouble where there is none.

Rob

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I don’t understand the use of the word “placebo” in the context of your reply. Are you saying that the command cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus is just not applicable in the case of Office 2021? And that the only command that reveals the activation status of Office 2021 is powershell -ep unrestricted -nop -c “iex .\vNextDiag.ps1”?  See my post at #2453550.

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ospp.vbs Still works for 2021 (and 2019/2016/365) depending on how you activated your license
if via retail or Volume (MAK) key, then it show up
if associated with Email or purchased from MS store, then that require vNextDiag.ps1

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TonyC

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Thank you for your reply.

In my opinion, determining whether Office is activated or not seems overly complex. Is there any real reason why a product screen cannot state explicitly whether Office has been activated successfully without having to enter a command?

From your reply, I am assuming that my Office 2021 installation and activation falls into the “purchased from MS store” category. As a result, ospp.vbs does not work and vNextDiag.ps1 is needed, as demonstrated in #2453550.

But my Office 2021 was purchased from http://www.microsoft.com/store by signing in to my MS account, not from the MS Store app. During the process of purchasing the product, a product key was displayed and I made a record note of it. However, because it was then associated with my MS account, I never needed it subsequently.

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It’s really not complicated at all. Believe me.

If there’s a problem with licence entitlement/activation, Office will show up very clear warnings when you start any of the apps.  To say nothing of severely limiting the features available.

For more assurance Go to File | Account . If there’s no warnings or alert appearing. you’re good to go.

Peter Deegan

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TonyC

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Thank you Peter for this post and the one at #2454168. I am very much reassured.

I just wish that such reassurance was readily available directly from Microsoft. I spent about two days of my time trying to find an explicit statement that Office 2021 was activated, trying to find information on the Internet that would tell me whether it was activated or not, and preparing posts for this thread.

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Can you tell me why there is a mis-match between the information that you point to in Figure 1, where the red bubble for “Exact Version” and the information you get when you click the About Word icon?

At the red-bubble “Exact Version” location, for my Word 2016, it says “Version 2202 Build 14931.20132 Click-to-Run” and when I click on the About Word icon it says “Word 2016 MSO Version 2202 Build 14931.20118” There has always been a difference like this and I have always wondered why.

At Update History for Office 2016 C2R, it says that .20132 was released March 8 and that .20118 was released sometime around February 28.

So, yes, there is a difference in the release date of the two builds. But, my question is: why is there this conflicting information?

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LH

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The MSO version in About Word represent the winword.exe version

not all Office binaries gets updated with each new build

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oldfry, WCHS, LH, Peter Deegan

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what is an office binary?

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It’s not a conflict, just a difference.

The last digits are the build number — a numbering of that precise software release.  Software is often revised by developers with small differences, usually no feature changes, they are marked by increments to the right of the decimal.  Each revision, however small,  is called a ‘build’ and many of them happen internally to the company and never reach the public.  So there are usually gaps between one public build value and the next public release.

All you’re seeing is a minor difference in which build is being used.  Occasionally the version/build number matters, for tracking a bug or bug fix.

In the case of the article, that screen shot was taken a few weeks ago when I wrote the article.  I’ve just checked by Office 2021 and it’s now moved on to  build 14931.20132

Many IT writers use beta/Insider versions of software – so their build numbers will be different from what seen in public releases.

Unless an article refers to a specific version or build (usually referring to a specific bug or bug fix), you can safely ignore the precise build differences.

Peter D/

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abbodi86 wrote:

The MSO version in About Word represent the winword.exe version

But, when I click on the properties of WINWORD.exe, it says that the version is .20132,not .20118.

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I’m not 100% on this but in years past there were two version numbers:

• for Office as a whole — which is what appears in the Account and About screens
• a version for each app / exe — which is what you’re seeing in File | Properties.

As an example — Microsoft might update, say, PowerPoint.  That will be released as an update to Office with a new version number attached which appears in all apps.

The PowerPoint.exe File | Properties version will change. But there’s no change in the Word, Excel, Outlook etc programs so their individual version values in File | Properties stay the same.

In practice you only need to look at the Office version (in each app under File | Account and About).  The .exe version number isn’t important to end users except perhaps in very rare cases.

Peter Deegan

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Peter Deegan wrote:

Make sure you run the command from the main Office program folder. For Office 2019, Office 2021, and Office 365, that’s either
• c:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice16
for 64-bit (x64) systems, or
• c:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16
for 32-bit (x86) systems.
For earlier versions of Office, try changing “Office16” to “Office15,” or look in the Program Files folders for the exact name.

My main Office program folder is at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
That is where WINWORD.EXE is located. And it is the location for the .exe files for Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, too. ALL of them are .20132.

So, what does .20118 represent (which is what I get when I click on the ‘About Word’ icon)?? Is it info that is a little behind the times — not quite up-to-date?

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What’s the version of WWLIB.DLL?

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So the build shown in the File/Account display belongs to the .EXE file (eg, WINWORD.EXE) and the File/Account/About dialogue refers to an associated .DLL ??

In my MS365 suite (up to date), the former build is 20132 and the latter (for Word WINLIB.DLL) is 20128 – so this seems to make sense.

But all my Office programs (Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word) show the same pair of builds: 20132 and 20128 respectively, and never seem to change between monthly updates.  All the .DLL files that I could find for the Office products (other than WWLIB.DLL) seem to have builds of 20008!

What am I missing?  What is the real build for my MS365 install and its individual apps – 20132 or 20128?

Thanks in advance.

Dell Precision 3630 w/32 GB RAM, 500 GB (C:), 1 TB (D:)
Window 10 Pro x64
Internet: FTTC (Fibre to the Kerb)

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WCHS

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Correction:  “WINLIB.DLL” should have been “WWLIB.DLL”.

 

Dell Precision 3630 w/32 GB RAM, 500 GB (C:), 1 TB (D:)
Window 10 Pro x64
Internet: FTTC (Fibre to the Kerb)

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LH wrote:

What am I missing?

I have the same question about where info accessed via the File/Account display comes from (and what that means), but in my case, there are three different build numbers:

1) in File/Account display at the very bottom, under the header “About Word”: .20132 (associated with WINWORD.EXE). See #2434827.
2) in the File/Account display at the very bottom, after clicking on the “About Word” icon that is to the left of the header: .20118 (associated with ???, i.e., doesn’t appear to be associated with WWLIB.DLL, though) because of 3). See #2434833.
3) in the file properties of WWLIB.DLL: .20128 See #2434914.

I understand 1) and 3). But, where does 2) get the .20118?

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LH

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WCHS wrote:

C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficerootOffice16

There should be backslashes in the path, but they are missing here (why?)

So, it should read

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

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Above, in your previous post, FTFY

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Hi, thank you for your article on MSO licensing. I still have a question, but maybe this is a subject for another article. What additional features are included with Office 365? It appears there are some file sharing/collaboration/MS Team features(?) that are built in to 365 that are not available with Office 2019/2021. Can those collaborative features be added to regular Office? Reason: I support a group of ladies who are leaders of a civic organization, some who have Office 2019/2021 (supplied by their employer or already have it installed on their home computer), others who don’t and want to be able to collaborate/share files on One Drive. Office 365 seems to have some of this sharing built in. Can it be added to “regular” Office? Or do all have to have Office 365?

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> What additional features are included with Office 365? It appears there are some file sharing/collaboration/MS Team features(?) that are built in to 365 that are not available with Office 2019/2021

That’s a BIG question …

There are some Teams / OneDrive options that are integrated into the Office software however that’s in addition to what’s possible in Teams itself.

In other words, anyone can use Teams (either the Teams app or via a web page) and get most if not all the features.  They don’t need the Office software at all.

Office 2019/2021 can access OneDrive/SharePoint files (that includes Teams).  Perhaps in a slightly different way but still accessible.

If one of your ladies is having trouble – tell them to use Teams via the web site — they can view/edit documents using the web based versions of Word etc.

Peter Deegan

 

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abbodi86 wrote:

What’s the version of WWLIB.DLL?

16.0.14931.20128

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Eric Kisch wrote:

Peter: I could not find the piece of information most important to me: where  is the license key hidden?  I had occasion when MS asked me for it when I reinstalled Office after a crash and could not find the  thing.  My IT guy fixed things but never told me how or what or where the key was.  Can you help.  Many thanks.  Eric

There are a number of them but my favorite is from Nirsoft (home of lots of useful tools). ProduKey can find all sorts of keys, not just Office.

Not quite on point but I want to mention ShowKeyPlus.   This is all about Windows keys and has the really handy feature of finding the original key if Windows 10 was upgraded from an older version. (ShowKeyPlus is in the Microsoft store but free nevertheless!).

 

 

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oldfry

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That VBS script does not too to well with Microsoft 365:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

—Processing————————–
—————————————
PRODUCT ID: 00202-30000-00000-AA289
SKU ID: 3ad61e22-e4fe-497f-bdb1-3e51bd872173
LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16O365ProPlusR_Grace edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, RETAIL(Grace) channel
LICENSE STATUS: —NOTIFICATIONS—
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F009
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the grace period expired.
Last 5 characters of installed product key: *****
—————————————
—————————————
—Exiting—————————–

My actual installation is 365 E3 and the subscription is good into September of this year.

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Use the vNextDiag.ps1  PowerShell script suggested by abbodi86 and others above.

ospp.vbs works on my M365 installs but clearly not all.

Peter Deegan

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MHCLV941

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Maybe this question should be another topic; my question is:
Are older versions of Office still available for (legal) purchase? If so, how/where can I buy them? My wife and I are still using Office Professional 2003 (on both our PC’s) and it’s adequate for our needs but does have some problems. I have often thought about upgrading but it always seemed like such a hassle for little benefit. We use Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and occasionally Powerpoint and Picture Manager. (We’re not interested in subscription services because of the continuing cost.) So what’s the easiest and cheapest way to upgrade our Office version? Thanks for any advice and suggestions.

 

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I had to change your command line script command to:

cscript c:\”program files”\”microsoft office”\office16\ospp.vbs /dstatus

Otherwise, I got an error msg. Great article though…

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Peter Deegan

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You can certainly do it that way.  I usually publish a multi-step process so people can more easily understand if it fails.  In this case, know if they have the correct folder before trying to run the script.

Your command lets you do it all in one step from any folder, as long as you’re sure of the target folder – 64 bit or 32-bit (X86)

It’s not necessary to enclose each part of a space separated parameter, this works just as well and is perhaps a little easier to read.

cscript "c:\program files\microsoft office\office16\ospp.vbs" /dstatus 

Peter D/

 

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OldMainframeGuy wrote:

Peter:  How do you move a license (or reinstall it)?   Does it need to be uninstalled first?   Can I just reinstall Office on the same PC (if I was reinstalling Windows) or install it on a new PC, given that I would no longer be using the original PC?

UNLESS it is an OEM license, you can normally move it to a different computer. If it is an OEM license, you cannot legally move to another computer.

Before you do anything, make absolutely, positively sure you have the license key and the installation media (disk, ISO, etc.).. I personally will have the key in a file and printed out.

You should uninstall the program from the old computer before installing it on another one but, as a practical matter, you can usually install the program on the new computer before you remove it from the old one. This makes sure you can get it installed and that the license key you have actually works. Once you do have it installed and activated, you are obligated to remove it from the old computer.

Depending on the exact version you have, the phase of the moon, and a number of other factors too numerous and obscure to be known, you may be prompted to contact Microsoft because it wants to be sure you are not trying to pirate the software. I’ve had to do this a few times and always ended with activated software, though it can be an awfully tedious process.

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OldMainframeGuy

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Thanks for the information; it’s a retail license.  I have my software key (25 characters) and an OfficeSetup.exe file which is the way I originally installed the product; it downloads and installs it.   I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to get an actual installation media (ISO); so far, it seems that the only way this product installs is via a download process.

Rob

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Roger wrote:

Maybe this question should be another topic; my question is:
Are older versions of Office still available for (legal) purchase? If so, how/where can I buy them? My wife and I are still using Office Professional 2003 (on both our PC’s) and it’s adequate for our needs but does have some problems. I have often thought about upgrading but it always seemed like such a hassle for little benefit. We use Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and occasionally Powerpoint and Picture Manager. (We’re not interested in subscription services because of the continuing cost.) So what’s the easiest and cheapest way to upgrade our Office version? Thanks for any advice and suggestions.

 

Microsoft still sells perpetual licenses for Office and its component programs.

Given all the Office programs you use, you want to look at Office 2019 Professional. The list price is $439 per copy (one person or one computer) but you will find any number of places on the web that will sell you a license key for a fraction of that. However, the legitimacy of those sites is an open question so far as I am concerned.

As far as older versions, those same questionable (in my mind) outfits will also sell older licenses.

That said, I suggest you take a good look at Microsoft 365 Family. It’s $99 (or $9.99) a year and up to 6 people can be covered. Aside from the PC software, you can also install it on tablets and smartphones.

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OldMainframeGuy wrote:

Thanks for the information; it’s a retail license.  I have my software key (25 characters) and an OfficeSetup.exe file which is the way I originally installed the product; it downloads and installs it.   I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to get an actual installation media (ISO); so far, it seems that the only way this product installs is via a download process.

Rob

Maybe, but it depends on the version. Try searching for “Download Office XXXX”, “offline install of Office XXXX” or something like that but be very careful where you click on the results. There will be a lot of scams and worse that show up.

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OldMainframeGuy

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Thanks for the advice!   Searching for “Offline install” I found a Microsoft article that explained what to do; you log into your Office account, select “Install”, and when asked what kind of install to do, select “offline installer”.

 

Rob

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WCHS

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Heidoc.net has legitimate ISOs of Windows and Office. They are MS downloads.
You download their “download tool,” run it, and it allows you to choose from a list of ISOs.
You have to be certain you download the Edition, version and bitedness you have the license for.
And you have to have a legitimate license key.

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MHCLV941

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I saw an article suggesting MS is planning a complete re-do of Office, perhaps in 2023. Anybody know anything about this?

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OldMainframeGuy wrote:

Thanks for the advice! Searching for “Offline install” I found a Microsoft article that explained what to do; you log into your Office account, select “Install”, and when asked what kind of install to do, select “offline installer”.

Hi @OldMainFrameGuy (Rob),
I did the same as you, finding the Microsoft article, and following the instructions as you describe. I found my Office 2016 under the ‘Services & Subscriptions’ tab in my Microsoft Account. The Product Key was listed there, too. When I clicked on the “Install” link, “Offline installer” was a choice.

What does the “Offline installer” do? Does it create an .iso file? If so, where can you put this .iso file – burn it to a DVD (if so, single layer? Double layer?), or copy it on a flash drive (how large?), or copy it to an external drive? Is there a setup.exe file? If so, what about the bitedness – is there an option to select this, when running the setup.exe?

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WCHS wrote:

OldMainframeGuy wrote:

Thanks for the advice! Searching for “Offline install” I found a Microsoft article that explained what to do; you log into your Office account, select “Install”, and when asked what kind of install to do, select “offline installer”.

Hi @OldMainFrameGuy (Rob),
I did the same as you, finding the Microsoft article, and following the instructions as you describe. I found my Office 2016 under the ‘Services & Subscriptions’ tab in my Microsoft Account. The Product Key was listed there, too. When I clicked on the “Install” link, “Offline installer” was a choice.

What does the “Offline installer” do? Does it create an .iso file? If so, where can you put this .iso file – burn it to a DVD (if so, single layer? Double layer?), or copy it on a flash drive (how large?), or copy it to an external drive? Is there a setup.exe file? If so, what about the bitedness – is there an option to select this, when running the setup.exe?

The “offline installer” is a disk image file (ProPlus2021Retail.img) for Office 2021; 4.4GB which can be burned to a single-layer DVD.

 

 

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WCHS

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OldMainframeGuy wrote:

which can be burned to a single-layer DVD

Or USB stick.
Or converted to an ISO and mounted direct.

cheers, Paul

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WCHS

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OldMainframeGuy wrote:

he “offline installer” is a disk image file (ProPlus2021Retail.img) for Office 2021

Have you run it? If I understand your screenshots, you initiate setup.exe and afterwards you will be asked to select the bitedness, right?

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No, it auto select the bitness based on OS (it check RAM and CPU specs to determine if 64-bit is good enough, otherwise 32-bit)

you can however sun setup32.exe or setup64.exe from insider folders x86 or x64 to choose what bitness you want

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WCHS

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Eric Kisch wrote:

I don’t think this question was answered in a way I could understand.  Is there no simple way to access the place where the key is hidden?  So much of MS is a simple solution – if only you know about it.  e.g., sharing files and folders via One Drive.  Thanks,

You pretty much answered your own question.

If there were an easy way, at least one person here would know what it is – I’ve yet to meet anyone in IT who delights in doing anything the hard way when there’s an easier (and normally faster) way to do the same thing.

As for why this is so, consider the consequences if it were easy to retrieve, i.e., steal, a license key.

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abbodi86 wrote:

No, it auto select the bitness based on OS (it check RAM and CPU specs to determine if 64-bit is good enough, otherwise 32-bit)

you can however sun setup32.exe or setup64.exe from insider folders x86 or x64 to choose what bitness you want

Indeed it does. It seems the long-standing MS advice to install 32-bit Office in the absence of specific reason(s) to install the 64-bit version has gone away, though I don’t know when.

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About 3.5 years ago:

SOLVED: Why Is 64 Bit MS Office Now Recommended?
Published by Ian Matthews on September 26, 2018

Microsoft’s reasoning: Choose between the 64-bit or 32-bit version of Office

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abbodi86, MHCLV941

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WCHS wrote:

FWIIW, I found my Office 2016 [32-bit] Product Key in my Microsoft Account by clicking on the “Services & Subscriptions” tab. Although it came on my laptop when I ordered it in 2016 from the vendor (Dell), it is not an OEM edition. I found that out from the cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus command when in the c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16 directory, using the Command Prompt (as Deegan instructs in the Newsletter).

I also found my Office 2019 [64-bit] listed under the same Microsoft Account tab. It came on a 2nd laptop when I ordered it in 2019 from Dell. It is an OEM edition (revealed by the cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus command when in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 directory) and consequently no product key is listed under the Microsoft Account “Services & Subscriptions” tab.

So, being able to find the Product Key this way depends on whether it is in your Microsoft Account (if you have one) and whether it is an OEM edition or not.

The most skilled, professional, capable, competent and dedicated department in all of Microsoft is the one devoted to making licensing complicated to the point of incomprehensibility and changing regularly it to keep it so.

If all of Microsoft were so accomplished, the only updates to any MS product would be feature enhancements.

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BATcher, wavy

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I’m glad that I found this thread, at least I think I am!

I’m running Windows 10 Pro and, on 7 June, I purchased Office 2021 Home and Business from microsoft.com.  After installing it and following instructions to activate it, I then searched for explicit confirmation that it had been activated. But I couldn’t find such confirmation.  I have used Office 2013 for many years and all I need to do for that product is navigate to the File > Account page in Word, say, to find the explicit statement “Product Activated” under “Product Information”.  Not so with Office 2021 it seems.  Quite perversely, it appears that you now have to enter commands at a command prompt to find that information.

Anyway, I tried the two commands recommended in this thread.  The output from the cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus command was:

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
<No installed product keys detected>
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

which looks rather suspect.  Any comments please?

On the other hand, the output from the powershell -ep unrestricted -nop -c “iex .\vNextDiag.ps1” command was:

========== Mode per ProductReleaseId ==========
homebusiness2021retail = vNext

========== Shared Computer Licensing ==========
No registry keys found.

========== vNext licenses found ==========
No licenses found.

========== Device licenses found ==========
{
"Version":  "Perpetual",
"Type":  "Device|Perpetual",
"Product":  "HomeBusiness2021Retail",
"Acid":  "6b68e249-0fda-4486-9689-2dda4902d3be",
"DeviceId":  null,
"LicenseState":  "Licensed",
"EntitlementStatus":  "Provisioned",
"EntitlementExpiration":  "9999-12-31T23:59:59.9999999Z",
"ReasonCode":  null,
"NotBefore":  "2022-06-12T15:45:03.4866076Z",
"NotAfter":  "2023-06-13T15:45:03.4866076Z",
"NextRenewal":  "2022-07-13T22:45:03.4866076Z",
"TenantId":  null,
"LicenseId":  "CWW_16e39c4f-c797-4bfe-98bb-22e3b162cc42_16e39c4f-c797-4bfe-98bb-22e3b162cc42_3608f54e9d0548f58ffee7d3596c0822:38f400234c7c131362"
}

I presume that “LicenseState”: “Licensed” informs me that my product is activated?

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abbodi86

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Yes, you’re good to go:

“LicenseState”:  “Licensed”,
“EntitlementStatus”:  “Provisioned”,

To respond to various people on this thread ….

The PowerShell script is NOT needed to confirm if your Office software is licenced or activated.

If there’s a problem with licence entitlement/activation, Office will show up very clear warnings when you start any of the apps.  To say nothing of severely limiting the features available.

The ONLY reason to use one of the PowerShell scripts mentioned is for Microsoft 365 users (NOT perpetual licence 2021/2019 etc)  check the grace period before a activation check will be necessary.  And even that’s only needed if your computer will be offline from the Internet for a week or more.

Peter Deegan

 

 

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TonyC

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Hello,
I have similar problems as in the posts in this thread… Thank you very much for any help.

I have purchased an Office 2021 Pro license, installed it, inserted the license key,
assigned to an account with MS. Then I activated Office, installed updates.
Word runs normally, no problem with messages “Invalid license”, “Activate”, etc.

However, the command:
c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

variant A)
<No installed product keys detected>
variant B)
PRODUCT ID: 00469-80000-00000-XXXXX
SKU ID: cd18ecc0-aaa-45da4-8dXX-8c4fa48XXXXX
LICENSE NAME: Office 21, Office21ProPlus2021R_Grace edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 21, RETAIL(Grace) channel
BETA EXPIRATION: 1.1.1601
LICENSE STATUS: —OOB_GRACE—
ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application is running within the valid grace period.
REMAINING GRACE: 3 days (5144 minute(s) before expiring)
Last 5 characters of installed product key: PG343

After repairing Office , it always appears:
<No installed product keys detected>
I ran Remaining Grace to 0 once, Word always worked without any problem.

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16>powershell -ep unrestricted -nop -c “iex .\vNextDiag.ps1”
========== Mode per ProductReleaseId ==========
proplus2021retail = vNext
o365proplusretail = vNext
proplus2021volume = vNext

========== Shared Computer Licensing ==========
No registry keys found.

========== vNext licenses found ==========
No licenses found.

========== Device licenses found ==========
Get-Date : Cannot bind parameter ‘Date’. Cannot convert value “9999-12-31T23:59:59.9999999Z” to type “System.DateTime”.
Error: “The DateTime value represented by the string is out of range.”
At C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\vNextDiag.ps1:149 char:30
+ ((Get-Date) -Lt (Get-Date $decodedLicense.ExpiresOn)))
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Get-Date], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CannotConvertArgumentNoMessage,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetDateCommand

{
“Version”: “Perpetual”,
“Type”: “Device|Perpetual”,
“Product”: “ProPlus2021Retail”,
“Acid”: “8d77aaaa-78fb-428a-b8aa-c4a0XXXXXXX”,
“DeviceId”: null,
“LicenseState”: null,
“EntitlementStatus”: “Provisioned”,
“EntitlementExpiration”: “9999-12-31T23:59:59.9999999Z”,
“ReasonCode”: null,
“NotBefore”: “2022-07-17T10:20:47.430374Z”,
“NotAfter”: “2023-07-18T10:20:47.430374Z”,
“NextRenewal”: “2022-08-18T18:20:47.430374Z”,
“TenantId”: null,
“LicenseId”: “CWW_ca4f8XX-11 … ef42b:a05e750d1488XXXXX”
}

so i have “LicenseState”: null
but Word (Excel etc …) works without any warning or error…

Thank you very much for the explanation !
Vaclav

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anonymous wrote:

Hi, thank you for your article on MSO licensing. I still have a question, but maybe this is a subject for another article. What additional features are included with Office 365? It appears there are some file sharing/collaboration/MS Team features(?) that are built in to 365 that are not available with Office 2019/2021. Can those collaborative features be added to regular Office? Reason: I support a group of ladies who are leaders of a civic organization, some who have Office 2019/2021 (supplied by their employer or already have it installed on their home computer), others who don’t and want to be able to collaborate/share files on One Drive. Office 365 seems to have some of this sharing built in. Can it be added to “regular” Office? Or do all have to have Office 365?

The perpetual license versions, e.g., 2019, 2021, do not get feature updates/improvements or new features over their life spans.  They do get security updates and bug fixes but they are feature-complete the day they ship.  The subscription programs, in addition to security updates and bug fixes, do get feature improvements and outright new features.

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