Windows 10: Can't remember old Microsoft account. How can I activate Office 2016?

A short time ago a friend of mine had an issue with her Windows 10 laptop. The system said that the PIN would not work due to security changes to the system. The system was set up by the store that sold the laptop many years ago so she does not recall the password that was used for the Microsoft account that was used. The mail account that was in use at the time has been dead for several years, so there is no way to recover the password. We did contact the ISP to try and reactivate the account without success. At this point the laptop has been formatted and Windows 10 reinstalled, using a current Microsoft account. Since Office 2016 Home & Student was not purchased/installed with the current account we are not permitted to activate it. Office is installed and we do have the key for the software. Is there any way to recover the account info for the old Microsoft account so that we can activate Office? Is there a way to deactivate Office on the old account so that we an reactivate it under the new account?

:)

 

Activate office 2016 on new harddrive

Hi Jan

Yes, that is probably what is happening, another possible explanation is there was a pre-existing Office 365 trial version on that hard drive . . .

Open a new document in Word, go to File - Account

What Office licence(s) do you see listed there, is there one or two?

If there is only one (your Office 2016), then please try the steps on this page, to get your Office 2016 activated:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/activa...

If there was also an Office 365 account listed there:

Use this tool from Microsoft to remove all remnants of all previous Office Installations:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Uninst...

Restart (not shut down) your PC . . .

Go to Office 365 Login | Microsoft Office and if you're not already signed in, select Sign in

Then from that page, locate your Office 2016 licence and click Install . . .

 

Microsoft changed someething in the Office 2016 setup?

I have product keys for Office 2016 Pro on MSDN, using those keys I can activate office 2016 by just entering the product key. MSDN has been migrated to a new Visual Studio Subscription site. On that new site under product keys I have my old Office 2016 keys listed as "Office Professional Plus 2016 (Discontinued) and new keys listed as "Office Professional Plus 2016". The discontinued keys still work, I'm still using them.
here's the weird part. Just tried to use one the new keys and I get menu's I have never seen before.










Sorry for the quality, camera acting weird on me. They looked fine in the viewer. I'm logged in with a local account on this PC. I only went as far as the last screen shoot. If I don't do the redeem online, office will not activate. It just asks for a product code and starts all over. If I enter one of my original MSDN keys on that first screen, it activates right away without the add this key an account stuff. If I use one of my new keys I'm back in the add this key to an account loop. I'm debating starting all over again after switching to a Microsoft account to see what happens.

Anybody else seen this? I did a quick forum search and didn't find anything?

 

Microsoft Office 2016 asking for product key

You might have a KMS activated Office 2016 license installed. These normally require connecting to a Windows Server at your work place in order to reactivate. Another option might be signing in with your organization account and activate.

Which edition of Microsoft Office 2016 is it? You can find out by opening a Office 2016 application, click File > Account

As suggested, its probably best you contact your organizations System or Network Administrator; or Desktop Support for assistance.