Microsoft Student

Question

I purchased Microsoft student in 2016. How many laptops/ or years should this last for? I have just tried to activate on a new laptop and I am unable to.

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Move from Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For education | Windows

Answer 1

Hi, Aimee Earl

Office Home & Student 2016 is a one-time purchase, but activation on a new laptop can still fail if the new PC has a preloaded Microsoft 365 trial, more than one Office version installed, or if the copy came from a school/work discount or laptop bundle instead of a normal retail purchase. Office 2016 is also out of support now.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Uninstall any preinstalled Microsoft 365 trial or extra Office versions on the new laptop, restart, then open Word or Excel again. Multiple installs can cause activation conflicts.

Also check that the laptop’s date, time, and time zone are correct, then try opening an Office app once as administrator.

If the key was bought separately and now shows invalid, it is suggested that you contact the seller.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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Answer 2

Office Home & Student (the typical “Student” one-time purchase) is licensed for:

• Installation on only 1 PC or Mac at a time.
• Indefinite use on that device (no time limit), as long as the software is supported and the device works.

It is not a subscription, so it does not renew yearly, but it also cannot be installed on multiple devices at once. When moving it to a new computer:

1. Install Office on the new laptop using the same Microsoft account the 2016 purchase is associated with (from https://account.microsoft.com/services as described in the context).
2. If activation fails because the maximum number of activations has been reached, use phone activation and then uninstall Office from the old computer, as required by the transfer terms.
3. The license can only be moved occasionally; each transfer requires removing it from the prior device.

If activation still fails, check that the product is actually listed under the Microsoft account being used. If it is not listed, that account does not hold the license and activation on the new laptop will not work with it.

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References:

• Activate Office after reinstalling or installing on a different device
• Transfer your Office license to another device or another person
• Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office
• Get help with product key errors on Office.com/setup
• Move my Home and Student 2016 to a new computer - Microsoft Q&A