I have Office 2016 Pro running and just bought a license for office 2021 After installation Office was not showing in Control Panel as being installed, just office 2016.

Question

I have Office 2016 Pro running and just bought a license for office 2021 Pro.

After installation Office was not showing in Control Panel as being installed.

But on running Word showed up as 2016, NOT 2021

Deleted office 2016 using Microsoft Support and recovery assistant. Reported Office 2016 was removed.

Reinstalled Office 2021 via my MS account and ISO but now it is still showing as Office 2016 on the apps. Attempted to remove product key using (cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:xxxxx ) command but still showing Office 2016.

Answer 1

Hello,

Based on your description, you can take the following steps to resolve the issue where Office 2021 is still displayed as Office 2016:

1. Uninstall Office Completely

Use the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant to ensure that all remnants of Office 2016 are removed. Sometimes, leftover files can cause confusion during installation.

After running the tool, check Control Panel > Programs and Features to confirm that Office 2016 is no longer listed.

2. Remove Old Product Keys

Open Command Prompt as an administrator and run the following command to check for existing product keys:

cscript "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" /dstatus

If you see any keys related to Office 2016, you can remove them using:

cscript "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" /unpkey:XXXXX

Replace XXXXX with the last five characters of the product key you want to remove.

3. Install Office 2021 Again

After ensuring that Office 2016 is completely uninstalled and old keys are removed, reinstall Office 2021 using the installer from your Microsoft account or the ISO file.

Make sure to run the installer as an administrator.

4. Check for Updates

After installation, open any Office application (like Word) and go to File > Account > Update Options and select Update Now. This ensures you have the latest updates and features.

5. Repair Office Installation

If Office 2021 still shows as 2016, go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, find Microsoft Office, and select Modify. Choose Quick Repair or Online Repair.

From my search, some users have solved this problem by trying to reinstall several times. If the above operations do not work, you can try reinstalling several times.

I hope the information above is helpful.

Best Regards,

Yanhong

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