How do I transfer Office 2021 LTSC Professional Plus from laptop to a new desktop computer when uncertain which of multiple product keys has been used?

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How do I transfer Office 2021 LTSC Professional Plus from laptop to a new desktop computer when uncertain which of multiple product keys has been used?

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Hello!

I am installing a new desktop computer running Windows 11 to replace an EOL laptop running Windows 10, both 64-bit versions. I have been a long-time user of Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 and I am not interested in moving to Office 365. I have longstanding experience with network and software security and I do not want to use a cloud-based service for productivity applications for confidential and privileged communications and work; if that was the case Google services would be perfectly serviceable for my needs.

I have two keys for Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021, on two separate laptops, one of these is for school and I am using that one actively. However, I cannot determine which key is installed on the computer I am decommissioning. None of the support articles I have read offers a solution to finding the key for this version of Office, and I do not want to attempt to activate the incorrect key because I do not want to interfere with the ability of my mobile class laptop to access Office products.

How can I determine which key is the correct one for the old installation, and what notes are available for transferring this key to the new computer? I feel like the existing knowledge base articles should be able to walk me through this, but a lot of them seem to cut off at Office 2019, so a quick summary of what needs to be done would be good.

Note that I originally asked this in the support forums over at answers.microsoft.com and was directed here.

Thanks!

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2025-01-11T18:29:30.3366667+00:00

The answer given to just google for an unvetted piece of unnamed software is not acceptable. I know with LTSC 2021 only the last 5 digits of the key will be in the registry and that is alright as I'm comparing with an existing key list. Perhaps just the name of the key this would be stored under, or a small PowerShell script to find and decode they key fragment itself would be available and would definitely be acceptable.

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Your answer

Scout A 0 Reputation points

2025-01-11T18:29:30.3366667+00:00

The answer given to just google for an unvetted piece of unnamed software is not acceptable. I know with LTSC 2021 only the last 5 digits of the key will be in the registry and that is alright as I'm comparing with an existing key list. Perhaps just the name of the key this would be stored under, or a small PowerShell script to find and decode they key fragment itself would be available and would definitely be acceptable.

Answer 1

Michael Taylor 60,346

You can download a third party app that will dump your Office product key. Google for the "get office product key" to get the links. Once you download the app and run it, it'll look in the registry and decrypt your product key. You can then enter that product key on your new computer to activate Office. If you have done this several times before then you might eventually get to the limit of "reactivations" with the product key. At that point you might need to go to your MS account (you have one if you're using Win11) and go to Devices and deactivate the old computer. If it still won't let you then you have to contact MS support.

Scout A 0 Reputation points

2025-01-09T02:08:12.25+00:00

I appreciate the time you took to answer, but this answer is not only not useful, it leaves out important information that I myself found via web search, and then recommends a path of action that is irresponsible or even negligent.

Apparently recent versions of the Office standalone product only put the last 5 digits of the product key in the registry. This is fine; I have two keys and I'm just tyring to figure out which one actually applies to the old computer. Because of this change, however, most office key-finders no longer work, so the suggestion is not particularly useful on the face of it.

The worst part, however, is suggesting to a user of unknown technical competence (fortunately I am competent) to just 'google for a piece of software, download and run it" with absolutely no reference to any reputable tools for this purpose. The internet is full of tools that masquerade as useful, and perhaps even do what they say, but also do more malicious things they do not reveal to the user, from capturing the decoded key to use elsewhere to installing malicious software. This suggestion is thus, at best, irresponsible, and at worst, negligent. While I appreciate the time spent to provide a reply, this is not useful and is, in fact, hazardous.

Now if you have a link to a reputable piece of software that meets your description, please I would like that very much. I am not, however, going to just download random software to work through the registry of my computer because it was one of the top results on Google. A simple PowerShell script that can do this work would also suffice. Otherwise, I have to mark this answer as unacceptable.

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How do I transfer Office 2021 LTSC Professional Plus from laptop to a new desktop computer when uncertain which of multiple product keys has been used?

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