Why am I suddenly getting a message to 'Activate 365 to create and edit' in Powerpoint and Word when I already have purchased a Home/ Student one-off package?

Question

I have had a Home/Student package bought one-off in 2019. I have happily been using Word / Powerpoint etc but suddenly I'm being asked to 'Activate 365' Why?

Answer 1

Check if you have a trial version of Microsoft 365 installed alongside your full version of Office 2019. Uninstall the trial if you find one.

Answer 2

Hi @Jennifer Smith

Please refer to Stefan Blom's reply first. Make sure there is no Microsoft apps installed on your machine.

To check this, please go to Windows Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, check whether there is Microsoft 365 Apps shown in the list.

Click the three dots at the end and select "Uninstall" it.

If you do not find the Microsoft 365 Apps, or if this step does not work, you may use command to check Office activation information.

• Please search CMD in Windows Search Box, right-click the Command Prompt and run as administrator. Then copy and paste the command below in it, click Enter: cscript.exe "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" /dstatus;

(If you are running 32-bit Office on a 64-bit operating system),

cscript.exe "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" /dstatus.

If you find the Microsoft 365 apps information, please remove it by typing the following command with the Last 5 characters of installed product key (I replace it with XXXXX, but what you type in is what you see on your computer) in this interface:

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

(If the 32bit version of Office installed on a 64bit operation, run the following command) cscript.exe "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" /unpkey:XXXXX

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