I am unable to use my Office365 on my son's computer

Question

I have two PC's at home. One is a Macintosh laptop. The other is a desktop running Windows 10. (Not sure what build of Win10.). I have office 365 and wanted to do some things with barcodes in Excel for an inventory spreadsheet that seems to not work on the Macintosh PC. I went to my son's Win10 PC and launched Excel on the web using my outlook.com login. I then launched Excel desktop. It kept telling me something about Hello. What is that? How do I get around this? I just want to run my authenticated Excel desktop on his PC.

Answer 1

I'm still confused as to what Window Hello even is. (I was a Windows admin from about 1993 to 2022.). I figure I just authenticate Office against my account.

Answer 2

I am just using my son's account. The logged in account shouldn't matter. I'm launching office, which uses my O365 account. (I still miss Office 2000, the best version.)

Answer 3

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

May I please confirm whether you are signed in to an administrator account on the Windows 10 PC? How many user accounts are set up on that PC, and are you currently using a local account or an administrator account?

To check this, go to Start > Settings > Accounts > Your info. There you should see whether the account is listed as an administrator or a local account.

Please make sure you sign in with an administrator account and then run the Excel desktop app.

If you are still being prompted for a Windows Hello PIN, enter the same 4‑digit PIN that you use on the Windows sign‑in screen and see if you are then able to edit your Excel workbooks.

Answer 4

It sounds like you're experiencing issues with using Excel on your son's Windows 10 PC, particularly related to authentication. The message about "Hello" typically refers to Windows Hello, a security feature that allows users to log in using biometric authentication or PINs. If you're trying to use Excel on a different computer, ensure that you are signed in with the same Microsoft account that has the Office 365 subscription.

To resolve the issue:

1. Make sure that your son's PC has the Office desktop app installed and that it is updated to the latest version.
2. Sign in to the Excel desktop app using your Outlook.com account that has the Office 365 subscription.
3. If prompted by Windows Hello, you may need to either set it up or bypass it by using your Microsoft account credentials instead.
4. If you continue to have issues, consider checking the Office support page for troubleshooting steps related to sign-in problems.

If you are still unable to access the desktop version, you may want to use the web version of Excel as a temporary solution until the issue is resolved.