Management of Office LTSC Standard 2021 licenses

Question

Management of Office LTSC Standard 2021 licenses

Lars Andersson 1

In our community we have an Office LTSC Standard 2021-license for up to 25 users.
We have started to "consume" them, and we can see how the number of remaining available user licenses is counting down.

One user installed Office 2021 by mistake. Then he uninstalled it.
But we can not see that the counter bumped up again.

This raises the question on how to handle licenses for users that are no longer entitled to use the Office 2021 software.

Two questions:

How do we get a list of the users currently "owning" a license?
How do we or a member "give back" or release a license, so that it can be used by another member?

Rgds
Lars

abbodi86 4,041 Reputation points

2022-01-26T11:42:33.883+00:00

MAK count don't bump up upon uninstalling (un-using), only Microsoft itself can do it via official support case

3 answers

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abbodi86 4,041 Reputation points

2022-01-26T11:42:33.883+00:00

MAK count don't bump up upon uninstalling (un-using), only Microsoft itself can do it via official support case

Answer 1

Hi,
As far as I know, VAMT can manage the activation of Office. It has the following functions, here is a screenshot::

Since VAMT is not within my knowledge, you can refer to this link: introduction-vamt
Hope this article helps you.

Best regards，

Ceasar Chen

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Answer 2

Lars Andersson 1

Thank you Ceasar Chen

VAMT seems to be intended for the enterprise environment, right?

But our "community" is comprised of a number of users each running their own home computer.
By distributing an "Office deployment" set consisting of an XML file and a Setup-utility we
can install Office 2021 on our computers. The XML file contains info about a MAK product key
and the version of Office 2021 we want to install.

I have not been able to find any description on how we can manage (list & release) these licenses.

Lars

Ceasar Chen_MSFT 4,481 Reputation points

2022-01-27T10:02:14.42+00:00

Hi,
Yes, VAMT is suitable for enterprise environment, the requirement for using VAMT is to be able to access the clients.
Because your users work from home computers, it is difficult to manage them uniformly without joining a domain.

Since the MAK key is activated based on the device, the number of activations will be deducted every time it is activated, and it cannot be released. However, there may be other methods to obtain additional activations.
For details, you can refer to this link: how-to-deactivate-a-mak-office-license

Alternatively you can call the OSPP.VBS command to view, uninstall and install client product keys, but this requires more management costs.
Since the MAK activation is used, it is necessary to call the OSPP.VBS command on each user's computer to check the Office license, and check the last five-characters key to determine whether the user has used the MAK key,but these can not be presented in the form of a report.
For OSPP.VBS scripts, please refer to this article: tools-to-manage-volume-activation-of-office
Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2022-02-03T08:53:18.077+00:00

Hi @Lars Andersson
Please check whether CeasarChenMSFT-3458's suggestions are helpful.

Answer 3

Lars Andersson 1

Thank you Ceasar Chen, and sorry for the delay in this feedback!

The clue of the first link (how-to-deactivate....) I interpret to be that one cannot de-activate a consumed MAK license.
Instead you have to call your MS support to increase your max-no-of-licenses.

The second link about OSPP.VBS is interesting, in particular the /unpkey:valuecommand. Can that command bump the counter up again?
But we have not been able to use it, because on the computer where Office 2021 was erraneously installed/uninstalled,
the folder where the OSPP.VBS should reside is no longer there, it was removed during the uninstall.

Still, I am not convinced. When we assess the number of remaining licenses we login to the MS licensing site with our credentials.
In the description of the OSPP.VBS syntax I see no corresponding signin process.
How is it supposed to work in the end?

Regards
Lars

Ceasar Chen_MSFT 4,481 Reputation points

2022-02-16T09:31:18.223+00:00

Hi, @Lars Andersson
OSPP.VBS /unpkey:value is used to uninstall the Office product key on the user's computer. After uninstallation, the number of licenses remains unchanged, and there is no relationship between them.
OSPP.VBS does not need to log in, it only needs to have administrator rights when running CMD.
OSPP.VBS is a script tool located in the Office installation file. It can activate Office, view Office licenses, uninstall product keys, etc. Features.

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Management of Office LTSC Standard 2021 licenses

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