Reactivation of MS Office 2016

Question

Reactivation of MS Office 2016

Donald Dickstein 0

I am moving from a Windows 10 system (OLD) to a computer with Windows 11 (NEW). I would like to transfer my MS Office 2016 license to my NEW computer. Using the Control Panel, I uninstalled Office 2016 from my OLD computer. From the Microsoft WEB page I installed Office 2016 on my NEW computer and then tried to activate it using my License Key but got a failed license key error. I then reinstalled Office 2016 on my OLD computer and was able to activate it without having to supply a license key. This implies to me that even though I initially uninstalled Office 2016 from the OLD computer the License Key remained onboard. QUESTION ... how do I purge the License Key from the OLD computer after uninstalling Office 2016 so that the activation process on the NEW computer will not think the License Key is already in use elsewhere. Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered!!

2 answers

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Answer 1

To remove the license key from your old computer after uninstalling Office 2016, you can use the Office Software Protection Platform script (ospp.vbs). This script allows you to manage the activation of Office products, including removing the product key from the system. Here’s how you can do it:

Open an elevated Command Prompt: Right-click on the Start button, select "Command Prompt (Admin)" or "Windows PowerShell (Admin)".
Navigate to the Office installation folder: Depending on your installation, you might need to go to one of the following directories:
- For 64-bit Office on a 64-bit OS: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16
- For 32-bit Office on a 64-bit OS: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16
Run the ospp.vbs script: Type the following command and press Enter:

cscript ospp.vbs /removekey

   This command will remove the product key from the system.
4. **Verify the removal**: You can check the license status by running:

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

This will show you the current activation status and confirm if the key has been removed.

After performing these steps, you should be able to activate Office 2016 on your new computer without any issues related to the old installation.

References:

Answer 2

Hi Donald,

Thank you for posting, I am here to help. I’m Sorry you are having this problem. Usually, the Office suite which comes preinstalled on the computer would be an OEM License and cannot be transferred to a different computer.

If you want to install Office 2016 on a new computer, you first need to uninstall it from the existing computer, then install and activate it on the new computer.

If you face any issues in uninstalling Office 2016, you may run Fix itfrom the following article to remove the Office suite.

Please check this link for further assistance:

Uninstall Microsoft 365 or Office from a PC

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-microsoft-365-or-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

If you get any issues or err in activating the Office suite after installation, you may try activating over the telephone as mentioned in the following article.

Activate Office using the Activation wizard

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/activate-office-using-the-activation-wizard-1144e0de-e849-496e-8e33-ed6fb1b34202?ui=en-US&rs=en-CA&ad=CA

I hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if you have any further questions If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer".

Best regards,

Jansher

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Reactivation of MS Office 2016

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