We recently ran across an issue in which a user was continuously being prompted to activate Microsoft Office 2016. We determined the issue to be related to the presence of multiple keys. Since Office 2013, Microsoft has included a helpful VBscript called Office Software Protection Platform (ospp.vbs). You can lean more about the tool and all of it’s options here. Below are the steps we took to resolve this user’s issue.

 

Depending on if you installed the 32 or 64 bit version of Office, the script can be located in the following directories:

For 32 bit versions: %installdir%\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\

For 64 bit versions: %installdir%\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\

 

We started out by determining which keys were installed:

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

 

We noticed two keys were installed: the client’s Microsoft Office 2016 Standard (MAK) key and an Office 365 Home Premium (likely trial) key. We removed both keys:

cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:<last-5-characters-of-the-key-to-be-removed>

 

We then added back in the correct key:

cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:<xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx>

 

And finally activated the newly entered key:

cscript ospp.vbs /act

 

We were able to confirm the key was active by navigating to File > Account from one of the Office applications.