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 Windows OS Hub / Microsoft Office / How to Check the Activation Status of MS Office 2021, 2019, and 365

March 17, 2024 Microsoft OfficePowerShell

How to Check the Activation Status of MS Office 2021, 2019, and 365

In this article, we’ll show how to check the license type and activation status of Microsoft Office 2021/2019/2016 and Microsoft 365 (ex-Office 365) on Windows computers. You can check the license type and activation status from the graphical interface of any MS Office app, or you can use PowerShell to find out whether Office is activated on a local or remote computer.


Contents:
  • Checking the License Type and Activation Status of Microsoft Office
  • Check Microsoft Office Activation Status with PowerShell
  • Microsoft Office Keeps Asking for Activation

Checking the License Type and Activation Status of Microsoft Office

Check the activation status of the Microsoft Office 2021/2019/2016 or Microsoft 365 copy installed on your computer directly from the GUI. Open any Office app (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and select File -> Account . The “Product Activated” caption indicates that your copy of Office is activated. If you see a message that says “Product Activation Required“, then your instance of MS Office needs to be activated.

Checking Office Activation Status from GUI

To activate MS Office, enter the product key or sign in with your Microsoft 365 account (if the license is linked to the  Azure account). A Multiple Activation Key (MAK) or an internal MS Office KMS server can be used to activate Volume Office Edition for enterprise customers

You can use the built-in ospp.vbs script to get detailed information about the type and status of MS Office activation from the command prompt.

  • Office 32-bit (x86): CD "%SystemDrive%\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16
  • Office 64-bit (x64): CD "%SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16"

Check the Office activation status with the following command:

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

ospp.vbs /dstatus check activation status

The script returned:

  • Microsoft Office 2016 ProPlus volume edition is installed (Office16ProPlusVL)
  • LICENSE STATUS: ---LICENSED—
  • Activation performed on the KMS server ( KMS machine name: )

The license will be valid for 176 days (REMAINING GRACE). If the host can contact the KMS server, the license is automatically renewed for 180 days every 7 days (KMS Activation FAQ).

PRODUCT ID: 00339-10000-00000-AA224
SKU ID: d450596f-894d-49e0-966a-fd39ed4c4c64
LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
BETA EXPIRATION: 01.01.1601
LICENSE STATUS: ---LICENSED---
REMAINING GRACE: 176 days (253510 minute(s) before expiring)
Last 5 characters of installed product key: WFG99
Activation Type Configuration: ALL
KMS machine name from DNS: woshub.com:1688
KMS machine registry override defined: woshub.com:1688
Activation Interval: 120 minutes
Renewal Interval: 10080 minutes
KMS host caching: Enabled

The results may contain:

LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16O365ProPlusR_Grace edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, RETAIL (Grace) channel
LICENSE STATUS:  ---OOB_GRACE---
ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application is running within the valid grace period.

This means that the copy of Microsoft 365 on your computer is installed in evaluation mode (MS Office trial mode).

OOB_GRACE mode of office 365

There may be some other data in the LICENSE NAME instead of the KMS_Client edition. For example:

  • MAK edition — MAK activation key is used;
  • Retail edition – a retail product activated with a retail key;
  • Subscription (TIMEBASED_SUB channel) – subscription-based version of MS Office (time-based).

If the command returns <No installed product keys detected>, then there are no Office licenses on this device.

ospp.vbs - no office installed product keys detected

Check Microsoft Office Activation Status with PowerShell

You can use PowerShell to list the Office licenses that are installed on a computer:

Get-CimInstance SoftwareLicensingProduct| where {$_.name -like "*office*"}|select name,licensestatus

This command showed that there are two Office licenses installed on the computer, one of which is activated (LicenseStatus = 1).

Get-CimInstance SoftwareLicensingProduct office licenses

Convert the numeric Office activation status code to a text description:

enum Licensestatus{
Unlicensed = 0
Licensed = 1
Out_Of_Box_Grace_Period = 2
Out_Of_Tolerance_Grace_Period = 3
Non_Genuine_Grace_Period = 4
Notification = 5
Extended_Grace = 6
}
Get-CimInstance -ClassName SoftwareLicensingProduct | where {$_.name -like "*office*"}| select Name, ApplicationId, @{N='LicenseStatus'; E={[LicenseStatus]$_.LicenseStatus}}

get office license activation status with powershell script

You can check the MS Office activation status on a remote computer:

Get-CimInstance -ComputerName PC33220de SoftwareLicensingProduct| where {$_.name -like "*office*"}|select name,licensestatus

In an Active Directory domain, you can use a PowerShell script to remotely check the Office activation status on computers in a specific OU:

enum Licensestatus{
Unlicensed = 0
Licensed = 1
Out_Of_Box_Grace_Period = 2
Out_Of_Tolerance_Grace_Period = 3
Non_Genuine_Grace_Period = 4
Notification = 5
Extended_Grace = 6
}
$Comps=Get-ADComputer -Filter {enabled -eq "true"} -Filter -SearchBase ‘OU=Munich,OU=DE,DC=woshub,DC=com’
$result=@()
Foreach ($comp in $comps)
{
If ((Test-NetConnection $comp.name -WarningAction SilentlyContinue).PingSucceeded -eq $true)
{
$result+= Get-CimInstance -ClassName SoftwareLicensingProduct -ComputerName $comp.name| where {$_.name -like "*office*"}| select PSComputerName,Name, ApplicationId, @{N='LicenseStatus'; E={[LicenseStatus]$_.LicenseStatus}}
}
}
$result|Out-GridView

  • The Get-ADComputer cmdlet from the AD_PowerShell module is used to get a list of computers in a specific OU.
  • The Test-NetConnection cmdlet uses ICMP ping to check computer availability;
  • The script displays the result in a graphical Out-GridView.

powershell script: check office licenses on remote computers in active directory domain

Similarly, you can use PowerShell to check the Windows activation status on remote computers.

You can use the new built-in PoweShell script vnextdiag.ps1 to check the activation status of Microsoft 365 Apps or Office 2021.

  1. Navigate to the directory where Office is installed: cd 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16'
  2. Change the PowerShell Execution Policy settings to allow scripts to run in the current session: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
  3. Run the command: .\vNextDiag.ps1 -list vnextdiag.ps1 - new PowerShell script to check Office license

The script will return the license type (User|Subscription or Device|Perpetual), the names of the Office products installed, the license status, the license (subscription) period, the user’s e-mail address and tenant ID, and whether the Shared Computer Licensing mode is enabled.

Microsoft Office Keeps Asking for Activation

If you had a trial version of Office preinstalled on your computer (for example, on OEM devices), you may still be prompted for activation after you have installed and activated your copy of Office. The following activation pop-up wizard appears when you try to start any Office app.

Let’s get started

  • Try – Get a free trial of Office 365
  • Buy – Buy Office from the Microsoft Store
  • Activate – Enter your Product Key or sign in

Remove Office 2016 Activation Window: Let’s Get Started

To get rid of this MS Office pop-up activation prompt, you must delete the registry keys that were left after the previous version of Office was uninstalled. The easiest way to remove these registry keys is to use PowerShell:

Remove-Item –Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM” –Recurse
Remove-Item –Path “HKLM:\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM” –Recurse

removing key hklm\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM

Just close all Office applications and start them again. The Office activation notification will disappear.

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3 comments

Paicy March 26, 2021 - 5:48 am

While removing activation notification In regedit there is no oem folder. How to fix it?

Reply
Richard Butler November 24, 2021 - 8:23 am

First time I’ve seen a listing of the old office licenses on my machine using Get-CimInstance SoftwareLicensingProduct, any idea of how to delete the unwanted ones?

Reply
Rmj March 13, 2022 - 10:13 am

Can anybody shed light on this question from Microsoft Community?

Link here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/product-activated-not-showing-in-office-after/e51aea8d-e305-4e47-8785-75cceddb68c4

Reply

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