Office activation required

[Haole Boy]

Aloha. I'm in the process of setting up a new Win 8.1 machine for a customer (his old one died). He had Office 2013 Professional Plus on the old PC.

I found the install file for Office 2013 in the downloads folder of the old PC, and installed it on the new PC. But, I can't get Office to accept the license key I found on the old machine. I copy it from the license key output I created and paste it into the appropriate window on the new PC. This gives me a green check mark next to it after I do this, and I click 'Install', but it still shows that activation is required.

FYI - the old Win 7 machine was previously serviced by a shop that is now out of business. They somehow messed up the install of Office that was on the machine and installed Office 2013 on it. I assume that they were able to activate it. But I'm not sure if they had some sort of volume licensing agreement and if I need a outlook.com userid and password to get this activated.

Any ideas?

Mahalo,

Harry Z.

 

[Porthos]

Good bet it was a dodgy copy.

hey somehow messed up the install of Office that was on the machine and installed Office 2013 on it

 

[johnrobert]

Since its Office 2013 Professional Plus it will be a boot leg.
You will have to go to the dark side to activate it or better yet don't bother

My Digital Life

 

[nlinecomputers]

Office 2013 doesn't store the key on the machine. You'll need his Microsoft Account to retrieve his key.

 

[Thedog]

Microsoft and their stupid licensing system again, like someone said the key is stored on an MS account that was forcefully created in order to get it running in the first place. The second option is that it's a volume license and then you have to get the key from microsoft volume licensing service center:
https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/default.aspx
But that of course requires a MS account as well.

The third option that it's a pirated version and then you probably have to run some stuff that bypasses the registration.

The best option would be if MS had some tool where you could just type in a key and it would tell you if it was valid, to what version etc. So for example if there is a pirate key it would show up as "non-valid, this key is known to be spread through piracy" or similar message.

 

[Markverhyden]

Office 2013 doesn't store the key on the machine. You'll need his Microsoft Account to retrieve his key.

Yep, beginning with 2013 the key is not stored on the computer so you need the original key or, hopefully if it was done, the M$ account. And the additional bad news is they are much stricter about activation's. There is a chance they will deny it even it's only the second time.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Yep, beginning with 2013 the key is not stored on the computer so you the original key or, hopefully if it was done, the M$ account. And the additional bad news is they are much stricter about activation's. There is a chance they will deny it even it's only the second time.

Versus the Office 365 version which many licenses allow for up to 5 devices that you can install and uninstall at whim and with great ease. Guess where M$ wants you to be?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Office 2013 doesn't store the key on the machine. You'll need his Microsoft Account to retrieve his key.

To clarify, The key is NOT stored on the machine. Only the last 5 digits and an activation code, which is tied to both the date of install and machine hash. So it is pointless to copy. Any code that Produkey or Magic Jelly Bean got for you is flat wrong.

 

[johnrobert]

I use UVKPortable pressing system info it gives me the serial of my Office 2013

 

[nlinecomputers]

I use UVKPortable pressing system info it gives me the serial of my Office 2013

Have you actually tested that? Several tools seem to report a key on my Tobe wrong.

 

[Haole Boy]

Thank you all for your replies. I did not know about the license key for Office 2013 not being stored on the computer. FWIW, I used Recover Keys to extract the license key info from the old (offline) system.

The customer is 90 years old and I'm trying to make the new machine look as much like the old machine as possible. Looks like he gets to learn Libre Office....

Mahalo,

Harry Z

 

[nlinecomputers]

Recover Keys will not do it: https://recover-keys.com/kb/office-2013-keys.html

You might point him to Office Online.

Also, if he has Office 2013 Pro Plus it is very likely he has Office 365. Have you tried to login to office.com?

 

[fencepost]

I have a system where I'm trying to track down the activation info for Office 2013 Home & Business on a laptop that I'm trying to get upgraded to Windows 10. Upgrading fails with a completely useless code, though I haven't yet tried an upgrade created with the Media Creation Tool. I may give OPA-Backup a whack on it if I end up doing a clean install, worst case otherwise I have a recovery image so I can always roll it back to the existing 8.1Pro.