Word – How to change the saved Office 2013 Product Key

microsoft wordmicrosoft-officeproduct-keysoftware-activation

I installed Office 2013 and put in the product key when it asked me to. After typing in the product key, it allowed me to use MS Word once. After I closed MS Word and went to reopen it the next day, it said the product key I entered was incorrect (maybe I typed it in incorrectly). It asked me to change it. I tried opening MS word and clicking File -> Account but was unable to change the product key from there.

I then went to control panel -> uninstall a program and then clicked on Office 2013 and clicked 'change' but it gave me no option to change the product key. So I decided to uninstall and reinstall it.

I uninstalled it and then went to reinstall it with the setup file and now it is giving me an error saying:

Error 25004. The product key you entered cannot be used on this machine. This is most likely due to previous Office 2013 trials being installed.

The first product key I entered seems to be saved somewhere. How do I delete / change it?

Best Answer

Depending on the combination of Office 2013 and Window version you might have to change the path to Program Files(x86)

Here is the sequence that should work for (x64 Windows -> x64 Office) and (x86 Windows -> x86 Office):

  1. Open cmd prompt

  2. Run the following commands:

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /dstatus

Note down the partial product key(s) (there can be multiple)

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /unpkey:partial_key

This will uninstall an installed product key with partial product key you noted earlier. Uninstall all of the keys.

Now you should be able to add it from Control Panel the usual way. Or you can use:

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /inpkey:new_full_key

Then you need to activate it.

cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /act

Just for update: Still works in Office 2016, you just need to change "Office15" to "Office16".

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