Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Installing Microsoft Office 2013 with many licenses

Leave it to Microsoft to screw up a working system...

New for Office 2013 is a brand new method for installing office.
Whether you have created a installation DVD or install through a web browser, the installation procedure follows the same basic really detoured guideline.

During the installation process after you enter the product key, Office 2013 installation utility (again, doesn't matter how you install, web or DVD) retrieves the newly entered product key and populates the product on the screen without any distinguishing identification of that product.  Assuming you only have one product, this process is very simple. If you have more than one product key, say 29 product keys like I do, this process is a very annoying game of russian roulette.

The list that populates with your newely entered product key displays the name of the office product over and over again depending on how many instances of office you have registered under your account.  You have to guess to see which office key is the most recent office key you have just entered.

If you have installed a microsoft office product that has been registered and activated on one machine and you mistakenly clicked on the wrong office line, you now have the possibility of an office install that would not be activated and you will have to uninstall and reinstall to get the new key working.

I have a very long solution that may help in this matter.
The following is followed after the first installation and going onto multiples which now involves guessing.
Make a table that looks like this:

Initial Product Key                  New Product Key                  Computer Identifier             Line Number

While keeping track of which product key goes to which computer, go to https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/MyAccount.aspx
and click "Install from a disc" under one of the products, click "I have a disc", then click view your product key.
This key is NOT going to be the same key you have entered in from the office installation.  It appears they create a whole new product key that stems from the original.  Write this product key as the replacement for the old product key that was used in the office installation and will be called the New Product key in our table.

In your records, find the line# (literally count the instances) in your "My Account page" that does not contain a previously recorded product key.

Using the following line in command prompt to record the last 5 characters of your product key.

For 32 bit Windows:
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

For 64 bit Windows (assuming you are using 32 bit Office):
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

Record this product key with the computer identifier so you have a link from that computer to the product key.

Using this method there will still be guessing, but a lot less of it.

When you need to change the product key, here are the commands for that

For 32 bit Windows:
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:yourkeygoeshere

For 64 bit Windows (assuming you are using 32 bit Office):
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:yourkeygoeshere

If you are reading this and have not bought 2013 but are thinking of doing so, please don't.
Buy or download anything else, MS Office 2010 or lower, Libre office, Open office...

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