Windows Office Product Activation MS Account Error

Windows Office Product Activation MS Account Error

What is Windows Office?

Windows Office refers to Microsoft applications such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and OneDrive.

If you want to use Windows Office at home, aside from in a business setting, you need to purchase a Windows Office license.

Nowadays, people use Office 365 (O365), a cloud version of Office, by subscribing to it annually and accessing it via a web browser. The O365 license allows up to six users for the home version, while the personal version supports one user.

Installing Office Home & Student 

I purchased the Office Home & Student 2019 version, a home/student edition, and installed it on my laptop. Recently, the monitor of that laptop broke, so I decided to install the Office software on another home laptop. 

To download the Office files, I followed the instructions and entered the URL office.com/setup into a web browser (Edge or Chrome). As shown below, after clicking the 'Start' button, I was prompted to enter my Microsoft registered account information to download and install the files. 

You can also view and install purchased products through your Microsoft account management URL. 

 

Office Login Error (Account Not Recognized)

After installation, I opened Excel, and a pop-up screen appeared asking for ID verification. I entered the account linked to Office, but the account wasn’t recognized, and I kept receiving an error saying the account could not be found. 

What was the cause? 

I discovered that this error, where the Office account was not recognized, occurred because it conflicted with the PC's Windows account.

Let’s check the desktop -> Windows key -> Settings (gear icon) -> Accounts -> Access work or school information.

How to resolve the issue

1. If an account other than your MS Office account is connected here, you need to disconnect it.
2. After disconnecting, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> SOFTWARE -> Policy -> Microsoft -> Office -> 16.0 -> Common. Ensure that the REG_SZ value is set to zero, as shown below. If there are any other types of values, they need to be deleted.

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Afterward, open one of the O365 apps (e.g., Excel), and the product will be properly activated, as shown below. 

Summary

The product activation error occurred because the PC Windows account and the Office 365 account were different, leading to a conflict that caused the account recognition error during product activation.