Office licence activation
Office 2016 is end of life. First line response to a request for reactivation should be to uninstall it and install Office 365 which is the supported version of Office in the department.
However it is still possible to activate a licence for Office 2016 against the University KMS (Microsoft licence server). The server changed in 2022, so it is becoming more common for installations to require reactivation.
Instructions
If you do not run the command prompt with elevated rights, it will not work.
From an elevated command line you need to navigate to the Office installation directory and run a script. This could be in Program Files or Program Files (x86) - it is worth looking for the file before you start so that you navigate to the correct directory.
Search for “CMD” and right-click the command prompt and select "Run as Administrator"
Navigate to the directory where the script is held
For 32-bit versions of Office on 32-bit versions of Windows or 64-bit versions of Office 2013 on 64-bit versions of Windows the script is normally located in the following folder:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16
To change to the folder type the following in an administrative command prompt window:
cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16"
If you are installing the 32-bit version of Office on 64-bit versions of Windows the script is normally located in the following folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16
To change to the folder type the following in an administrative command prompt window:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16"
NOTE: The quotes are needed to cope with empty spaces in the folder names.
Activating office
The volume license version available from Pheonix Software comes with the KMS key already installed with the product. You will only need to change the key if you want to convert from KMS to MAK activation. See the section below Converting from KMS to MAK Activation.
Note: Systems which will be away from the CUDN for over 180 days in a continuous period should use Office with a MAK key, not KMS.
Setting the activation server and activating
To use KMS activation you will need to set the system to use the UIS Volume License Activation Server (uis-kms01.blue.cam.ac.uk) using the ospp.vbs script. Navigate to the location of this script (see section above) and use the following commands:
To set the KMS activation server enter (or copy) the following commands:
cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:uis-kms01.blue.cam.ac.uk
Once the KMS server has been set you can activate Office by entering:
cscript ospp.vbs /act