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Lost Office 2016 after Factory Reset
I purchased an XPS 13 and chose to purchase a permanent license for Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 for my computer as well.
When I received my computer, it was unable to complete the initial start-up installation process for Windows 10. (This is important because I was never able to access my product key for Microsoft Office Home and Business, nor could I assign a Microsoft e-mail account to my Office product.) After talking to Dell tech support, I was told that the start-up process of Windows on my computer was corrupted and I would have to reload a new version of Windows 10 on my computer via a USB drive. I did this and was able to load Windows. However, there was no version of Office on this new version of Windows that I had to install. I went to My Dell Downloads to download it again and the only program listed there for my computer was McAfee. I sent two e-mails to Dell asking if there was a way to recover my product key or receive a new product key but received no response.
Please, is there any way to either recover my product key or get a new one? (Or at least get a refund for what I paid for the Office program?)
Thank you very much for your help!
Crankybird
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March 7th, 2017 17:00
I ended up chatting with Microsoft tech support online. Via remote access they were able to look at the Dell invoice I pulled up for them and confirm that I had purchased Office 2016. They set up a new Office account for me using the Hotmail address I gave them, so that I would always be able to recover and re-download the program if I had another issue with Windows. It wasn't a perfect solution, but talking to Microsoft was relatively painless and quick.
I'm not sure what you're supposed to do if you have several computers for which you're responsible - it doesn't seem logical that you'd have to come up with a Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail, etc.) for all of them. It looks like Microsoft is pushing Office 365 (vs. a permanent license) for businesses, which just sounds like a pain in the rump to me!
(I hope the recommendation to talk to Microsoft is helpful to anyone else who runs into this issue!)
DBarrc
3 Posts
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March 8th, 2017 12:00
Glad you were able to work through it. My sales rep did get back to me, and provided the following link:
support.office.com/.../Office-was-purchased-with-my-Dell-PC-but-I-can-t-find-my-install-d07cf5ab-9203-4586-aae6-e27c35653dc2
It would appear this lists a two-step process, first you download an Office 2016 installer, then modify the registry (with either a fix tool, or the manual registry edit is also listed on the page). Will be testing this out next week sometime. I'll be blanking out a PC from the box, reinstalling Win10, and using this to get the MS Office downloaded/activated.
Mary G
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March 4th, 2017 08:00
Your licenses are not visible to you but are embedded and/or kept in your Microsoft acct. I suspect this is why you had trouble setting up windows. Check out this Digital Locker for your Office instead of using Dell Downloads--
www.dell.com/.../04
Mary G
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March 4th, 2017 08:00
Did you activate the new windows 10? Do that first so you can activate your Office license. Don't forget to use your Microsoft Account or sign up for a new one when you activate Windows 10. That is the key to reinstall Office since your licenses are kept on the MS servers.
Crankybird
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March 4th, 2017 18:00
Thank you for taking the time to answer! Nothing showed up for me in the Digital Locker (I was signed in) and Windows says it is activated. I've tried using both of my Microsoft accounts to sign in and find my product keys, but there's nothing there. :( I think this might be due to the fact that I couldn't finish setting up/installing Windows the first time, so I couldn't associate my Microsoft account with my Office software before having to reinstall Windows.
Please let me know if you can think of anything else I could try, and thank you again for your help!
DBarrc
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March 7th, 2017 13:00
I know exactly what you mean. I just got 10 Dell Optiplex units with the Office 2016 embedded. My first question was "Great, what happens when I reinstall, or if I wanted to blank it right now?". Searching around, I found this thread. I'm going to keep an eye here for an answer, but continue searching as well. If I find nothing, I'll reach out to my sales rep.
DBarrc
3 Posts
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March 15th, 2017 11:00
Wanted to report back, using the link above was successful.