Outlook Product Activation Failed



I’ve got several licenses for Office and Outlook but I’m not sure which one which ones I’ve used and which ones are free.

Outlook Product Activation Failed

How can I find out which license I’ve used for which computer and how can I change the key if needed?

While you could simply try one of your Product/License Keys and see if it gets accepted, it’s not a very sophisticated approach.

Outlook Product Activation Failed

The proper method to determine or change the Product Key depends on your version of Office or Outlook. However, for either version there is no need to completely reinstall Office.

Outlook Product Activation Failed

I have a problem with my MS Office 2013 that I experienced a while ago. It opens a small tab talking about the activation key and it says product activation failed and a red ribbon on the top even though I am using it for almost 6 months without experiencing that. It bothers me a lot because I don't know the activation key my dads friend do all the purchasing to my laptop and they are far. You can re-activate Office 365 or Office 2019 in a number of ways as follows. 1) Repair Office 365 or Office 2019. In Windows 7 or 8 locate “Control Panel” “Programs” “Programs and Features”. Highlight “Office 365 ProPlus” (do not click on it) and select the “ Change ” button. Select “ Quick Repair “.

  1. نحوه حل مشکل پیغام خطای Product activation failed و Activation wizard در آفیس. How to Activate Microsoft Office. همچنین شاید در هنگام فعال سازی نرم افزار آفیس با پیغام خطای Product activation failed یا Activation wizard در آفیس مواجه شوید که در روش های زیر طریقه رفع رفع مشکل.
  2. It could mean several things such as the software being expired or someone else has already used the key. It really just depends on where you got the software. If it is software you have owned for a while that doesn’t expire I would contact the ma.

Note: Office 365 installations don’t require a license key as they activate automatically when you log on to Office with your Microsoft Account. The same applies to Office 2016 and Office 2019 licenses that are linked to your Microsoft Account.

Find license keys for Office 2010, Office 2013, Office 2016 and Office 2019 via a script

Office 2010 and later include a vbs-script which will reveal the last 5 characters of your Product Key. It’s pretty safe to state that these 5 characters would already be more than enough to find out which Product Key you have used (as you should already have safely stored the full Product Key code somewhere else together with your other license information).

You can run the vbs-file in the following way;

  1. Open a command prompt. For instance via:
    • Start-> type: cmd
  2. In the command prompt, type the following:
    • Office 2016/2019 (32-bit) on a 32-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice16OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2016/2019 (32-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2016/2019 (64-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice16OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2013 (32-bit) on a 32-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2013 (32-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice15OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2013 (64-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2010 (32-bit) on a 32-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2010 (32-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice14OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
    • Office 2010 (64-bit) on a 64-bit version of Windows
      cscript 'C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14OSPP.VBS' /dstatus
  3. You should now get a screen with some license details such as the license name, type and the last 5 characters of the Product Key.


Office offers a scripted method to lookup your Product Key.

Changing the Product Key for Office 2010 / 2013 / 2016 / 2019

Changing the Product Key for msi-based installations of Office can be done directly from the Control Panel/Apps & Features or via a command line.

Product Keys for Click-to-Run based installations of Office can only be modified via the command line.

Outlook Product Activation Failed
  • Windows 10
    Start-> Settings-> Apps & Features
  • Windows 7 and Windows 8
    Start-> Control Panel-> Uninstall a Program

Here, locate your Office application and press Modify or Change. Setup will now start with the option “Enter a Product Key” which allows you to enter a different product key.

To change the Product Key via a command line, you can use the same OSPP.VBS script as mentioned before. Instead of using the /dstatus switch, you must use the /inpkey:value switch where you should replace value for your Product Key.

Changing the Product Key for Office XP/2002 / 2003 / 2007

Changing the Product Key for Office 2007 or previous requires you to go into the Registry.

Outlook product activation failed 2013
  1. Browse to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice<version>Registration
  2. Now is a good point to make a backup of that key;
    Right click on the key, choose Export… and save the file to for instance your Desktop.
  3. Expand the Registration key in the Registry and you’ll see one or more sub keys which contain a lot of characters between curly brackets: { and }
    Each sub key stands for an installed Office application.
    The proper name for this identifier string is called a “GUID”.
  4. Click on the sub key to reveal its contents in the right pane.
    The SuitName key will reveal the name of the package that you have installed. If you have multiple GUID sub keys listed, you can use this key name to determine for which installation you’ll be changing the Product Key.
  5. In the pane on the right, delete the following keys:
    • DigitalProductID
    • ProductID
  6. Close the Registry and start Outlook (or any other Office application); you’ll now be prompted to fill in your Product Key and activate Office again.


Delete the DigitalProductID and ProductID key to reset your Product Key.

Outlook Product Activation Failed 2016

Determine the Product Key with a 3rd party tool

Determining the used Product Key when using Office 2007 or previous isn’t directly supported by Microsoft. However, you can use a little program called Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder to find out your used Product Key. Simply install and run the application to find out the Product Key (note: during the installation, there will be a prompt to also install a sponsored application which you can choose not to install).

Microsoft Outlook Product Activation Failed

Another free application which you can use is Belarc Advisor. This application does a bit more thorough scan of your computer for which it generates a report that also includes license keys for several of your installed applications. If you are in a large corporate network, you might want to disconnect your network connection as it will also try to build a network map which may cause the application to appear to hang at the “checking the local network of this computer” stage.