If you’ve installed Office and opened Word or Excel — but it says Microsoft 365, or asks you to sign in without letting you activate your key — there may be an old or incorrect license still saved on your computer.
This guide shows how to remove leftover Office keys, whether you’re fixing this issue or just want to reset Office licensing on your device.
Before you continue: Try logging out of your account first. Open Word, go to the Account tab, and click Sign out. Then restart Word, try activating again, and see if it works. If it doesn’t, proceed with the steps below.
Step-by-step: How to remove old Office product keys
Follow these steps carefully.
1. Sign out and close all Office apps
Open any Office program (like Word)
Sign out from the account (if logged in)
Close all Office windows completely
2. Open the Command Prompt
Press Windows key + R on your keyboard
In the window that appears, type: cmd and press Enter
This opens a black command window.
3. Find the correct folder for Office
In the Command Prompt, type one of the following (depending on your installation):
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16
If you get an error or the folder doesn’t exist, try this instead:
cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16
Then press Enter after either command.
4. List the active Office product keys
Type the following command and press Enter:
cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus
This shows a list of all Office product keys currently installed. Look at the last five characters of each key — you’ll use these in the next step.
5. Remove the product key
To remove a key, type the following command, replacing xxxxx with the last five digits of the key you want to remove:
cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:xxxxx
You can repeat this for each key you’d like to remove.
6. Restart your computer
Once all old keys are removed, restart your PC to finish the cleanup.
7. Reactivate Office
After restarting:
Open any Office program
Enter your correct product key when prompted, or go to Account > Activation to enter it manually.
Still seeing the wrong version?
If Office still shows the wrong version (e.g. Office 2021 instead of Office 2024), you can try this alternative method: Fix Office showing as the wrong version