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Hello community!
I'm dealing with a very frustrating issue trying to activate a very expensive copy of Microsoft Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024. Every time I open the Access application, it prompts for a product key:
So I go ahead and enter the product key provided to me FROM the Microsoft 365 Admin center. Everything seems fine and it seems to activate:
NOPE! As soon as I reboot to run updates or log back into Windows, I get prompted with the same annoying window to activate my product. Now something to note, this only happens when using Access. When using any other the Office applications, like Word, I don't get prompted to activate. Upon checking the activation status from within Word or Excel, I can see that it is always activated. But notice how it says "Microsoft Office Home and Business 2024":
Why is it that only Access is recognized as a Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 product, while the rest of the suite seems to appear as a Home and Business 2024 suite? I have the invoice to prove I paid for the LTSC version, I have the LTSC key in my Microsoft 365 Admin portal, why can't I activated the one product I actually need?
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I agree this seems to be an Access-specific problem. To work around it, I would assume that there are remnants of a previous installation on your machine, and I would try to remove those. Control Panel > Programs and Features.
One alternative is to use Microsoft Hyper-V to create a Virtual Machine which by definition is a virgin machine and the registration may work better. Not a final solution perhaps, but at least it would confirm that Access can be registered on such system.
Hello Tom and Huy,
Thank you both for the reply. I did confirm that Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 is the only office product installed, so I'm not sure where the Home and Business:
Is there somewhere in the registry I can check to see if there are other Office products remnants somewhere?
Something I did notice during my troubleshooting is that it seems to only happen to this one user under their Windows profile. If I log in as another user, the activation seems to stick. When this specific user logs in, the activation seems to break. Unfortunately this is the one user who uses this computer.
Huy, I'll try your command prompt activation suggestion.
Thank you.
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Dear @Daryl Gorton,
Good day!
If the above steps do not work, kindly try these steps:
Clear Cached Credentials for the Affected User
Sometimes Office stores activation tokens or credentials per user. Try to run these in Command Prompt (Run as Administrator):
cmdkey /list
Then remove any Office-related credentials:
cmdkey /delete:<target>
Reset Office Licensing for That User
Run these commands in:
cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16"
cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus
cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:<Last 5 characters of installed key>
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:<Your LTSC Key>
cscript ospp.vbs /act
Delete Office Activation Cache
Press Windows + R > Type: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\Licensing
Delete all contents inside the Licensing folder.
This clears any corrupted or stale activation tokens that might be causing the issue.
Restart the computer.
Open Microsoft Access.
If prompted, re-enter the Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 product key.
Optionally, re-run the activation script:
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:<Your LTSC Key>
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /act
Create a New Windows Profile
If the issue persists, consider creating a fresh Windows profile for the user and migrating their data. This often resolves profile-specific activation issues.
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Dear @Daryl Gorton,
Good day! Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.
We apologize for any inconvenience you may encounter when using our services/ products. Based on your description:
Why this happens
Best practice is one licensing type per device. Mixing Retail (consumer) and Volume (LTSC) on the same machine often leads to the inconsistent branding/activation you’re seeing. The most stable fix is to standardize the install.
Kindly try these following steps:
Check Installed Office Versions:
Use Volume Activation Tools:
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:<Your LTSC key> cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /act" /act
Verify Key Type:
Reinstall Office LTSC Only:
Here are some references:
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