How to Activate Office 2013 without Product Key

No matter this is your first time or second time to install Microsoft Office 2013, without product key, how to activate Office 2013?

As we all know, Microsoft 2013 has two editions, VOL and Retail. The VOL edition is also called batch authorized version. 

The other is Retail edition, which is provided in computer shop with Office installation CD. And there are several benefits if you get Office 2013 VOL edition.

 For example, one key of VOL edition could activate a lot of computers through KMS server, while one key of Retail only activates a computer installed with Office 2013 by calling Microsoft service during installation. You would find Office 2013 VOL is convenient than Retail edition to activate.

So when we get ready to activate Office Professional 2013, we have to know which edition our computer is installed with.

Maybe you know that when we want to see the product version, we just need to open “File” – “Accounts”, and you will find product information showing product version. But this does not applies to Office 2013. No matter how many times you try, you could only see Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013. So how to look for what Office 2013 Edition is on your computer?  

Step 1: Confirm Office 2013 Edition on Computer

After you access Windows 8 computer, run CMD with administrator or account with admin privileges. Turn to installation directory of Office, and type command: cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

If what you see is “LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, RETAIL(Grace) channel, it means your computer is installed with Retail edition, otherwise, it will show “LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel to let you know this is Office 2013 VOL edition.

When you have understood which edition your computer Office is, activation will become easy. But you have to make sure Windows 8 has been activated before you active Office 2013. Because Office 2013 Retail is activated by call, so now I mainly introduce how to activate Office 2013 VOL with KMS.

However, if now the KMS server couldn’t work, take Microsoft Toolkit to activate Microsoft Office 2013.

Step 2:  Activate Office 2013 VOL with Toolkit 

1. Get Microsoft Toolkit first.
   Download here: http://goo.gl/bfl56m
2. After Microsoft Office 2013 installation, run Microsoft Toolkit.

 

You will see the following messages:

ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C

ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application is running within the valid grace period.

Even though they are error message prompting you, actually Office 2013 is activated successfully. Now you can try to run Office 2013 and experience function on it.

The above activation method is used when you first install Microsoft Office really without product key. When you want to install it on another computer, it is an available way too.

But besides this, there is another effective and guaranteed tool for you to find out product key after you forget or lost Office product key. And then activate Office with forgotten product key. It is called Product Key Finder.  You don't need to know anything about command or complex programs. Just get product key finder and click one button to find product key.