If you’ve installed your Volume licensed Microsoft Office copy with MAK key and now want to activate it using the corporate KMS server—this article will show you the way on how to do it.

The Differences Between MAK and KMS Keys

Oct 07, 2015 Office 365 and Office 2016 are pretty much doing away with the Product key in favor of a user login. Each user will have 5 activations and as long as they have separate user profiles you can set this up once and as the use the Office applications they will be required to login at least once a month to keep it activated without login prompts. 'You need to activate Office for Mac within X days' after activating already. Microsoft is aware of and currently working on this issue. If you've activated Office for Mac 2016 but are still seeing a message that says 'You need to activate Office for Mac within X days,' please try these steps to resolve your issue: Run the License Removal Tool.

First of all, you need to understand how the MAK Office activation differs from KMS. Microsoft offers two types of activation of its products to corporate customers under the Volume License program—MAK (Multiple Activation Key) and KMS (Key Management Service).

• MAK — this is the key to activate the Office through contacting Microsoft. Activation can be done automatically via the Internet or by phone. MAK is similar to a regular Windows retail key, which is sold in stores. One MAK key can activate several Office copies in the organization. The limit depends on the type of company license agreement (Open, Select, Enterprise Agreement, and so on);
• KMS — the key is used only to activate the KMS server, and on all the computers that have installed the same public GVLK key. GVLK is a Microsoft public key unique to each Office/Windows edition, which is used by all corporate customers to activate volume license Office copies on the local KMS server or using the Active Directory Based activation. After installing such a GVLK key, clients automatically discover the KMS server in the domain and are activated on it.

Using OSPP.VBS Script to Manage Office Product Key

To manage the activation of all versions of Microsoft Office (starting from Office 2007) it distro includes a special vbs script—OSPP.VBS (Office Software Protection Platform), which is located in the directory with the MS Office installed. The location of the ospp.vbs file depends on the version of Office and Windows type (32 or 64 bit; see a table below).

READ ALSODeploy MS Office 2016/2019/365 Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

Office Version	Windows bitness	Path to OSPP.VBS
Office 2010	32-bit	C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice14
Office 2010	64-bit	C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice14
Office 2013	32-bit	C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15
Office 2013	64-bit	C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice15
Office 2016/Office 2019	32-bit	C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice16
Office 2016/Office 2019	64-bit	C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16

To change the MAK key of the installed MS Office copy to KMS, you need to perform the following actions:

1. Run the elevated cmd and navigate to the Office installation folder (in this example we use the x86 Office 2016 version on the Windows10 x64 desktop);

   Tip1. To run the ospp.vbs script, you must specify the script server cscript executable each time.

   Tip2. In order to not to go into the Office directory with the ospp.vbs utility each time, you can add the path to it to the PATH environment variable: set path=%path%; C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16.
   You can verify that the installed Office copy is activated with the KMS key. Run the command cscript OSPP.VBS /dstatus and verify the following lines are listed:

2. To change the current Office product key, you need to use the following command:

   XXXXX must be replaced with the corresponding GVLK product key from the table below. In this example for Office 2016 Pro Plus, the command to change the KMS key looks like this:

3. To immediately activate a copy of Office on the KMS server, run the following command:

   The <Product activation successful> line indicates that the KMS server activated this copy of Office.

Note. For successful Office KMS activation, the port 1688 (by default) shouldn’t be blocked between the client, and the KMS server. To allow outgoing traffic on the client, use the following PowerShell command:

On the KMS server, the command must allow incoming traffic on port TCP 1688:

The current status of MS Office activation can be obtained with the command:

As you can see, the result of the command shows that this copy of Office is activated on the KMS server (Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel), and 180 days left until the end of activation (every 7 days the client will automatically renew the activation for another 180 days).

Note. Please note that the activation status is not displayed anywhere in the graphical interface of the Office apps.

In case there is no SRV entry in domain DNS that allows clients to find the KMS server, the address, and port of the KMS server, it can be set manually:

You can also try to find the address and port of the KMS server published in DNS using the

In the future, you can switch back to the KMS Autodiscover mode of the KMS server through DNS:

The OSPP.VBS script also allows you to control the Office activation on a remote computer over the network, the format of the command is:

KMS (GVLK) Keys for MS Office

This table contains the list of Generic Volume License Key for different Office versions:

MS Office edition	KMS Setup Key (GVLK keys)
Office 2019 Professional Plus	NMMKJ-6RK4F-KMJVX-8D9MJ-6MWKP
Office 2019 Standard	6NWWJ-YQWMR-QKGCB-6TMB3-9D9HK
Office 2016 Professional Plus	XQNVK-8JYDB-WJ9W3-YJ8YR-WFG99
Office 2016 Standard	JNRGM-WHDWX-FJJG3-K47QV-DRTFM
Office 2013 Professional Plus	YC7DK-G2NP3-2QQC3-J6H88-GVGXT
Office 2013 Standard	KBKQT-2NMXY-JJWGP-M62JB-92CD4
Office 2010 Professional Plus	VYBBJ-TRJPB-QFQRF-QFT4D-H3GVB
Office 2010 Standard	V7QKV-4XVVR-XYV4D-F7DFM-8R6BM

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Office 2016 For Mac Activation Key

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The following explains how to install and activate Office 2016 on a Mac.

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Installation and activation

1. Go to Office 2016 for Mac in IUware. (You'll need to log into IUware, even if you are already logged into CAS.)
2. Click Get product key to see your assigned product key.
3. On the Office setup page, enter your 25-character product key from IUware, and click Get Started.
4. On the 'Welcome to Office Online' page:
   • If you already have a Microsoft account: At Office Online, enter your Microsoft account email address and password. Proceed to step 5.
   • If you don't have a Microsoft account: Create one, as follows:
     1. At the bottom of the page, click Sign up now and complete the required fields. UITS recommends creating an account with your primary IU email address (e.g., username@iu.edu) to ensure the least margin of error.
     2. You'll receive an email message requesting verification. Follow the instructions to finish creating the account.
        If the email message does not arrive within a few minutes, use the resend email option.
     3. Log into Office Online with your newly created Microsoft account. After selecting your country/region and language, click Continue. When prompted, enter a first and last name for the account.
5. Verify that 'Microsoft Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac' shows on your account page.
6. On the Microsoft page, click Install to download the installation file. Alternatively, download the installation file from IUware directly.
   The Microsoft account must show the 'Microsoft Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac' registration in step 5. If this is not completed, it will not be possible to activate the Office 2016 product after installation.

   If you downloaded the .dmg file from IUware, open the Finder, select Downloads, and then open Microsoft Office 2016 Installer.pkg. Click Continue.

7. Once Office is installed, a new window will open. Click Get started >.
8. You will be prompted to sign in to activate Office. Select Sign In, and then enter the email address and password for the account that you activated with the Office 2016 product key from IUware.
9. Enter your Microsoft account email address and click Next.
10. Choose Microsoft account.
11. Finish the activation process by signing in with your Microsoft credentials.
12. In the 'How would you like Office to look' interface, choose Colorful or Classic, and then click Continue >. You should then have full use of Office 2016.

Office 2016 Mac Activation Key

Troubleshooting

To troubleshoot installation or activation errors, see the Microsoft Guide.