Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office

If Office activation fails, you'll see Unlicensed Product or Non-commercial use / Unlicensed Product in the title bar of your Office apps, and most features of Office are disabled. To restore all features of Office, you'll need to fix the problem that's causing activation to fail.

Step 1: Sign in to Office with the right account
If Office asks you to sign in, enter the account you used to buy Office. You'll see "We couldn't find any Office products" if you use the wrong address.
Try this: Sign in to Office

Step 2: Check for multiple copies of Office
You may not realize you have more than one copy installed. Having two installs can cause activation conflicts.
Try this: Check for multiple copies of Office

Step 3: Check your subscription status
If your subscription has expired, you'll see "We couldn't find any Office products." Renew your subscription to use Office 365.
Try this: Check your subscription status

Step 4: Troubleshoot activation
If Office still won't activate, choose your Office version for additional troubleshooting help.
Office 365
Office 2019 and Office 2016
Office 2013

Step 1: Sign in with the right account

Please try signing in using all your personal email addresses in case you bought Office using a different email address. If you're at work or school, you may need to log in using your work or school account instead of your personal email account.

To check if your Microsoft account is associated with Office, sign in to Services & subscriptions. Your Office product or Office 365 subscription should be listed there. If it's not, your email address won't work for signing in to Office.

Step 2: Check for multiple copies of Office

Activation can fail if you have multiple copies of Office installed. Let's uninstall any versions of Office you aren't using before we continue to troubleshoot.

1. Open Control Panel using the steps below for your operating system:
   • Windows 10 On the Windows 10 task bar, type Control Panel in the Type here to search box, select Control Panel in the search results, and then select Programs and Features.
   • Windows 8.1 or 8 Right-click the Start button (lower-left corner), select Control Panel, and then select Programs and Features.
   • Windows 7 Click Start > Control Panel > Uninstall a program.
2. In the Search Programs and Features box (upper-right corner) of Programs and Features, search for the word office.
   You might see multiple versions installed, like this:
    
3.  If more than one version appears, right-click the version you aren't using and select Uninstall.
   If only one version is listed, you can go to Step 3: Check your Office 365 subscription status.
4. When the uninstall is finished, restart your computer.
5. Open an Office app and sign in, if prompted.
6. If Office still won't activate, try running an online repair as described in Repair an Office application to fix up the remaining install of Office. If you still can't activate, proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Check your Office 365 subscription status

If you have an Office 365 for home subscription, let's make sure it's still active and renew your subscription, if necessary.

If you don't have Office 365, you can skip to Step 4: Troubleshoot Office activation.

1. Close all Office apps.
2. Go to your Services & subscriptions page.
3. If prompted, choose Sign in and enter the Microsoft account email and password associated with your Office 365 subscription.
4. Review the details under the Subscriptions heading or Cancelled subscriptions heading.
   
5. If your subscription has expired, you can renew it by following the steps in Renew Office 365 for home.
6. After you renew your subscription, you can restart your Office apps as needed. If Office still won't activate, continue to the next step

Step 4: Troubleshoot Office activation

Select your version of Office for troubleshooting steps:

Office 365

Office 2019 and Office 2016

Office 2013

Office 365: Use the Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365

The Support and Recovery Assistant app runs on Windows PCs and can help you identify and fix activation issues with Office 365.

1. Select the Download button below.
   
2. Select your browser from the drop-down list to see how to save and then start the Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365.
   
   

   Select your browser

   

   
   

   • Select your browser
   • Edge
   • Internet Explorer
   • Chrome
   • Firefox
   1. At the bottom of the browser window, select Save.
   2. In the next box that indicates SetupProd_Act.exe is finished downloading, select Run.

   1. At the bottom of the browser window, select Open to open the SetupProd_Act.exe file.
      If the file doesn’t open automatically, choose Save > Open Folder, and then double-click the file (it should start with "SetupProd_Act.exe").

   1. In the lower-lower left corner select the SetupProd_Act.exe file and from the drop down, select Show in folder.
      Double-click the download, SetupProd_Act.exe.

   1. Select Save File, and then OK.
      In the upper-right browser window, select Show all downloads. In the Library, select Downloads > SetupProd_Act.exe, and then select the folder icon. Double-click SetupProd_Act.exe.
3. The Application Install dialog box opens. Select Install to start the installation.
4. The Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant for Office 365 opens in a new window. Select I agree to accept the Microsoft Services Agreement.
5. Select Yes to allow the app to make changes to your device.
6. Follow the prompts to troubleshoot your Office activation issue.

If Office still won't activate after you run the Support and Recovery Assistant, you can Fix Unlicensed Product errors yourself.

Office 2019 and Office 2016: Use the Activation Troubleshooter (non-subscription Office products)

The Activation Troubleshooter runs on Windows PCs and can fix activation errors for Office Home & Student, Office Home & Business, Office Professional, and individual Office apps, like Visio, Project, Word, and Outlook.

1. Select the Download button below.
   
2. Select your browser from the drop-down list to see how to save and then launch the troubleshooter.
   
   

   Select your browser

   

   
   

   • Select your browser
   • Edge
   • Internet Explorer
   • Chrome
   • Firefox
   1. At the bottom of the browser window, select Save.
   2. In the next box that indicates officeact.diagcab is finished downloading, select Open.
   3. The Activation Troubleshooter launches. Select Next and follow the prompts.

   1. At the bottom of the browser window, select Open to open the officeact.diagcab file.
      If the file doesn’t open automatically, choose Save > Open Folder, and then double-click the file (it should start with "officeact.diagcab") to run the easy fix tool.
   2. The Activation Troubleshooter launches. Select Next and follow the prompts.

   1. In the lower-lower left corner select the officeact.diagcab file and from the drop down, select Show in folder.
      Double-click the download, officeact.diagcab to run the easy fix tool.
   2. The Activation Troubleshooter launches. Select Next and follow the prompts.

   1. Select Save File, and then OK.
      In the upper-right browser window, select Show all downloads. In the Library, select Downloads > officeact.diagcab, and then select the folder icon. Double-click the officeact.diagcab.
   2. The Activation Troubleshooter launches. Select Next and follow the prompts.

If Office still won't activate after you run the Activation Troubleshooter, you can Fix Unlicensed Product errors yourself.

Fix Unlicensed Product errors yourself

If you've tried the earlier troubleshooting steps and Office is still unlicensed, you can troubleshoot activation failures yourself.

Try these first

Check your computer's date, time, and time zone
Run Office as administrator
Update Office
Repair Office licensing (Office 2013 only)

Check connectivity

Check your firewall
Check your antivirus software
Check your proxy settings

Check your computer's date, time, and time zone

If these settings aren't correct, Office activation might fail. Follow the steps below for your operating system.

Windows 10

1. Close all Office apps.
2. In the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, select the date or time.
3. Select Date and time settings.
4. Select Set time automatically and, if shown, Set time zone automatically. If you don't have the option to set the time zone automatically, make sure your local time zone is shown in Time zone.
5. Restart any Office app.

Windows 8 or Windows 8.1

1. Close all Office apps.
2. In the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, select the date or time.
3. Select Change date and time settings.
4. If the date or time is wrong, select Change date and time and correct the date and time settings.
5. If the time zone is wrong, select Change time zone and select your local time zone.
6. Restart any Office app.

Windows 7

1. Close all Office apps.
2. In the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, select the date or time.
3. Select Change date and time settings.
4. If the date or time is wrong, select Change date and time and correct the date and time settings.
5. If the time zone is wrong, select Change time zone and select your local time zone.
6. Restart any Office app.

Tip: In Windows 7, you can synchronize your computer clock with an Internet time server to keep the computer clock up to date. To do this, select the date or time in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, and then select Change date and time settings. Select the Internet Time tab, select Change settings, select Synchronize with an Internet time server, and then select Update now.

Run Office as administrator

Running Office as administrator helps fix permission issues that might cause Office activation to fail. Follow the steps below for your operating system.

Windows 10

1. Close all Office apps.
2. Press the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen.
3. Type an application name, like Word. The Word program icon appears in the search results.
4. Right-click the Word icon, and select Run as administrator.
5. Select Yes to allow Office to run as administrator.

Windows 8.1

1. Close all Office apps.
2. In Windows 8.1, right-click the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen, and then select Search.
3. Type an application name, like Word. The Word program icon appears in the search results.
4. Right-click the Word icon, and select Run as administrator.
5. Select Yes to allow Office to run as administrator.

Windows 8

1. Close all Office apps.
2. In Windows 8, move your mouse to the upper-right corner of your screen to open the charms bar, and then select the Search icon.
3. Type an application name, like Word. The Word program icon appears in the search results.
4. Right-click the Word icon, and select Run as administrator.
5. Select Yes to allow Office to run as administrator.

Windows 7

1. Close all Office apps.
2. Press the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen.
3. In the Search programs and files box, type an application name, like Word. The Word program icon appears in the search results.
4. Right-click the Excel icon, and select Run as administrator.
5. If prompted, select Yes to allow Office to run as administrator.

Update Office

The latest Office updates might contain fixes to activation issues. To learn how to update Office, see Install Office updates.

Repair Office licensing (applies only to Office 2013)

If you’ve tried all of the other solutions but you’re still getting prompted to activate Office 2013, uninstall your product key and then sign in to activate Office.

1. Select this easy fix to uninstall your product key in Office 2013.
   
2. At the bottom of your browser, select Open.
   
3. After the easy fix tool is done, open any Office application, like Word or Excel.
4. When you’re prompted, sign in with the email and password that are associated with Office.

Check your firewall

If you're using a firewall from another manufacturer, visit the manufacturer's website for information about how to temporarily disable the firewall. For Windows Firewall, please see below.

Windows 10

• Please go to Turn Windows Firewall on or off

Windows 8.1 and 7

• Please scroll to Turn Windows Firewall on or off in Protect my PC from viruses

Check your antivirus software

For information about how to turn off your antivirus software, check your antivirus manufacturer's website. Uninstalling your antivirus software may also help. Don't forget to reinstall it after Office is finished installing and if you turned it off, be sure to turn it on again.

If you're not sure which antivirus software you have, use the following instructions to get to Control Panel to find the name of your antivirus software.

Tip: Windows 10 comes with default antivirus software, Windows Defender. If you determine that you're using it, select the Start button > Settings > Update & Security, and then select Windows Defender on the left. Slide the button to Off. Remember to turn it On again.

Select your operating system



• Select your operating system
• Windows 10
• Windows 8.1
• Windows 7

1. On the Start menu, enter Control Panel in the search box and select Control Panel from the results.
2. Do one of the following:
   • In Category view, select System and Security > Security and Maintenance, and then select the down arrow next to Security.
   • In Large icons or Small icons view, select Security and Maintenance, and then select the down arrow next to Security.

If Windows can detect your antivirus software, it's listed under Virus protection.

1. Go to the Control Panel by right-clicking the Start button (lower-left corner), and choosing Control Panel.
   
2. Do one of the following:
   • In Category view, select System and Security > Action Center, and then select the down arrow next to Security.
   • In Large icons or Small icons view, select Action Center, and then select the down arrow next to Security.

If Windows can detect your antivirus software, it's listed under Virus protection.

1. Go to Control Panel by choosing the Start button (lower-left corner), and choosing Control Panel.
2. Do one of the following:
   • In Category view, select System and Security > Action Center, and then select the down arrow next to Security.
   • In Large icons or Small icons view, select Action Center, and then select the down arrow next to Security.

If Windows can detect your antivirus software, it's listed under Virus protection.

Check your proxy settings

If you use your device both at home and at work, try turning off the proxy settings in Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer before you install Office. If you’re using a different browser, check their help to find out how to turn off proxy settings.

Microsoft Edge

1. Click the Start button (lower-left corner), and choose Settings.
2. Select Network & Internet, go to the bottom of the selections on the left side, and click Proxy.
3. In Automatic proxy setup, automatically detect settings or use setup script, by sliding to On or Off.
4. In Manual proxy setup, you can choose to use a proxy server. Generally, it will be off and if you slide it to On, be sure to select Save. And if it was off by default before you turned it on, be sure to slide back to Off when you've finished using it.

Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11

1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools (upper-right corner) > Internet options.
2. Click the Connections tab, and then click the LAN settings button.
3. Under Proxy server, clear the option "Use a proxy server for your LAN (These settings will not apply to dial-up or VPN connections)."
4. Click Apply and OK to save changes. Restart your computer.

Note: There might be more proxy settings that you need to bypass. If this doesn't work, and you’re installing Office from work or school, check with your IT department for more information. For IT administrators, please see Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges.

TCP global synchronization

TCP global synchronization in computer networks can happen to TCP/IP flows during periods of congestion because each sender will reduce their transmission rate at the same time when packet loss occurs.
Routers on the Internet normally have packet queues, to allow them to hold packets when the network is busy, rather than discarding them.
Because routers have limited resources, the size of these queues is also limited. The simplest technique to limit queue size is known as tail drop. The queue is allowed to fill to its maximum size, and then any new packets are simply discarded, until there is space in the queue again.
This causes problems when used on TCP/IP routers handling multiple TCP streams, especially when bursty traffic is present. While the network is stable, the queue is constantly full, and there are no problems except that the full queue results in high latency. However, the introduction of a sudden burst of traffic may cause large numbers of established, steady streams to lose packets simultaneously.
TCP has automatic recovery from dropped packets, which it interprets as congestion on the network (which is usually correct). The sender reduces its sending rate for a certain amount of time, and then tries to find out if the network is no longer congested by increasing the rate again subject to a ramp-up. This is known as the slow-start algorithm.
Almost all the senders will use the same time delay before increasing their rates. When these delays expire, at the same time, all the senders will send additional packets, the router queue will again overflow, more packets will be dropped, the senders will all back off for a fixed delay... ad infinitum; compare with the thundering herd problem.
This pattern of each sender decreasing and increasing transmission rates at the same time as other senders is referred to as "global synchronization" and leads to inefficient use of bandwidth, due to the large numbers of dropped packets, which must be retransmitted, and because the senders have a reduced sending rate, compared to the stable state, while they are backed-off, following each loss.
This problem has been the subject of much research. The consensus appears to be that the tail drop algorithm is the leading cause of the problem, and other queue size management algorithms such as Random Early Detection (RED) and Weighted RED will reduce the likelihood of global synchronization, as well as keeping queue sizes down in the face of heavy load and bursty traffic. 

How to Use Keyboard Interactive Authentication with PuTTY

PuTTY is a free, open-source terminal emulator program for Windows. PuTTY supports connecting to SSH, Telnet and other text servers over a network. PuTTY supports a variety of authentication for connecting to SSH servers, including basic password authentication and public key authentication. One of the authentication methods supported by PuTTY is keyboard interactive authentication, which allows the SSH server to ask an arbitrary question and the user to input an arbitrary response. To use keyboard interactive authentication in PuTTY, though, you must enable the method.

Step 1

Launch PuTTY on the computer.

Step 2

Click the plus sign to the left of "SSH" under the "Connection" header at the left side of the PuTTY window.

Step 3

Click "Auth" under "SSH."

Step 4

Deselect the "Bypass Authentication Entirely," "Attempt Authentication Using Pageant" and "Attempt TLS or CryptoCard Auth" check boxes by clicking them if they're enabled.

Step 5

Verify the "Attempt Keyboard-Interactive Auth" check box is enabled. Click it if it isn't enabled.

Step 6

Click "Session" at the left side of the PuTTY window.

Step 7

Type the IP address or host name of the SSH server into the "Host Name" box.

Step 8

Type the port of the SSH server into the "Port" box.

Step 9

Click "SSH" under "Connection Type."

Step 10

Save the session and authentication settings by typing a name for the session in the "Saved Sessions" box and clicking "Save." You can use these settings again by clicking the name of the session and clicking "Load."

Step 11

Connect to the SSH server by clicking "Open."

Step 12

Type your user name into the terminal when prompted and press "Enter."

Step 13

Provide the answer for the keyboard-interactive authentication prompt by typing it and pressing "Enter."

DCUI from ssh for vSphere 6

This is one of those great command line items to put in your toolkit that will impress your co-workers. I think this command is one of the least known commands but could have a huge impact on an admins ability to manage their environment. The vSphere command is simply ‘dcui’ and it is a very simple way to access the DCUI without having to go into your remote IPMI tools (ilo, iDRAC, KVM over IP, etc). The only down side compared to IPMI tools is it doesn’t work when you reboot your system as you’ll lose your ssh session.

How to use it:

• After your server is fully booted, start an ssh session to your target server and logon
• From the command prompt type in dcui and press enter

• From there you can use the dcui remotely.
• Press CTRL + C to exit

Tips:

• Have your ssh screen size where you want it prior to going into the dcui. If you resize after connecting it will exit out of the DCUI
• The DCUI command worked great in putty but it did not work with the MAC Terminal program. Not sure why, but if you got this working on a MAC then post up!

SQL Server: Database stuck in “Restoring” state

I backed up a database:

BACKUP DATABASE MyDatabase
TO DISK = 'MyDatabase.bak'
WITH INIT --overwrite existing

And then tried to restore it:

RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase
   FROM DISK = 'MyDatabase.bak'
   WITH REPLACE --force restore over specified database

And now the database is stuck in the restoring state.
Some people have theorized that it's because there was no log file in the backup, and it needed to be rolled forward using:

RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase
WITH RECOVERY 

Except that, of course, fails:

Msg 4333, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The database cannot be recovered because the log was not restored.

Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

And exactly what you want in a catastrophic situation is a restore that won't work.

---

The backup contains both a data and log file:

RESTORE FILELISTONLY 
FROM DISK = 'MyDatabase.bak'

Logical Name    PhysicalName
=============   ===============
MyDatabase    C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\MyDatabase.mdf
MyDatabase_log  C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA\MyDatabase_log.LDF

How To Configure Outlook 2013 Font Using Group Policy

Using this method you can configure the following settings:

• Default new email font color and size
• Default reply and forward color and size
• Email Comments
• New Theme

The only requirement is Outlook 2013 Installed on a machine.
Note: To complete this you will need to Install Office 2013 Administrative Templates or Office 2016 as minimum requirements

To get started, Open Outlook 2013 and configure the font settings from the options menu.

Step two, Open Registry editor from run menu, go to the path below and export the mail settings folder:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\MailSettings

Export by right click on the MailSettings folder




Next, we need to convert the .Reg file to .XML using the website below:
http://www.runecasters.com.au/reg2gpp

When converting the file make sure you select Create, when done save the file.



Next right click on the .XML file and Click Copy




Last step open Group Policy editor and go to:

User configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Registry

Right Click on Registry and Paste




Then the settings will be applied to the group policy.

How To Configure Managed Service Accounts Windows Server 2016

Managed Service Account (MSA) Is a new type of Active Directory Account type where AD responsible for changing the account password every 30 days.

With MSA no one needs to set up the account password or even know it, the entire password management process Is managed by Active Directory.
In my example, I’ll use the Managed Service Account to run my IIS Application Pool.

Requirements

To use MSA, Active Directory forest level will have to be set to Windows Server 2012 at a minimum.
You will need Active Directory Management Tools to run the cmdlets In this post

Before we start

I have to say that before I wrote this article I visited a few blogs and most of them overcomplicated the process, This post will show you how to deploy MSA In 10 minutes.
Just make sure to test it in the lab before deploying Into production.

Master Root key

The first step In the MSA deployment process Is to create a Master root Key using the cmdlet below.

Add-KdsRootKey -EffectiveTime ((get-date).addhours(-10)) -Verbose

Create Service Account

To create and configure the service. I’ll use 4 cmdlets.
The first cmdlet will create the account and also create a DNS name for the account.

New-ADServiceAccount sms -DisplayName "WDS Service" -DNSHostName sms.test.local

Once the account has been created, I will grant the Server (WDS) access to it, which mean the Server (WDS) will have permission to request a password reset every 30 days from Active Directory.

I could add multiple server names If needed.

Set-ADServiceAccount sms -PrincipalsAllowedToRetrieveManagedPassword wds$

With the cmdlet below, I can test the account (return result should be true).

Test-ADServiceAccount sms |fl

And the final cmdlet will Install the Service Account on the WDS Server.

install-ADServiceAccount sms

Set Windows Service

To setup Windows Server service to use the managed Service account, I’ll open the service and use the format below

Test\sms$ without typing the password.



If the account needs the log in as a service right you will see the prompt below.



Once configured, I can start the service



Just remember that If the service account needs to be part of the Domain Admins group or any other group you will need to add the service to the group as well.

SET IIS Application Pool

Next, I’ll configure IIS Application Pool to use the Service Account.

Using the Application Pools menu and right click on the DefaultAppPool



Select Advanced Settings



In the Advanced Setting -> Process Model -> Identity I’ll change the account



No need to type the password



As you can see below, The Application Pool started and Is using the Service Account.

Get-ADServiceAccount -Filter *

Rollback

To remove the Service Account from Active Directory, I’ll use the cmdlet below:

Remove-adservcieaccount sms

To remove the account from a Windows service, I’ll run the line below (from command line) with the service name

sc config audiosvr obj= test\Admin password=Password123