Office License Removal Tool

Learning has never been so easy!

Having been on Microsoft Office 365 for a few months now, we started to notice that when users who had activated software on a PC were removed from Office 365, the software would go into 'grace period' and would continually notify the new user of the PC that there was a problem. The trouble was I could not figure out how to reassign the software license to the new user. Finally I have found steps that will accomplish this without having to repair/reinstall office.

Uninstall Office with the Microsoft Office Uninstall Support Tool. After discontinuing or making some other Office uninstall tools unavailable, Microsoft has come out with another utility to handle the task. The Office uninstall support tool says it can completely uninstall Office 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and various versions of Office 365.
Uninstall Office 2016 is licensed under the MIT License - see the MIT License for details. About This script allows you to uninstall or automatically delete Office 2016, 365 or earlier using the Microsoft Windows command line.
Office Key Remover is a small tool which removes Microsoft Office's license information on your machine! This way you're able to change the license key of Microsoft Office. Instructions to change your Office product key: Run Office Key Remover; Choose which version's license data you want to be removed; Start one of the Office products.

5 Steps total

We show you how to uninstall Microsoft Office 365, 2020, 2016, or 2013 via Settings or the Microsoft Office removal tool. Ryan Maskell - January 12, 2021 2:31 pm CET. Uninstall the License Removal Tool by dragging the MicrosoftOfficeLicenseRemoval file from Finder Downloads to Trash.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt on PC

Open a Command Prompt window, and then take one of the following actions:

• If you installed the 64-bit version of Office 2016, move to the following folder: C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice16
• If you installed the 32-bit version of Office 2016, move to the following folder: C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice16

Step 2: Display the Current License(s)

Type the following command to display the license status. Note the last five characters of any and all license keys that display in the output:

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

Step 3: Remove the License(s)

Now run the following command as many times as needed to remove all of the license keys you noted from the previous step.

cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:

Step 4: Restart the Computer

Once the remove commands are successfull, close the command prompt and restart the PC.

Step 5: Reactivate MS Office 2016 with New Account

Launch one of the MS Office 2016 applications (I like to use Word). The application should prompt you to reactivate the by providing your sign-on ID. Enter in the new user's credentials and the software will now be licensed under their ID.

This should also work on 2013 if you modify the path to end with 'Office15'

Published: Sep 04, 2013 · Last Updated: Jul 27, 2018

34 Comments

Sonora
lueo Jan 4, 2014 at 07:01am
Trying to find a way to remove expired license of O365 for 2 days, even Microsoft didn't provide a comprehensive way to remove it.
Your method works great for me. Thanks for sharing!
Pimiento
Amr9983 Jan 17, 2014 at 04:47pm
Step 5 didnt work with me so i would do this instead
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:value
Install a product key (replaces existing key) with user-provided product key. Value parameter applies.
Jalapeno
mtndewwatkins Jan 22, 2014 at 09:27pm
Thanks a bunch this is super important for any version of Office when use acronis our keys get mixed up on a reformat, but this saved me the hassle of uninstalling and re installing office.
Jalapeno
Tdawg1982 May 9, 2014 at 06:10pm
Anyone have an idea on a way to script this out and run across a network?
Serrano
Under Dog May 22, 2014 at 07:10pm
So is this how home users are regulated when they are terminated or move to another company? Will their software enter a grace period and then stop working? That would be great.
Habanero
Lauren7060 May 22, 2014 at 07:13pm
Yes, there is a grace period. I am forgetting how long, but I want to say 90 days?! Once the grace period is up they have the choice of using it in limited mode or entering their own activation key.
Pimiento
renxxxx May 31, 2014 at 02:14am
I'm new to this , I opened command promp, next to what originally pops up C:Usersxxxx> I did not skp a space I continued to put in as seen here C:Usersxxxx>C:Program FilesMicrosoftOfficeOffice15 Then I hit enter, I tried the 64bit 1st then the 32bit I get both with error saying, is not recongnized as an internal or external command. operable program or batch file, I even tried after the C:Usersxxxx> separating the MicrosoftOfficeOffice15 to Microsoft OfficeOffice15 still does not work. any help please.
If you can help with this please shoot me an email at just2wicked2008 @ gmail.com I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks
Pimiento
wayneng Aug 6, 2014 at 12:07am
I accidentally registered/associated an Office 2013 product key to my Microsoft account. The software has not been installed on my computer.
So I should skip Steps 1 to 4 ?
But the software is not installed, so I can't really follow Step 5 ?
Sonora
James Montz Aug 8, 2014 at 07:51pm
Saved me a lot of work and time. Thank you for contributing.
Habanero
Lauren7060 Aug 11, 2014 at 12:36pm
wayneng - you should be able to remove the association on your account through the Office365 portal (https://login.microsoftonline.com). Under software it shows the systems it is installed on and then you can 'remove' any of the systems from there. This does not uninstall the software (which is fine in your case) it just deactivates that license.
Pimiento
Jason Mack Oct 14, 2014 at 02:44pm
Thank you! This worked great because my HUP Office Pro showed an activated license and trial license under the Account tab. I used your instructions to remove the trial license.
Pimiento
kellygreen2 Oct 21, 2014 at 09:39am
Well, thanks very much. But what I use is the SmartKey Product Key Recovery and it works for me. You can google search 'smartkey product key recovery' to find more details about it.
Pimiento
sweettie Nov 24, 2014 at 04:45am
Very easy to download microsoft 2013 and it works 100%,just only search @@@windows 8.1 key sale@@@ on bing.
Pimiento
johndoe26 Jan 5, 2015 at 07:40pm
The following script will find the product key for O365 (ProPlus in this case) and unlicensed the product. Its in powershell so you can invoke-command it against a remote workstation as you need to by doing the following from a PS prompt:
invoke-command -computername -credential (get-credential) -filepath
*** the credential portion will ask you for credentials make sure the ones you use have admin rights on the workstation ***
Here is the script:
# store the license info into an array
$license = cscript ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15OSPP.VBS’ /dstatus
#license name from /dstatus
$o365 = “OfficeO365ProPlusR_Subscription1 edition”
#loop till the end of the array searching for the $o365 string
for ($i=0; $i -lt $license.Length; $i++){
if ($license[$i] -match $o365){
$i += 6 #jumping six lines to get to the product key line in the array, check output of dstatus and adjust as needed for the product you are removing
$keyline = $license[$i] # extra step but i would rather deal with the variable as a string than an array, could be removed i guess, efficiency is not my concern
$prodkey = $keyline.substring($keyline.length – 5, 5) # getting the last 5 characters of the line (prodkey)
}
}
#removing the key from the workstation
cscript ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15OSPP.VBS’ /unpkey:$prodkey
Pimiento
jjstephens Jul 1, 2015 at 09:41am
Good Day please help i have no idea how to do the script stuff and i cant really do it so i need to fix his outlook please make it easy for me

Office License Removal Tool 2016

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You can unassign licenses from users on either the Active users page, or on the Licenses page. The method you use depends on whether you want to unassign product licenses from specific users or unassign users licenses from a specific product.

Note

As an admin, you can't assign or unassign licenses for a self-service purchase subscription bought by a user in your organization. You can take over a self-service purchase subscription, and then assign or unassign licenses.

Before you begin

You must be a Global, License, User admin to unassign licenses. For more information, see About Microsoft 365 admin roles.
You can remove licenses from user accounts with Office 365 PowerShell.
You can also delete user accounts that were assigned a license to make their license available to other users. When you delete a user account, their license is immediately available to assign to someone else.

Use the Licenses page to unassign licenses

When you use the Licenses page to unassign licenses, you unassign licenses for a specific product for up to 20 users.

In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.

In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.

In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.

Select the product for which you want to unassign licenses.
Select the users for which you want to unassign licenses.
Select Unassign licenses.
In the Unassign licenses box, select Unassign.

Use the Active users page to unassign licenses

When you use the Active users page to unassign licenses, you unassign product licenses from users.

Unassign licenses from one user

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

Select the row of the user that you want to unassign a license for.
In the right pane, select Licenses and Apps.
Expand the Licenses section, clear the boxes for the licenses that you want to unassign, then select Save changes.

Microsoft Office 365 License Removal Tool

Unassign licenses from multiple users

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

In the admin center, go to the Users > Active users page.

Select the circles next to the names of the users who you want to unassign licenses for.
At the top, select Manage product licenses.
In the Manage product licenses pane, select Unassign all > Save changes.
At the bottom of the pane, select Done.

What happens to a user's data when you remove their license?

When a license is removed from a user, Exchange online data that is associated with that account is held for 30 days. After the 30-day grace period, the data is deleted and can't be recovered.
Files saved in OneDrive for Business aren't deleted unless the user is deleted from the Microsoft 365 admin center or is removed through Active Directory synchronization. For more information, see OneDrive retention and deletion.
When the license is removed, the user's mailbox is no longer searchable by using an eDiscovery tool such as Content Search or Advanced eDiscovery. For more information, see 'Searching disconnected or de-licensed mailboxes' in Content Search in Microsoft 365.
If you have an Enterprise subscription, like Office 365 Enterprise E3, Exchange Online lets you preserve the mailbox data of a deleted user account by using inactive mailboxes. For more information, see Create and manage inactive mailboxes in Exchange Online.
To learn how to block a user's access to Microsoft 365 data after their license is removed, and how to get access to the data afterwards, see Remove a former employee.
If you remove a user's license and they still have Office apps installed, they see Unlicensed Product and activation errors in Office when they use Office apps.

Next steps

Office License Removal Tool Windows 10

If you’re not going to reassign the unused licenses to other users, consider removing the licenses from your subscription so that you’re not paying for more licenses than you need.

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