Activate Office when online activation doesn't work
Exchanging the Installation ID for a Confirmation ID through Microsoft's Product Activation Portal
Internet Interests
Last Update 10 days ago
When Office can't activate over the internet, it can still activate with a Confirmation ID. Office shows you an Installation ID, you exchange it for a Confirmation ID, and you type that back into Office. Microsoft moved telephone activation online on 3 December 2025, so the exchange now happens on Microsoft's Product Activation Portal.
Get the Installation ID from Word
- Open Word. If the Activation Wizard doesn't open by itself, go to File > Account and select Activate Product.
- In the Microsoft Office Activation Wizard, choose "I want to activate the software by telephone." and select Next.
- Select your country or region when the wizard asks. The wizard then shows the Installation ID as numbered groups of digits.
Leave the wizard open while you get the Confirmation ID.
Get the Confirmation ID from the portal
- Open visualsupport.microsoft.com in a web browser. The short address aka.ms/aoh opens the same portal.
- Complete the CAPTCHA and select Proceed to Sign In.
- Sign in with a personal Microsoft account or a work or school account. Microsoft states that signing in "will not associate the account to the product license". It only secures access to the portal.
- Choose Activate a Microsoft Product, follow the prompts for Office, and enter the Installation ID exactly as the wizard shows it.
- The portal returns a Confirmation ID.
Enter the Confirmation ID
Back in the wizard, type the Confirmation ID into the boxes in step 3, one group in each box, and select Next. When the wizard confirms the activation, close it and check File > Account in Word.
With the ospp.vbs script
The same exchange works from an administrator Command Prompt, in the folder that holds ospp.vbs. Activate Office 2024 with your product key shows how to find that folder.
Show the Installation ID.
After the portal has given you the Confirmation ID, apply it. Type the digits straight after the colon, with no spaces.
Then check the status with cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus. The LICENSE STATUS line should read ---LICENSED---.
If the portal doesn't give you a Confirmation ID
Contact us with your order number, the message the portal showed, and the last five characters of the key from the /dstatus output. Our contact details are in the help centre.