Install and activate Microsoft Office 2024

Microsoft Office 2024 is no longer supplied on a disc; it is installed over the internet. Your licence key is redeemed once, and the installation files are then downloaded directly from Microsoft. This guide describes the process for the retail version (with us: Home & Business) and points out explicitly where a volume licence behaves differently.

Which edition did you buy?

The whole procedure depends on it, and the two routes have nothing in common. Our order confirmation says which edition you have:

• Home & Business is a retail licence. The licence key is redeemed once at setup.office.com in a Microsoft account; the download and the activation then run through that account. The next sections describe this route.
• Standard and Professional Plus are volume licences – both of them, not only Professional Plus. They cannot be redeemed at setup.office.com and never appear in a Microsoft account; trying it there ends in an error message. You install from the download link in our email and enter the licence key afterwards from the Command Prompt. For that, skip straight to the section further down that describes the volume licence.

Before you start

Have the licence key you received by email to hand. Also check the following points so that the installation does not break off part-way through:

• Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit, fully up to date.
• Around 4 GB of free space on the system drive.
• A stable internet connection – depending on the package, the download is 2 to 4 GB.
• You should uninstall older Office versions beforehand under Settings → Apps. Two versions side by side often cause problems with file associations.
• A Microsoft account. If you do not have one yet, you can create one free of charge at account.microsoft.com.

Redeeming the licence key

The key of a retail licence is linked once to a Microsoft account. From that point on, Microsoft manages the licence in that account.

1. Open setup.office.com in your browser.
2. Sign in with your Microsoft account or create a new one. Use an account you will have access to in the long term – the licence stays stored there.
3. Enter the 25-character licence key. You do not need to type the hyphens.
4. Select your country and language. The language you choose determines the language of the first download, but it can be changed later.
5. Confirm your entry. Office then appears under Services & subscriptions in your account.

Downloading and installing Office

1. Go to account.microsoft.com and switch to Services & subscriptions.
2. Click Install next to your Office 2024 entry. You can also choose the bit version and the language there.
3. Run the setup file you downloaded and confirm the User Account Control prompt.
4. Wait until the installer reports that everything is finished. Do not close the window during this time.
5. Open Word or Excel and sign in with the same Microsoft account you used to redeem the key.

Checking the activation

In Word, open File → Account. Under Product Information you should see the name of the product and, below it, a note saying that the product is activated. If there is a yellow or red banner there instead, the sign-in is not yet complete – sign in again using Sign in.

The difference between retail and volume licences

Retail keys are redeemed through setup.office.com as described above and are tied to a Microsoft account. Volume licences – with us that means Standard and Professional Plus – work differently: they are not redeemed online but are entered into the installation itself once it is in place. In this case the installation files do not come from the Microsoft account but from the Office Deployment Tool. Activation then takes place from a Command Prompt with administrator rights in the Office installation folder:

1. Change to the Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 folder.
2. Run cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:YOUR-KEY.
3. Then run cscript ospp.vbs /act.
4. Use cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus to see the current licence status.

If something goes wrong

• The key is not accepted: Check for transposed characters and make sure you have not accidentally typed an O instead of a 0. It is best to copy the key straight from the email.
• The download does not start: Temporarily switch off download filters or browser extensions and try again in a different browser.
• Setup breaks off: Leftovers from older Office installations are the most common cause. Microsoft provides an uninstall support tool for this, which you can find on the Microsoft support pages.
• Office only opens in read-only mode: The installation is running without activation. Sign in under File → Account with the correct Microsoft account.
• The wrong account was used: The link to an account cannot easily be undone. Make a note of which account you used.

If you get stuck at any of these points, write to us via our contact page. Give your order number and the exact error message, and we will be able to help more quickly.