Since posting the question about activation I've continued trying to find out HOW to "activate" Office.

I confirmed the last 5 digits of the other 2 computers, so I KNOW which product key is the right one.


I downloaded the file using the .exe we got using the product keys originally – they’re a 5 or 6 MB file that contains the product key and downloads office.


All 3 licenses are for Office Pro 2019. They were all purchased at the same time, at least 2 years ago, I believe from Amazon (or one of Amazon’s vendors)Z when they were having a little bit of a sale. They were installed on my desktop, my laptop and my wife's laptop and they've all been working ever since.


I had to install a new copy of Windows 10 Pro on my wife's laptop this week, and now I need to get her copy of Office to work. Unfortunately, she, like me, has to rely on Office for a variety of things, so this is getting critical.


I have Office on her laptop, but I cannot activate it over the Internet.


I opened Word again, and cancelled trying to activate over the Internet. Instead I went into the Account and got the popup to Activate Product. Clicked Enter Product Key, and entered the correct key. I entered it exactly as it’s shown.

Which is exactly as it’s shown in the file used to download office. Doesn’t give me an error, just goes back and says it needs to be activated.


I’m concerned that I caused the problem… I didn’t realize the file used to download office has the product key in the filename. So I’d remember which was which, I appended the computer to each file, so hers was

<lots of gibberish><25 char product key>_TX_PR_<her name>.exe
BUT, I tried it again this morning after REMOVING her name from the end and the result is the same.


This product ID has to be good – it’s been working for 2 years.


It can't possibly actually be this hard...


How do I get this thing to activate?