Not able to Auto_Activate Office Standard 2013 setup through OCT

Hello World, 

I'm using Dell Kace to distribute office 2013. I have used the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to create a silent install. 

In the Licensing and user interface section under Setup I have selected the Enter another product key radio button, typed my valid Multiple Activation Key (MAK), checked the I accept the terms in the License Agreement check-box, selected None from the Display level drop-down menu, checked the Suppress modal check-box, and unchecked the Completion notice and No cancel check boxes. 

Under the same Setup section of the OCT I enter a Property name "AUTO_ACTIVATE" with a value of 1 in the Modify Setup properties section. 

Any and all other settings are in accordance with my environment. I have saved the MSP file, placed it in the Updates folder, zip it up, move it to the targeted machine (Kace handles this), and run Setup.exe (with no parameters) as the domain admin. 

The install is perfect. All items with all expected configurations are installed.

The problem is when an Office 2013 application is ran for the first time the end user is presented with the MS Office Activation Wizard. 

If I click next on the wizard screen my product activates no problem. All features are available and everything is as it should be. 

My question is this...Why dosen't the install Auto Activate the Office Std 2013 on its own?

I followed TechNet OCT walk throughs and have actually completed this type of install on about 15-20 other end users. I have read some about syspreping or the Computer Machine ID may have trouble, but I thought that was with KMS services as I didnt read any specific subtleties about MAK style licensing. 

Thanks to anyone in advance for helping me. 

November 21st, 2013 2:53pm

Hi

See if these links help resolve the issue.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officevolact/thread/e687ccd5-1994-4ead-98db-57c4c3c41222

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officevolact/thread/3cdcd711-7acc-475c-af26-5a7a31eb2f29

Since AUTO_ACTIVATE did not work, we recomemnd you Modify the Config.xml file to configure a silent installation,

Here's an article for your reference:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd630736.aspx#BKMK_UseOCTSilentInstallOpt

Regards

Tylor Wang
TechNet Community Support

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November 22nd, 2013 5:13am

after the installation has completed on the client machine, did you restart the client machine ?

how long did you wait, after the install, before you launched an Office application?

November 22nd, 2013 8:33am

During my testing I did restart some of them, others I did not. Still the activation wizard appears. I can't manually make the changes or activate the software for the end users. My install does out at night and a lot of them get to the office before I do. I would be inundated with service requests.

I went to open the applications immediately after I updated them. During my first two weeks of this staggered rollout I was able to use the 2013 software immediately after installing it on top of Office 2007.

I have decided to run the OSPP.VBS script with the /act parameter on each end user machine. This has corrected the problem.

  • Marked as answer by Bullet Catcher Friday, November 22, 2013 4:26 PM
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November 22nd, 2013 4:24pm

I too am using KACE, and I had problems with activation until I downloaded the updated OCT from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35554

You download Office Professional Plus 2013 with SP1 from the Volume Licensing Service Center, extract, delete the folder called admin.  You then download the updated OCT via the link above, extract, copy the admin folder and paste it into your Office Professional Plus 2013 with SP1 extraction.  You then run your OCT, save your MSP, and deploy.

After I did this office activated correctly via MAK during install by using a AUTO_ACTIVATE 1 command in the OCT.  Before doing this, the same command would not work.  I was also having issues deploying the 32 bit version of office to some 64 bit OS, but after replacing the OCT with this new version those issues went away.


  • Edited by edwimb 19 hours 9 minutes ago
July 23rd, 2015 8:23am

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