Legal way to use Office 365 totally FREE without paying a dime

In a previous post here, I have shown you guys how to download and install Office 365 Multi-language using online installer downloaded directly from the Microsoft homepage. The new installation includes a 30-day free trial license by default. After that, most important features will be disabled. It means your work will be discontinued unless you pay for Office 365 subscription. If you are in financial difficulties, this is so bad, I know. To help you overcome this problem, I recommend using KMS licene key to activate your Office. For those of you guys who don’t already know, KMS license is almost similar to the trial one. It is totally free, legal and is valid for 180 days only. But don’t worry about the period because it can be renewed easily.

Remove your current trial license

This step is optional if your trial license was expired. However, if it is still valid, you need to remove it. Because in some cases, after you activate your Office using KMS license, important features are resumed but the expiration notification still remains. Follow the instructions in this post to uninstall the trial license.

Make sure your computer is ready

You need to check your internet connection again and make sure that the Windows Update service is turned on. KMS license has to be verified by making a connection to my KMS servers before it can be used. So you need to check if the KMS server is blocked or not. This is pretty simple. Just open your internet browser and try visitting this site: http://kms8.msguides.com. If it is visible, this means my KMS server is not blocked.

Activating your Office 365 using KMS client key

1. Manual method

Step 1.1: Open command prompt as admin.
First, you need to open command prompt with admin rights, then follow the instruction below step by step. Just copy/paste the commands and do not forget to hit Enter in order to execute them.

Step 1.2: Navigate to your Office folder.
If you install your Office in the ProgramFiles folder, the path will be “%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16” or “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16”. It depends on the architecture of the Windows OS you are using. If you are not sure of this issue, don’t worry, just run both of the commands above. One of them will be not executed and an error message will be printed on the screen.

cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16
cd /d %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16

Step 1.3: Convert your Office license to volume one if possible.
If your Office is got from Microsoft, this step is required. On the contrary, if you install Office from a Volume ISO file, this is optional so just skip it if you want.

for /f %x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\proplusvl_kms*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%x"

Step 1.4: Use KMS client key to activate your Office.
Make sure your PC is connected to the internet, then run the following command.

cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XQNVK-8JYDB-WJ9W3-YJ8YR-WFG99
cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:BTDRB >nul
cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:KHGM9 >nul
cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:CPQVG >nul
cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:107.175.77.7
cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
cscript ospp.vbs /act

If you see the error 0xC004F074, it means that your internet connection is unstable or the server is busy. Please make sure your device is online and try the command “act” again until you succeed.

Here is all the text you will get in the command prompt window.

C:\Windows\system32>cd /d %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cd /d %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16
 The system cannot find the path specified.
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>for /f %x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\proplusvl_kms*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%x"
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\ProPlusVL_KMS_Client-ppd.xrm-ms"
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------
 Installing Office license: ..\root\licenses16\proplusvl_kms_client-ppd.xrm-ms
 Office license installed successfully.
 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\ProPlusVL_KMS_Client-ul-oob.xrm-ms"
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------
 Installing Office license: ..\root\licenses16\proplusvl_kms_client-ul-oob.xrm-ms
 Office license installed successfully.
 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\ProPlusVL_KMS_Client-ul.xrm-ms"
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------
 Installing Office license: ..\root\licenses16\proplusvl_kms_client-ul.xrm-ms
 Office license installed successfully.
 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XQNVK-8JYDB-WJ9W3-YJ8YR-WFG99
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------

 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:BTDRB >nul
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:KHGM9 >nul
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:CPQVG >nul
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:107.175.77.7
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------
 Successfully applied setting.
 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /setprt:1688
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------
 Successfully applied setting.
 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>cscript ospp.vbs /act
 Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.812
 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 ---Processing--------------------------
 Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:
 SKU ID: d450596f-894d-49e0-966a-fd39ed4c4c64
 LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
 LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
 Last 5 characters of installed product key: WFG99


 ---Exiting-----------------------------
 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16>

2. Using batch script

This one is not recommended anymore due to the new update of Microsoft.

Step 2.1: Copy the code below into a new text document.

@echo off
title Activate Office 365 ProPlus for FREE - MSGuides.com&cls&echo =====================================================================================&echo #Project: Activating Microsoft software products for FREE without additional software&echo =====================================================================================&echo.&echo #Supported products: Office 365 ProPlus (x86-x64)&echo.&echo.&(if exist "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office16")&(if exist "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" cd /d "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office16")&(for /f %%x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\proplusvl_kms*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%%x" >nul)&(for /f %%x in ('dir /b ..\root\Licenses16\proplusvl_mak*.xrm-ms') do cscript ospp.vbs /inslic:"..\root\Licenses16\%%x" >nul)&echo.&echo ============================================================================&echo Activating your Office...&cscript //nologo slmgr.vbs /ckms >nul&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /setprt:1688 >nul&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /unpkey:WFG99 >nul&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /unpkey:DRTFM >nul&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /unpkey:BTDRB >nul&set i=1&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /inpkey:XQNVK-8JYDB-WJ9W3-YJ8YR-WFG99 >nul||cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /inpkey:NMMKJ-6RK4F-KMJVX-8D9MJ-6MWKP >nul||goto notsupported
:skms
if %i% GTR 10 goto busy
if %i% EQU 1 set KMS=kms7.MSGuides.com
if %i% EQU 2 set KMS=107.175.77.7
if %i% GTR 2 goto ato
cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /sethst:%KMS% >nul
:ato
echo ============================================================================&echo.&echo.&cscript //nologo ospp.vbs /act | find /i "successful" && (echo.&echo ============================================================================&echo.&echo #My official blog: MSGuides.com&echo.&echo #How it works: bit.ly/kms-server&echo.&echo #Please feel free to contact me at msguides.com@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.&echo.&echo #Please consider supporting this project: donate.msguides.com&echo #Your support is helping me keep my servers running 24/7!&echo.&echo ============================================================================&choice /n /c YN /m "Would you like to visit my blog [Y,N]?" & if errorlevel 2 exit) || (echo The connection to my KMS server failed! Trying to connect to another one... & echo Please wait... & echo. & echo. & set /a i+=1 & goto skms)
explorer "http://MSGuides.com"&goto halt
:notsupported
echo ============================================================================&echo.&echo Sorry, your version is not supported.&echo.&goto halt
:busy
echo ============================================================================&echo.&echo Sorry, the server is busy and can't respond to your request. Please try again.&echo.
:halt
pause >nul

Step 2.2: Save it as a batch file. (eg. office365.cmd).

Step 2.3: Run the batch file with admin rights. (important!).

Done! Your Office is activated successfully.

Note:

• I only test this method with Office 365 ProPlus version. I am not sure it will work with the others.
• Step 3 is flagged “important” because the UAC system will stop this process if you don’t do it.

How to renew your Office 365 license

By default, your license will be renewed automaticaly every seven days but in some cases, it can be stuck. So you need to renew the license manually. Just follow instructions here.

If you would have any questions or concerns, please leave your comments. I would be glad to explain in more details. Thank you so much for all your feedback and support!