Microsoft Office Enter a Product Key or Sign in

I have received a laptop with a new Office 2016 Standard installation. The user is receiving constant pop up messages Enter a Product Key or Sign in when using Microsoft Office.

This user has installed a Microsoft Office volume license version. You can check if you have a volume license version of the Office by opening Word or any other Office application and clicking on File | Account.

Volume license versions are named Office Standard or Office Professional Plus and have a Change Product Key link.

Even though my friend has removed the pre-installed Office 365 that came with the device, then installed and activated the Microsoft Office Standard 2016, he was receiving the popup message on every start of Office application.

Enter a Product Key or Sign in
Enter a Product Key, or sign in with the account you used to purchase Office 365.

I’m guessing that the problem is related to Office 365 not being completely uninstalled from the system.

In order to remove this popup window here’s what you have to do:

Close Office applications.
From the RUN prompt type REGEDIT and hit enter.
Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM
Right-click on the OEM key/folder and click DELETE.

Now browse to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OEM
Right-click on the OEM key/folder and click DELETE.

Close the Registry Editor and now you shouldn’t see any more pop-ups.

Comments are welcome.