Questions, answered.

Your order is digital, so there is nothing to ship and nothing to wait for in the post. Your product key and download link are sent to the email address you entered at checkout, usually within a few minutes of your payment being confirmed.

If your order does not arrive within that window, it is almost always one of three things: the email landed in Spam or Promotions, the address was mistyped at checkout, or a company mail filter blocked it. Please search your mailbox for “mmkeys” before assuming the order failed, and check every folder including Junk and Quarantine.

If you still cannot find it, contact us with the email address and the name you used at checkout and we will resend it.

It is delivered by email to the address used on your order. The email contains your product key, the correct download link for the edition you bought, and the activation instructions for that specific product.

Please keep that email. It is your proof of purchase and your license record, and you will want it again if you ever reinstall or move to a new computer. We recommend saving a copy of the key somewhere separate from your inbox as well.

Work through these in order, because in our experience one of them solves it almost every time:

1. Check Spam, Junk, Promotions and any quarantine folder.
2. Search your whole mailbox for “mmkeys” rather than scrolling your inbox.
3. Check whether the email address on your order receipt is spelled correctly.
4. If you are using a work, school, government or church email address, ask your IT administrator whether external mail with links is being filtered. This blocks delivery more often than any other cause.

If none of those reveals it, contact us with your order number or the email address you paid with and we will resend the delivery to you, or to a different address if your original one is blocking it.

Yes. This happens regularly and it is easy to fix. Contact us with the name on the order, the approximate date and amount, and the correct email address you would like the delivery sent to.

We will verify the order on our side first and then resend it. Please note that we can only resend an order to its rightful purchaser, so we may ask you for a detail from the payment confirmation to confirm it is your order.

No. Every product on MMKeys is a digital license. There is no disc, no printed card and no shipping address required. You receive a product key and a download link by email, and you install from Microsoft’s own installer or from the link we provide.

This is why orders can be delivered so quickly, and it is also why the delivery email matters so much — it is the only copy of your key.

Your download link is included in the same email as your product key, and it matches the exact edition you purchased. Using the correct installer matters more than most people expect: a key for one edition will not activate a different edition, even when the two look almost identical on screen.

If you already have the correct version of Office or Windows installed, you do not need to download anything at all. You can simply enter your key into the software you already have.

If the download stalls part way through — for example it freezes at a percentage and never finishes — the file is incomplete rather than faulty. Delete the partial download, start it again on a stable connection, and avoid pausing it.

Yes. Your order confirmation acts as your receipt, and we can provide a formal invoice on request, including a company name, address and tax details if you need it for business accounting.

Just contact us with your order number and the billing details you need shown, and we will send the invoice to you.

Yes. Every key we sell is a genuine Microsoft product key that activates against Microsoft’s own activation servers. We do not sell modified keys, generated keys, cracks or activation tools of any kind.

When your product activates, it activates through Microsoft directly. That is why the activation screens, error codes and telephone-activation options you see are Microsoft’s own — we are the supplier of the license, not the software.

It means the license does not expire and has no renewal fee. You pay once, and the version you bought remains yours to use for as long as you want it. This is what Microsoft calls a perpetual license, as opposed to a subscription.

Two things a lifetime license does not include, so there are no surprises later: it does not upgrade you to the next version when one is released, and it does not include the cloud storage or the always-latest-features model of Microsoft 365. You keep the version you bought, with its security updates for as long as Microsoft supports that version.

No. These are one-time purchases. There is no recurring charge, no auto-renewal and no subscription to cancel.

If your Office application ever displays a message about a subscription expiring, that is almost always a Microsoft 365 trial that came preinstalled on your PC, not the license you bought from us. See the Microsoft Office section further down.

That depends entirely on the product you bought, so please check your order rather than assuming. Most of our single-PC licenses activate one computer at a time. Multi-device and volume products state their device count clearly on the product page.

The important point is that the number on the product page is the number that applies. Buying two copies of a single-PC license gives you two licenses for two computers; it does not turn one key into a two-computer key.

Usually not — but it is worth checking, so please contact us either way.

With volume-licensed products such as Office LTSC, Project and Visio, the same key string is issued to every purchaser by design. Uniqueness comes from the activation itself, not the key text: each computer is activated individually against Microsoft’s servers, and the number of activations you hold is the number of licenses you paid for. A single volume key covering several machines is completely normal.

With single-PC retail-style licenses, however, two separate licenses should normally arrive as two usable activations. If you bought a quantity of two and cannot activate the second machine, contact us with your order number and we will check the allocation and correct it.

Very often, no — and this is the single most common misunderstanding we see. In the large majority of “my key doesn’t work” cases, the key is perfectly good and something else is the cause:

• The wrong edition of Windows or Office is installed (a Pro key on a Home installation, for example).
• The product is a volume license that does not activate over the internet and needs the telephone-activation route instead.
• A Microsoft 365 trial is still installed and is intercepting the activation.
• The key was typed with a missing or extra character.

Please send us the exact error code or a screenshot before requesting a replacement. We can usually identify the cause from the code alone, and most cases are resolved without any new key being issued.

If we verify that a key has genuinely been blocked or withdrawn by Microsoft, we replace it. That is our responsibility, not yours, and you will not be asked to buy again.

What we do ask is that we verify it first, because the error codes are easy to misread. Some codes that look alarming — such as a message saying the key has been used on another device or has reached its activation limit — do not mean the key is dead at all; they usually mean the product needs to be activated by the telephone method instead of over the internet.

Open Settings, go to System, then Activation. Expand the section that says “Change product key” or “Upgrade your edition of Windows”, click Change product key, and enter the 25-character key exactly as it appears in your email.

If Windows accepts the key and reports that Windows is activated, you are finished. If it refuses the key, note the error code that appears — that code tells us exactly what is happening, and it is the fastest thing you can send us.

Press the Windows key, type “About”, and open About your PC. Look under Windows specifications at the line labelled Edition. It will say something like Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro N or Windows 11 Enterprise.

This one line prevents more failed activations than anything else, because your key must match that edition exactly. We ask for it routinely, and it is worth checking before you buy as well as before you contact support.

Because Home and Pro are different editions of Windows, and a product key only activates the edition it was issued for. When you try a Pro key on a Home installation, Windows typically returns error 0xC004F050 and reports that the key did not work.

The key is not faulty. The installation simply needs to be switched to Pro first — see the next question.

You do not need a refund, and you do not need to reinstall Windows or lose any of your files. Windows can switch editions in place.

1. Go to Settings → System → Activation and choose Change product key.
2. Enter Microsoft’s generic Pro upgrade key: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T. This key changes the edition only — it does not activate anything, and it is published by Microsoft for exactly this purpose.
3. Allow Windows to switch to Pro and restart when prompted.
4. Return to Settings → System → Activation → Change product key, and now enter the Pro key you purchased from us.

Your files, programs and settings stay where they are. If the final step still refuses the key, send us the error code.

Home is the consumer edition and covers everyday use. Pro adds the business and security features most people actually buy Windows for: BitLocker drive encryption, Remote Desktop hosting, Group Policy, Hyper-V and the ability to join a domain. Enterprise adds large-organisation management and deployment features and is normally licensed to companies in volume. Pro for Workstations is aimed at very high-end hardware, supporting far more memory and processors and the ReFS file system.

For almost all home users, small businesses and freelancers, Pro is the right choice. The critical point for activation is that each of these is a separate edition — a key for one will not activate another.

N editions are versions of Windows sold mainly in Europe that ship without Windows Media Player and certain related media playback features, for regulatory reasons. Everything else is the same.

They exist as a separate edition, which matters more than the missing features do — see the next question.

No. Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Pro N are treated as different editions, and the keys are not interchangeable in either direction. Trying it normally produces error 0xC004F050.

If you bought an N key but your PC runs standard Pro, or vice versa, do not assume the key is faulty. Contact us — in most cases the correct fix is a straightforward exchange to the matching edition, which is far simpler than reinstalling Windows.

Because that screen tells us three things at once: which edition of Windows is actually installed, whether it is currently activated, and the exact error code if it is not. Those three facts identify the cause of most activation problems immediately.

Without them we are guessing, and guessing usually means a longer conversation and sometimes an unnecessary replacement key. One screenshot typically saves several emails.

It can. Windows ties an activation to the hardware it was activated on, and a major change — most often a new motherboard, and sometimes a new hard drive or a significant upgrade — can cause Windows to report that it is no longer activated. Error 0xC004F211 is the usual sign.

This does not mean you have lost your license. Re-enter your key in Settings → System → Activation, and if it will not reactivate online, contact us and we will help you complete it by the telephone method instead.

They are successive perpetual releases of the same core applications — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and so on — with each release adding features and a longer support window than the one before it.

The most practical difference for buyers today is support lifetime: the newer the release, the longer Microsoft continues to provide security updates for it. The second practical difference is app content, and the notable one is Publisher — see the Project, Visio & Publisher section, because that catches people out.

Whichever you choose, it is a one-time purchase and does not upgrade itself to the next version.

They differ by which applications are included.

Home & Business typically covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote — the everyday set. Standard covers a similar core set and is a volume-licensed product aimed at organisations. Professional Plus is the fullest Windows edition and adds Access, with Skype for Business offered as an optional install in the 2024 release.

If you specifically need Access, you need Professional Plus, and you need it on Windows — Access is not available on macOS at all.

LTSC stands for Long-Term Servicing Channel. It is Microsoft’s perpetual, volume-licensed edition of Office, designed for machines that should keep a fixed feature set rather than receiving continuous feature updates.

Office LTSC Professional Plus 2024 is Office 2024 Professional Plus in its volume-licensed form — it is not a lesser or different product, and customers sometimes request a refund believing they were sent the wrong thing. The genuine difference that matters to you is in activation: volume-licensed editions frequently will not activate over the internet and use the telephone-activation route instead. That is normal and expected, not a fault.

Everything we sell in the Office range is a perpetual, one-time purchase. You are not subscribing to anything and you will not be billed again.

If Office tells you a subscription has expired, you are almost certainly looking at a preinstalled Microsoft 365 trial rather than your own license. The next question covers that.

Yes, and this is one of the most common causes of “my Office key doesn’t work”. Most new PCs ship with a Microsoft 365 trial preinstalled. When you install a perpetual Office edition alongside it, the two fight over the same applications: you open Word and get the 365 trial, complete with expiry warnings and prompts to subscribe, while the license you paid for sits unused.

The symptoms are usually a message about a subscription expiring, a prompt to sign in to an account you do not want to use, or Office opening but refusing to save.

Yes, and we strongly recommend doing it first rather than afterwards.

Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps. Look for any entry named Microsoft 365, Office 365 or similar and uninstall it. Restart the computer, then install the edition you purchased from us using the link in your delivery email, and activate it with your key.

Leaving the trial in place is the single most common reason a perfectly good Office key appears not to work.

Open Word or Excel, click File, then Account (in some versions it is called Office Account). The panel on the right shows the product name — for example “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2024” or “Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise” — along with its activation status.

Please check this before buying if you are unsure what you already have, and include it when you contact us about an activation problem. It is the Office equivalent of the Windows Edition line, and it answers most questions instantly.

Open any Office application, such as Word. Go to File → Account → Change Product Key (it may appear as Activate Product). Enter your 25-character key exactly as it appears in your email and confirm.

If activation completes, the Account screen will read “Product Activated” and you are finished. If it does not complete online, do not assume the key has failed — many of our Office products are volume licenses that are designed to be activated by telephone instead. See the telephone activation section.

It means the copy of Office currently running has no valid license attached to it. The three usual causes are that the key has not been entered yet, that a Microsoft 365 trial is installed and is being used instead of your purchased edition, or that an activation that previously worked has lapsed.

Go to File → Account and look at what it says under Product Information. If it names a 365 product rather than the edition you bought, uninstall 365 and reinstall your edition. If it names your edition, re-enter your key through Change Product Key.

This is Office’s reduced functionality mode. You can open and read your documents, but editing, saving and printing are restricted. It appears when Office is installed but not activated, or when a trial period has run out.

Your documents are safe and nothing has been lost. Activating Office with your key restores full editing immediately.

Not necessarily, and it is worth checking now rather than later. Office will often run for an initial grace period without asking for anything, which feels like success — and then drops into read-only mode days or weeks afterwards, usually at an inconvenient moment.

Open Word, go to File → Account, and look at Product Information. If it says “Product Activated”, you are genuinely fine. If it shows a countdown, a coloured banner or any message about activation being required, please activate with your key while everything is still working normally.

Because Office keys are edition-specific. An Office 2021 Professional Plus key will not activate an Office 2019 installation, an Office 2024 key will not activate Office 2021, and none of them will activate Microsoft 365.

The fix is to install the edition your key was issued for, using the download link in your delivery email, rather than trying to make the key fit the software already on the machine. If you are not sure which version is installed, check File → Account.

When two versions of Office are present, the older installation can keep control of file associations, so double-clicking a document opens the wrong one. Please do not try to fix this by deleting registry entries by hand — we have seen that make matters considerably worse.

Uninstall the old version through Settings → Apps → Installed apps, then restart. If the problem persists, run an Online Repair on the version you want to keep (Settings → Apps → Installed apps → select Office → Modify → Online Repair). Microsoft also publish a free Support and Recovery Assistant that resolves stubborn cases of this.

These four things let us solve most cases on the first reply:

1. A screenshot of File → Account, showing the product name and activation status.
2. The exact error code or message, typed out or captured in full.
3. Which product and edition you purchased.
4. Whether Microsoft 365 is or was installed on the machine.

A clear, uncropped screenshot is worth more than a description — activation messages contain codes that change the diagnosis entirely.

Only editions that Microsoft publishes for macOS will work on a Mac. Office for Mac releases such as Office Home & Business for Mac, and Office LTSC Standard 2024 for Mac, run natively on macOS.

Please check the product page before ordering, and if you are buying for a Mac, say so when you contact us — it is far easier to confirm compatibility before purchase than to resolve it afterwards.

No. Office Professional Plus is a Windows product and there is no macOS version of it. The key will not install or activate on a Mac, and no workaround changes that.

This also means Access is unavailable on macOS, since Access is Windows-only. If you need Access, you need a Windows PC.

Contact us and tell us what you bought and what you actually need. Provided the key has not been used, we can normally look at exchanging it for the correct Mac product or refunding it under our policy.

Please get in touch before attempting to install or activate it, as an unused license is much simpler to resolve.

No. Windows and Mac editions of Office are separate products with separate keys. A single license covers the platform it was issued for.

If you need Office on both a PC and a Mac, you need the appropriate license for each.

Almost certainly not. This is a known Office-for-Mac issue with the built-in sign-in window, and it usually clears with these steps:

1. Redeem your key in Safari or Chrome first, not inside Word, at Microsoft’s setup page, signing in with the Microsoft account you intend to use.
2. Quit every Office application completely and restart the Mac.
3. Open Word, go to Help → Check for Updates, and install everything offered. Older Office builds have a sign-in window that fails to load on recent versions of macOS, and updating alone fixes most cases.
4. Sign in again with the same account you used in step 1.

If it still will not sign in, stored credentials on the Mac are usually the cause. Microsoft publish an official License Removal Tool for Mac that clears them safely; run it, restart, and sign in again.

Because many of the products we sell — particularly Office LTSC, Office Professional Plus, Project, Visio and certain Windows editions — are volume licenses, and volume licenses are frequently not designed to complete activation online. Microsoft routes them through telephone activation instead.

Seeing an online activation fail on these products is expected behaviour, not a defect. It does not mean your key is used up, blocked or invalid. Error codes such as 0xC004C008 (“used on another device”) and 0xC004C020 (“Multiple Activation Key limit reached”) are the normal signs that you should switch to the telephone method.

No. Although Microsoft’s wizard is called “telephone activation”, you do not need to call anyone. You send us two pieces of information from the screen and we return the code that completes the activation.

Customers who do call the automated line often find it has been retired or that the menu loops. Please use us instead — it is faster and it is what we are here for.

An Installation ID is a long number that Microsoft’s activation wizard generates on your specific computer. It is made up of 9 groups of 7 digits, usually labelled A through I on screen.

It identifies that one installation on that one machine. It is not your product key, and it is not secret — it is simply the number we need in order to produce the code that activates you.

For Office, Project or Visio: open the application and let the Activation Wizard appear, choose “I want to activate the software by telephone”, then select your country from the drop-down list. The Installation ID appears only after a country is chosen.

For Windows: press the Windows key, type slui 4, press Enter, and select your country on the screen that appears.

That country step is the single most common thing people miss. We regularly receive screenshots taken one step too early, showing an empty space where the number should be. If you cannot see nine groups of digits, you have not selected a country yet.

On some newer builds of Windows the old wizard no longer appears. You can get the number directly instead:

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator (right-click the Start button and choose Terminal (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin)).
2. Type slmgr /dti and press Enter.
3. A window appears showing your Installation ID.

Send us that number and we will return your Confirmation ID, which you then apply with slmgr /atp followed by the code.

The Confirmation ID is the code we send back to you in response to your Installation ID. It is 8 groups of 6 digits and it completes the activation.

You enter it on the same telephone-activation screen you took the Installation ID from, in the boxes labelled A to H. Do not close that window while you wait for us — see the next question.

Because Confirmation IDs are entirely numeric. If you find yourself trying to type letters into those boxes, you are entering the wrong thing — most often the product key, which does contain letters and belongs on a different screen.

Product keys go into “Change product key”. Confirmation IDs go into the A-to-H boxes on the telephone-activation screen. Keeping those two apart prevents a great deal of frustration.

No. Nothing is lost and nothing is used up. You can reopen the activation wizard as many times as you need.

What does change is the Installation ID itself: it is regenerated whenever the wizard is closed or the computer restarts. So if you closed the window, simply reopen it, select your country again, and send us the new number. We will issue a fresh Confirmation ID to match.

Installation IDs are regenerated when the activation wizard is closed, when the PC restarts or sleeps, and when a different product key is entered. This is normal.

The practical consequence is that a Confirmation ID only matches the Installation ID it was generated from. If the number on your screen has changed since you sent it to us, the code we sent will be rejected — send us the current number and we will issue a new code.

There are three usual causes, in order of how often we see them:

1. The Installation ID changed after you sent it, because the window was closed or the PC restarted.
2. A digit was mistyped when the Installation ID was sent to us, or when the Confirmation ID was entered.
3. The code was generated for a different computer. A Confirmation ID is valid for one machine only, so a second PC always needs its own Installation ID and its own code.

Reopen the wizard, select your country, and send us a clear photo or typed copy of the current nine groups. Please make sure the right-hand edge is not cut off — cropped photos that lose the ninth group are the most frequent reason we have to ask twice.

No. Project has never been part of any Office suite. It is a separate product with its own license and its own product key, and it must be purchased separately.

No. Like Project, Visio is licensed and sold separately from Office. Buying Office Professional Plus does not give you Visio, and buying Visio does not give you Office.

No. Microsoft does not publish Project or Visio for macOS. Both are Windows-only applications.

If you work on a Mac and need them, the realistic options are running Windows on that Mac or using a separate Windows PC.

First, check that no conflicting Microsoft 365 installation of the same application is present, and uninstall it if it is.

Second, expect telephone activation. Project 2024 and Visio 2024 are volume-licensed products, and a message stating that you have reached the limit of your Multiple Activation Key is the normal prompt to switch to the telephone route rather than a sign of a faulty key. Follow the telephone activation section and send us your Installation ID.

Third, make sure you installed from the correct installer for the edition you bought — Professional and Standard are different editions with different keys.

No. Microsoft confirm that Publisher is not included in Office LTSC 2024, because Publisher is being retired.

This surprises a lot of customers, so please read the next two answers before buying if Publisher matters to you.

Publisher is included in Office 2021 and earlier releases — Publisher 2021, 2019, 2016 and back. Office 2021 Professional Plus is the most recent perpetual suite that includes it.

If Publisher is the reason you are buying Office, please choose accordingly, and do read the next answer about its retirement first.

Only with your eyes open, because Office 2024 does not include Publisher and moving to it means losing the application.

Microsoft are retiring Publisher in October 2026. Microsoft 365 subscribers lose access on 1 October 2026, and the perpetual versions (Office 2021 and Office LTSC 2021) reach end of support on 13 October 2026. Owners of a perpetual license can continue to install and use Publisher after that date, but it will no longer be supported or updated.

Microsoft’s own advice is to convert important Publisher files to PDF or Word format before the cutoff so you keep access to the content. If Publisher is central to your work, plan the move now rather than in 2026.

The features are largely the same; the difference that drives the price is virtualisation rights. Standard is intended for lightly virtualised or physical deployments and permits a small number of virtual instances per license. Datacenter permits unlimited virtual instances on the licensed host and adds features aimed at large virtualised and software-defined datacenter environments.

In practice: if you run one or two virtual machines, Standard is normally correct. If you run many virtual machines on the same hardware, Datacenter usually works out both simpler and cheaper.

An RDS CAL is a Remote Desktop Services Client Access License. It is the license that permits a user or a device to connect to a Remote Desktop session host.

It is an additional license on top of Windows Server. Without RDS CALs, Remote Desktop Services will only run for a limited grace period and then stop accepting connections.

A User CAL is assigned to a person and allows that person to connect from any number of devices — their office PC, laptop and phone. A Device CAL is assigned to a machine and allows any number of people to connect from that one machine.

Choose by your working pattern: staff who roam between devices are cheaper on User CALs, while shared machines such as a shift-worked terminal or a shop-floor PC are cheaper on Device CALs.

Yes. The Windows Server license covers the server software running on the hardware. It does not include the right for users or devices to connect to it — that is what CALs are for, and they are licensed separately.

If you are using Remote Desktop Services, you need both Windows Server CALs and RDS CALs. This catches out a lot of first-time buyers, so please plan for both.

Only with a license that permits shared, multi-user installation. Consumer and single-PC Office licenses do not permit it, and this is a licensing restriction rather than a technical one.

For Remote Desktop environments you need a volume-licensed edition, such as Office LTSC Professional Plus or Office LTSC Standard. If you are buying Office for an RDS deployment, tell us at the time of ordering so we can confirm the correct edition for your setup.

Three things, because SQL Server is the product where a wrong assumption is most expensive:

1. The edition — Standard and Enterprise differ substantially in features and in scalability limits.
2. The licensing model — SQL Server is licensed either per core, or by server plus CALs. Which one suits you depends on how many users you have and how the server is deployed.
3. The version and the hardware — confirm the version you need and that your server meets its requirements before ordering.

If you are unsure, contact us with the number of users, the number of cores and what the server will be doing, and we will help you identify what you need.

Yes. A perpetual license stays valid for that computer, so reinstalling Windows on the same machine and entering the same key again is expected and permitted.

In many cases Windows reactivates itself automatically after a clean install, because the license is remembered against the hardware. If it does not, enter your key manually under Settings → System → Activation.

Yes, on the same computer, as many times as you need. Reinstalling does not consume your license.

Download the correct edition using the link from your delivery email, install it, then activate with your key as you did the first time. If your product uses telephone activation, the reinstall will generate a new Installation ID and we will issue a fresh Confirmation ID for it — there is no limit on this and you will not be charged.

That depends on the license type, so please check with us rather than assuming.

Retail-style licenses can generally be transferred to a replacement computer, provided the software is removed from the old one first — one license covers one machine at a time. OEM-style licenses are tied to the original hardware and cannot be moved. Volume licenses follow their own terms.

Tell us which product you bought and what you are moving it to, and we will tell you what applies and help with the activation on the new machine.

This is normal after a major hardware change, and it does not mean your license is gone. Windows treats significant hardware changes as a new machine, which is why it asks to be activated again (error 0xC004F211 is the usual code).

Re-enter your key under Settings → System → Activation. If online activation is refused, contact us — we will complete it for you through the telephone-activation route. Please do not buy a second license for this.

Yes, please do. That email is your product key, your download link and your proof of purchase in one place, and you will want it again for any reinstall, hardware change or new computer.

We recommend saving the key somewhere separate as well — a password manager or a printed note kept with your computer documents — so that a lost or closed mailbox does not take your license record with it.

Yes. Set the quantity you need at checkout and you will receive the corresponding number of licenses.

Please buy one license per computer. Buying one license and using it on several machines will lead to activation failures on the additional PCs, and it is not something we can resolve afterwards.

Yes, and we would rather you talked to us first on a larger deployment than worked it out at checkout. Contact us with the products, the quantities and a short description of the environment — for example how many machines, whether Remote Desktop is involved, and whether you need Server or CALs alongside.

We can confirm the correct editions for your setup, supply the licenses together, and provide a consolidated invoice with your company details for accounting.

Use the same key on each computer, one machine at a time. With volume products the same key string is correct for every machine — uniqueness comes from activating each installation individually.

If the product activates by telephone, every computer generates its own Installation ID and needs its own Confirmation ID. Send us the Installation IDs clearly labelled (PC 1, PC 2 and so on) and we will return the matching codes in the same order.

Yes, and it is much more efficient for both of us. Send us the Installation IDs in a single message, clearly labelled per machine, and we will return all the Confirmation IDs together rather than one exchange at a time.

If a rollout is happening on a fixed date, tell us the deadline in advance so we can prioritise it.

Please contact support first, because in most cases the key is not the problem and a refund is not the fastest route to a working product.

The great majority of activation failures we see come down to an edition mismatch, a Microsoft 365 trial still on the machine, or a volume product that needs telephone activation rather than an internet connection. Those are all fixable in minutes once we can see the error code, and you end up with the software you wanted rather than waiting on a refund.

If your key genuinely turns out to be defective, we will replace it — that route stays open to you either way.

Yes. If we verify that a key has been blocked or withdrawn by Microsoft and cannot be activated, we issue a replacement at no cost to you.

We do verify first, because error codes that look fatal often are not. A message saying the key has been used on another device or has reached its activation limit usually means the product needs telephone activation, not that anything is wrong with your license.

You can request a refund within 30 days of purchase. Unused keys are refunded in full.

Once a key has been activated the license has been used, so those are looked at case by case — if you have bought the wrong product, contacting us before you install it gives us the most options to help.

Sending these together usually gets your problem solved in one reply rather than four:

1. Your order number or the email address you purchased with.
2. Which product and edition you bought.
3. What you are trying to activate, and on which operating system.
4. The exact error code or message — a clear, uncropped screenshot is ideal.
5. Whether Microsoft 365 is or was installed on the machine.

If your problem involves telephone activation, include the full Installation ID: nine groups of seven digits, with nothing cut off at the edge of the photo.

Because the screen contains information that decides the answer. The edition line, the activation status and the exact error code each point to a different cause, and without them we would be guessing at your configuration.

One clear screenshot typically replaces several rounds of questions and gets you activated the same day. We are not asking to delay you — we are asking because it is the shortest path.

Yes. We regularly help with problems that are not licensing faults at all — Microsoft 365 conflicts, installers that stall, Windows editions that need switching, Office file associations, and activation wizards that behave differently on newer builds.

If you are stuck, describe what you see and send a screenshot. If it turns out to be something only Microsoft can resolve, we will tell you honestly and point you to the right place rather than leave you guessing.