If you've done everything above (including setting the domain suffix and activated a VPN if off campus) and it's still not working, you may be able to manually activate it by opening a command line shell.

If after closing and then reopening the application you still do not see the Product Activated message, you should verify that your operating system is set up with the correct domain suffix mit.edu.

Note: If you have installed Office while away from campus, make sure you have established a VPN connection to the MIT network to allow Office to check in with the MIT license server. If you don't get this result right away, close the office application you are running, and relaunch the application to check again. If you see the words Product Activated, activation was successful. On the right-hand side of the screen, you will see the product activation information as displayed below. ( Note: The screen shots below were taken in MS Office Word, but the process is similar in all Office programs.) Once you have installed Microsoft Office 2016 / 2019 / 2021, you can validate that your license has been activated by following these steps:

If you are running Microsoft Office from off-campus, you must be connected to the MIT network via MIT VPN. Your installation of Microsoft Office needs to check in with MIT's license server at least once every 180 days to remain operational, via the MIT network.

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