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Deactivate an Office 365 Installation (So You Can Reinstall on Another Computer)

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If you have Office 365 for Business, chances are you can take advantage of the benefit of installing Office applications on up to five different computers. For example, you might want to install Office 2016 on a PC you use at work, a laptop you use while traveling, and a Mac you use at home.

You can follow these instructions for installing Office applications associated with your Office 365 for Business account, but what happens if you reach your maximum limit of five installs? You’ll see a warning telling you that your install limit has been reached. If it’s essential that you install Office on a sixth computer, you’ll need to deactivate one of your five to make room.

How to Deactivate Office 365

You can follow the instructions in the video above, or:

  1. Click your settings gear, and select Office 365 settings.
  2. Click Install and manage software.
  3. You’ll see a “Manage installs” section. Next to the listing for the computer you wish to remove Office from, click Deactivate.
  4. Click Yes to confirm the deactivation.

Note  This process doesn’t actually uninstall Office applications. When you launch an Office app on the deactivated computer, you’ll be able to read and print existing documents, but that’s it–you’re experiencing reduced functionality. If you want to completely remove Office, you’ll have to uninstall it according to your operating system’s instructions.

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