A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Run an Online Repair of Microsoft 365 or Office, then restart Windows and open Word again.
Repair Office
Windows 11
- Close Word and all other Office applications.
- Right-click Start and select Installed apps.
- Find Microsoft 365 or your Microsoft Office edition.
- Select the three dots (…) beside it, then Modify.
- For a Click-to-Run installation, select Online Repair → Repair.
For an MSI-based installation, select Repair → Continue. - Complete the prompts, restart the computer, and test Word.
Windows 10
- Right-click Start and select Apps and Features.
- Select Microsoft 365 or Office, then select Modify.
- Choose Online Repair → Repair, complete the process, and restart.
Online Repair repairs the whole Office suite, even when only Word has the problem. It is more comprehensive than Quick Repair.^1^
If Word still cannot verify the license
Work through these checks in order:
- Verify the account and license
- Open the Microsoft Services & subscriptions page: https://account.microsoft.com/services
- Sign in with the Microsoft account used to purchase or activate Office.
- Confirm that the Office product or Microsoft 365 subscription appears and, for a subscription, that it has not expired.
- Open Word and sign in with that same account.^2^
- Remove conflicting Office installations
- Open Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features.
- Search for Office.
- If multiple Office versions are installed, uninstall versions you no longer use.
- Restart Windows and open Word again. Multiple Office installations can cause activation conflicts.^2^
- Run the activation troubleshooter
- This applies to Microsoft 365 on Windows 10 or later.
- Open Microsoft’s activation-error page and start the Microsoft 365 activation troubleshooter.
- Allow it to open the Get Help application and complete the prompts on the affected computer.^2^
- Check Windows date and time
- Close Office.
- Open Settings → Time & language → Date & time.
- Enable Set time automatically and, if available, Set time zone automatically.
- Reopen Word. Incorrect date, time, or time-zone settings can prevent activation.^2^
If this is Office 2010
Office 2010 reached end of support on October 13, 2020. You can still attempt Installed apps → Office 2010 → Modify → Repair, but if license verification continues, replace it with a currently supported Office edition.^3^
References