<https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-365-users-hit-by-random-product-deactivation-errors/>

​Microsoft is investigating a known issue triggering "Product
Deactivated" errors for customers using Microsoft 365 Office apps.

According to online user reports on Reddit and Microsoft's own community
website, affected users randomly received these "Product Deactivated"
errors in Office apps, prompting confusion and disruptions.

As Redmond explained in a support document published on Thursday, these
problems stem from licensing changes initiated by administrators.

More precisely, the known issue arises when moving users between
licensing groups (including Azure Active Directory groups or synced
on-premises security groups) or switching user subscriptions, such as
changing from an Office 365 E3 license to a Microsoft 365 E3 license.

It can also be triggered when admins remove and re-add users to license
groups, adjust license or service plan settings, or toggle the "Latest
version of Desktop Apps" service plan under the Microsoft 365 subscription.

To address this deactivation issue, customers can click the "Reactivate"
button on the error banner and sign in when prompted. Alternatively,
they can sign out of all Microsoft 365 apps, close them, and restart
them before signing back in.

If the issue persists, users are advised to contact their administrators
to check if the Microsoft 365 subscription has expired. Admins can check
subscription details under the Microsoft 365 subscription management portal.

​For further troubleshooting, Microsoft advises users with open support
cases to provide diagnostic data to its engineers, collected using the
Office Licensing Diagnostic Tool, which can help find the root cause of
licensing-related issues.

Affected users are also prompted to provide support engineers with the
logs stored in the %temp%/diagnostics directory.

While Microsoft has yet to share a timeline for a fix, its engineering
team is actively investigating this known issue. The company encourages
affected users and administrators to monitor its support channels for
updates.

Last month, Microsoft also shared a temporary fix for a known issue
affecting Microsoft 365 customers that causes classic Outlook to hang or
freeze when copying text.

In September, the company fixed another bug that crashed Microsoft 365
apps (i.e., Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote) when typing or spell-checking
a text.
--
CrudeSausage

On 20/12/2024 9:03 am, CrudeSausage wrote:
> <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-365-users-hit-by-random-product-deactivation-errors/>
>
> ​Microsoft is investigating a known issue triggering "Product
> Deactivated" errors for customers using Microsoft 365 Office apps.
>

It's not about "owning the software", but whether it requires a
real-time online account to work. The usual words are "standalone" and
"offline". :)

Le 2024-12-21 à 03:52, Mr. Man-wai Chang a écrit :
> On 20/12/2024 9:03 am, CrudeSausage wrote:
>> <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-365-users-
>> hit-by-random-product-deactivation-errors/>
>>
>> ​Microsoft is investigating a known issue triggering "Product
>> Deactivated" errors for customers using Microsoft 365 Office apps.
>>
>
> It's not about "owning the software", but whether it requires a real-
> time online account to work. The usual words are "standalone" and
> "offline". :)

The moment you require an online account to verify if you are the person
who bought the software, you don't own it.

--
CrudeSausage

On 21/12/2024 8:26 pm, CrudeSausage wrote:
> Le 2024-12-21 à 03:52, Mr. Man-wai Chang a écrit :
>> On 20/12/2024 9:03 am, CrudeSausage wrote:
>>
>> It's not about "owning the software", but whether it requires a real-
>> time online account to work. The usual words are "standalone" and
>> "offline". :)
>
> The moment you require an online account to verify if you are the person
> who bought the software, you don't own it.

If you really paid for it, the online check should still tell you that
you own it, or at least, you have a "digital entitlement". :)

Office 365 is not the same as the older standalone Office 2021. Well...
I am still using 2007 and 2010.

In alt.comp.os.windows-11 Mr. Man-wai Chang <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 21/12/2024 8:26 pm, CrudeSausage wrote:
> > Le 2024-12-21 à 03:52, Mr. Man-wai Chang a écrit :
> >> On 20/12/2024 9:03 am, CrudeSausage wrote:
> >>
> >> It's not about "owning the software", but whether it requires a real-
> >> time online account to work. The usual words are "standalone" and
> >> "offline". :)
> >
> > The moment you require an online account to verify if you are the person
> > who bought the software, you don't own it.

> If you really paid for it, the online check should still tell you that
> you own it, or at least, you have a "digital entitlement". :)

And if this company goes away... :(

> Office 365 is not the same as the older standalone Office 2021. Well...
> I am still using 2007 and 2010.

I am using updated 2007 SR3 and LibreOffice, but I rarely use Office
anymore like my younger days since Office 95.

--
"Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." --Luke 12:23. :) Holidays, Merry Xmas, etc.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
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( )

On 24/12/2024 7:24 am, Ant wrote:
>
> I am using updated 2007 SR3 and LibreOffice, but I rarely use Office
> anymore like my younger days since Office 95.

As a programmer, I also seldom use Office, except for writing
application letters and resume.

On 24/12/2024 7:24 am, Ant wrote:
> In alt.comp.os.windows-11 Mr. Man-wai Chang <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:
>> If you really paid for it, the online check should still tell you that
>> you own it, or at least, you have a "digital entitlement". :)
>
> And if this company goes away... :(

So you wanna talk about real and virtual? Well... :)

In alt.comp.os.windows-11 Mr. Man-wai Chang <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 24/12/2024 7:24 am, Ant wrote:
> >
> > I am using updated 2007 SR3 and LibreOffice, but I rarely use Office
> > anymore like my younger days since Office 95.

> As a programmer, I also seldom use Office, except for writing
> application letters and resume.

Like me!
--
"Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." --Luke 12:23. :) Holidays, Merry Xmas, etc.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

On Wed, 25 Dec 2024 11:48:16 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

> As a programmer, I also seldom use Office, except for writing
> application letters and resume.

As a programmer, I like to use powerful and versatile tools. That includes
the ability to automate workflow.

Tools exist for this purpose, like odfpy for ISO 26300 files, which are
the native format of LibreOffice. And LibreOffice itself can run Python
code.

On 12/19/24 20:03, CrudeSausage wrote:

> ​Microsoft

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to
the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust
you will return.”

I don't see rental or proprietary anything in the above.

On 26/12/2024 4:39 am, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>
> As a programmer, I like to use powerful and versatile tools. That includes
> the ability to automate workflow.
>
> Tools exist for this purpose, like odfpy for ISO 26300 files, which are
> the native format of LibreOffice. And LibreOffice itself can run Python
> code.

My programming tasks has never ever needed to automate Office using VBA.

On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:23:49 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

> On 26/12/2024 4:39 am, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>> As a programmer, I like to use powerful and versatile tools. That includes
>> the ability to automate workflow.
>>
>> Tools exist for this purpose, like odfpy for ISO 26300 files, which are
>> the native format of LibreOffice. And LibreOffice itself can run Python
>> code.
>
> My programming tasks has never ever needed to automate Office using VBA.

So your needs are fairly simple. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.

On 28/12/2024 3:04 pm, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:23:49 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
>>
>> My programming tasks has never ever needed to automate Office using VBA.
>
> So your needs are fairly simple. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.

And downright old and legacy management information systems(MIS)!!! :)

On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 07:04:57 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:23:49 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
>
>> On 26/12/2024 4:39 am, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>>
>>> As a programmer, I like to use powerful and versatile tools. That
>>> includes the ability to automate workflow.
>>>
>>> Tools exist for this purpose, like odfpy for ISO 26300 files, which
>>> are the native format of LibreOffice. And LibreOffice itself can run
>>> Python code.
>>
>> My programming tasks has never ever needed to automate Office using
>> VBA.
>
> So your needs are fairly simple. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.

You do realize there is a whole world outside of Office?

On 2024-12-28 14:34, rbowman wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 07:04:57 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:23:49 +0800, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
>>
>>> On 26/12/2024 4:39 am, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>>>
>>>> As a programmer, I like to use powerful and versatile tools. That
>>>> includes the ability to automate workflow.
>>>>
>>>> Tools exist for this purpose, like odfpy for ISO 26300 files, which
>>>> are the native format of LibreOffice. And LibreOffice itself can run
>>>> Python code.
>>>
>>> My programming tasks has never ever needed to automate Office using
>>> VBA.
>>
>> So your needs are fairly simple. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.
>
> You do realize there is a whole world outside of Office?

Yeah, it sometimes pains me that it is brought up as often as it is as
some sort of must-have piece of software. It suggests that people don't
do much other than open up Word and Excel.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch

Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> wrote:
>On 2024-12-28 14:34, rbowman wrote:
>>
>> You do realize there is a whole world outside of Office?
>
>Yeah, it sometimes pains me that it is brought up as often as it is as
>some sort of must-have piece of software. It suggests that people don't
>do much other than open up Word and Excel.

Yes, they get these people to buy a laptop every three years, to keep
up with M$'s grotesque OS's bloat, so that they can have their pretty
Office apps. It's unbelievable. The value I'm getting from my
computer is beyond what they could know.

--
Joel W. Crump

Amendment XIV
Section 1.

[...] No state shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

Dobbs rewrites this, it is invalid precedent. States are
liable for denying needed abortions, e.g. TX.

On 2024-12-28 15:12, Joel wrote:
> Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> wrote:
>> On 2024-12-28 14:34, rbowman wrote:
>>>
>>> You do realize there is a whole world outside of Office?
>>
>> Yeah, it sometimes pains me that it is brought up as often as it is as
>> some sort of must-have piece of software. It suggests that people don't
>> do much other than open up Word and Excel.
>
>
> Yes, they get these people to buy a laptop every three years, to keep
> up with M$'s grotesque OS's bloat, so that they can have their pretty
> Office apps. It's unbelievable. The value I'm getting from my
> computer is beyond what they could know.

I was telling my wife the exact same thing. We're not doing much more
than we were in 2008, yet a 2008 machine would be incapable of handling
today's software (unless it's running Linux). At some point, people need
to wake up and realize that the exponential increase in speed isn't
offering any real benefit to users who are doing anything other than
video editing or gaming.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch

Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> wrote:

>> people ... buy a laptop every three years, to keep
>> up with M$'s grotesque OS's bloat, so that they can have their pretty
>> Office apps. It's unbelievable. The value I'm getting from my
>> computer is beyond what they could know.
>
>I was telling my wife the exact same thing. We're not doing much more
>than we were in 2008, yet a 2008 machine would be incapable of handling
>today's software (unless it's running Linux). At some point, people need
>to wake up and realize that the exponential increase in speed isn't
>offering any real benefit to users who are doing anything other than
>video editing or gaming.

It's just a scheme to keep people upgrading hardware.

--
Joel W. Crump

Amendment XIV
Section 1.

[...] No state shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

Dobbs rewrites this, it is invalid precedent. States are
liable for denying needed abortions, e.g. TX.

On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:07:39 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> Yeah, it sometimes pains me that it is brought up as often as it is as
> some sort of must-have piece of software. It suggests that people don't
> do much other than open up Word and Excel.

I'm the minority report. I have never used Office. I have no need for it
in my personal life and the company never installed it on the programming
machines. If we get RFPs or other documents in docx or xlsx we use
LibreOffice. For me, that's a read-only thing since my attempts to edit
anything were disasters.

The first speadsheet I encountered was SuperCalc that was bundled on the
Osborne 1 CP/M machine in '81. I never figured out how to use it or what
it was good for. 40 years later I've never created any document with Excel
or any other spreadsheet. The closest I've come is I'm told the Power BI
queries are based on Excel's. Even then I was mining a SQL Server
database, not anything created in Excel.

Office sofware in general is a whole other world for me. People are
welcome to it but saying you must only do simple programming because you
can't write a VBA script for Office is beyond sheer ignorance.

On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 17:11:52 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> I was telling my wife the exact same thing. We're not doing much more
> than we were in 2008, yet a 2008 machine would be incapable of handling
> today's software (unless it's running Linux). At some point, people need
> to wake up and realize that the exponential increase in speed isn't
> offering any real benefit to users who are doing anything other than
> video editing or gaming.

Yes and no. VS Code or Vim patiently waits for many more cycles while I
figure out what I'm trying to do. Otoh I can do things with Python that
wouldn't have been possible 25 years ago. The user doesn't have a clue if
the back end is FastAPI or FastCGI using compiled C.

I recall when Java was young, lithe, and slender. Then Swing came along
and it turned into a hog. The answer was 'you need a faster machine.'

As far as the user is concerned there is no difference but the speed
increases enabled technologies that (supposedly) made development faster.

There is a similar effect with microcontrollers. A 8048 was extremely
limited and you usually wound up using assembler. The Atmel chip in the
classic Arduinos is luxurious and you can work in C/C++. However there
still are memory limits. The Arm based chips are faster and have more
flash so for many applications you can use MicroPython or CircuitPython
unless you need very fine control of the chip. If you want to do your
Christmas lights with neopixels, Python is a lot easier than fiddling
around with the C SDK.

Is that progress? Beat's me. I was at a museum that had a display of the
development of household labor saving devices. It noted that when
housewives received all these new time savers they tended to find new
things to spend the saved time on. Filling your house with Victorian
kitsch didn't advance civilization.

In alt.comp.os.windows-11 rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:07:39 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> > Yeah, it sometimes pains me that it is brought up as often as it is as
> > some sort of must-have piece of software. It suggests that people don't
> > do much other than open up Word and Excel.

> I'm the minority report. I have never used Office. I have no need for it
> in my personal life and the company never installed it on the programming
> machines. If we get RFPs or other documents in docx or xlsx we use
> LibreOffice. For me, that's a read-only thing since my attempts to edit
> anything were disasters.

What do you use to edit/create documents and spreadsheets with others?

> The first speadsheet I encountered was SuperCalc that was bundled on the
> Osborne 1 CP/M machine in '81. I never figured out how to use it or what
> it was good for. 40 years later I've never created any document with Excel
> or any other spreadsheet. The closest I've come is I'm told the Power BI
> queries are based on Excel's. Even then I was mining a SQL Server
> database, not anything created in Excel.

> Office sofware in general is a whole other world for me. People are
> welcome to it but saying you must only do simple programming because you
> can't write a VBA script for Office is beyond sheer ignorance.

I'm surprised you don't do any documents. I have been using word
processors since I was in elementary with Apple 2's AppleWorks.

--
"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'" --Hebrews 12:28-29. Crazy humans outside on Fri.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>I have been using word
>processors since I was in elementary with Apple 2's AppleWorks.

I used it to write my second-semester college-English research paper,
in 1996, because the Winblows computer was shared among the family,
and I could set up the Apple //e in my room.

--
Joel W. Crump

Amendment XIV
Section 1.

[...] No state shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

Dobbs rewrites this, it is invalid precedent. States are
liable for denying needed abortions, e.g. TX.

On 2024-12-28 19:32, rbowman wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:07:39 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:
>
>> Yeah, it sometimes pains me that it is brought up as often as it is as
>> some sort of must-have piece of software. It suggests that people don't
>> do much other than open up Word and Excel.
>
> I'm the minority report. I have never used Office. I have no need for it
> in my personal life and the company never installed it on the programming
> machines. If we get RFPs or other documents in docx or xlsx we use
> LibreOffice. For me, that's a read-only thing since my attempts to edit
> anything were disasters.
>
> The first speadsheet I encountered was SuperCalc that was bundled on the
> Osborne 1 CP/M machine in '81. I never figured out how to use it or what
> it was good for. 40 years later I've never created any document with Excel
> or any other spreadsheet. The closest I've come is I'm told the Power BI
> queries are based on Excel's. Even then I was mining a SQL Server
> database, not anything created in Excel.
>
> Office sofware in general is a whole other world for me. People are
> welcome to it but saying you must only do simple programming because you
> can't write a VBA script for Office is beyond sheer ignorance.

The only thing I've ever used Office for is essays and the occasional
presentation. I've said it before: even AbiWord is more than enough for
me. If I recall correctly, AbiWord had every feature I needed to write
university essays and I actually became quite loyal to the program
because it bailed me out when I had no other program to write with. It's
pretty useless for the advanced Office files we all receive from others,
but it's spectacular with any new document you might want to produce.
The bonus is that it's fast as heck in 2024. Hell, it was fast and light
as heck even in 2002 or whatever year it was.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch

On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 21:26:49 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> The only thing I've ever used Office for is essays and the occasional
> presentation. I've said it before: even AbiWord is more than enough for
> me. If I recall correctly, AbiWord had every feature I needed to write
> university essays and I actually became quite loyal to the program
> because it bailed me out when I had no other program to write with. It's
> pretty useless for the advanced Office files we all receive from others,
> but it's spectacular with any new document you might want to produce.
> The bonus is that it's fast as heck in 2024. Hell, it was fast and light
> as heck even in 2002 or whatever year it was.

Essays in my school days generally involve a pen and 'blue book' for exams
or a cheap manual typewriter in some cases. The first word processor I was
exposed to was WordStar that was bundled on a CP/M system, over ten years
later. It was serviceable as a programming editor. Vim was in the future
and vi, prior to improvement, was primitive.

In later years any documentation I did was with Vim. The process was we
would try to dig up a past document that was sort of like the new
interface. I'd make notes on it, the tech writer would make it pretty, I
would review it, rinse and repeat. Over time I became convinced the
clients seldom read the final product anyway.

On Sun, 29 Dec 2024 01:43:11 +0000, Ant wrote:

> What do you use to edit/create documents and spreadsheets with others?

I don't. Anything I create is done with Vim. For external use we have tech
writers that make it pretty. My attempts to edit RFPs with LibreOffice
don't work well, so I either use Vim and reference the sections or print
relevant pages and use a pen.

As far as program descriptions, expected behavior, parameters, and so
forth, it's all entered into Jira directly. The tech writer extracts it
to create a FSD (functional specification document) for the clients.

I have never created a spreadsheet or had a reason to. Most of the
spreadsheets I receive for RFPs don't make use of a spreadsheet's
capabilities as I understand them. They're a convenient row and column
form to enter freeform data.

> I'm surprised you don't do any documents. I have been using word
> processors since I was in elementary with Apple 2's AppleWorks.

When I was in elementary school the Apple II was close to 20 years in the
future. As a programmer you tend to read documents and produce software.
Before I gradually moved to software with the advent of microprocessors I
would read documents and produce schematics or sometimes logic flowcharts
if necessary. Those were done on a drawing board with a 2H pencil and a
handful of plastic templates.