Will Microsoft Office Home and Student Expire if I reset my laptop?

[kevinpaulson]

I Purchased an HP Pavilion Laptop back in 2018 which came along with lifetime validity of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016. Now that it's been 2 years long, I would like to do a factory data reset to my laptop. My question is, will that lifetime validity of Microsoft office be affected due to this? Would I be asked to purchase a new key instead?

[IT_WinSec]

Hello @kevinpaulson 

Welcome !

• There is not need for you to reinstall Windows or to reset the device just because 2 years have passed since you began using it 🙂 If it ain't broken, don't fix it. So, if you do not experience any issues and if you cannot fix these with alternative methods, there is no need to reinstall/reset.

With regards to your question, I do not know for sure what exactly is your Office license and its agreement. But if you do have the Office key and the license, you should not have any problems (generally speaking). If you have an OEM Office, you may see its key now and extract it should you decide to reset/reinstall Office and Windows.

• Your PC may also have a digital license tighten to your PC hardware (most likely)
• Your Office license may be connected to your Microsoft account (most likely)

Check this official article from Microsoft >> https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/activate-office-5bd38f38-db92-448b-a982-ad170b1e187e

For Office with a license key, you may download ProduKey from Nirsoft >> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

• x86 Windows >> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/produkey.zip
• x64 Windows >> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/produkey-x64.zip

Extract the archive and run the program.

It will open and show you the available keys it detects. Does it detect your BIOS and Windows key(s) ? Does it says Windows version ?  Does it detect your Office key ?

Take a picture of the codes and write them down. Do not post them here, just keep them for yourself.

For any issues, contact Microsoft support

I hope my suggestion helps, let me know how it goes

[WAWood]

@kevinpaulson 

You already got excellent advice from @IT_WinSec so I'm not here to steal their thunder, but I do feel obligated to add my own comments about Factory Resets ...

This is NOT a criticism directed at YOU, but I really wish folks would quit routinely doing Factory Resets in attempts to repair an ailing PC. Not only does it rarely fix the PC, if there is an underlying hardware issue with the PC, it will make matters worse by leaving the PC in an unusable state.

The HP Factory Reset function relies critically on the contents of the Recovery partition being intact. If those contents get corrupted, which can happen either due to hard drive failing or due to Win10 Upgrade from an older OS, the reset simply will not work -- and will TRASH the PC in the process.

So, you go from having a SLOW PC, to having NO PC. That's not an improvement.