issues activating Office Professional Plus 2019 installed using deployment and retaining only the deployed apps

Question

I have a handful of legit/legal Office Professional Plus 2019 keys. I use the deployment method to install because I only want to install specific apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint). The installation works fine but when I go to activate I get different error messages. And, no matter what I try it will activate but it will then install all of the other applications that come with Office -- which I do not want.

This is my deployment XML file:

<Configuration>
    <Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="Insiders" AllowCdnFallback="TRUE" ForceUpgrade="TRUE">
        <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
            <Language ID="en-us" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="InfoPath" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="Project" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="Visio" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="skypeforbusiness" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="LyncEntryRetail" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="LyncRetail" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="SkypeforBusinessEntryRetail" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="SkypeforBusinessRetail" />
            <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />
        </Product>
    </Add>
</Configuration>

Then, when I try to activate, some of the keys I use say this:

This product key has already been used. Please sign in with the active Office account that you used with this product key before, or enter a new product key here.

If I sign it, it shows me my Office 2019 products listed at https://setup.office.com/home/getoffice. If I select any, it activates but it says:

This product needs an update. You can continue using Office while the update is downloaded and installed.

But this ends up installing all of the other Microsoft Office products like Access, Skype, etc..

If I try my other keys, it says this:

This product key is for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019. Install this product instead.

If I click "Install this product instead." it doesn't do anything.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there anyway to install Office 2019 but only the products I need?

Answer 1

Based on your description and configuration.xml you use, you are installing Office 365 Pro Plus instead of Office Professional Plus 2019.

The Product ID of Office Professional Plus 2019 is ProPlus2019Volume.

Here is a sample for your reference:

<Configuration>
<Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="PerpetualVL2019" AllowCdnFallback="TRUE" ForceUpgrade="TRUE">
    <Product ID="ProPlus2019Volume">
        <Language ID="en-us" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="OneNote" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="InfoPath" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="Project" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="Visio" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="skypeforbusiness" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="LyncEntryRetail" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="LyncRetail" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="SkypeforBusinessEntryRetail" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="SkypeforBusinessRetail" />
        <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />
    </Product>
</Add>

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

I contacted Microsoft support and they were able to help me. I am putting what they did here to help the next guy. It is worth saying that think using Professional2019Retail as @herb-gu recommends might also have worked.

This is what Microsoft support did:

1. Open Command Prompt as admin
2. run cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus
3. copy the last 5 digits of the installed product key
4. run cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /unpkey:[last 5 of installed product key from the previous step]
5. run cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:[new product key]