How to active Office 2016 via KMS if the Office KMS count value is less than 5 （Emergency）

Question

How to active Office 2016 via KMS if the Office KMS count value is less than 5 （Emergency）

Sun Shengwei (XC-CE/EBS-CN) 0

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16

---Processing-------------------------- --------------------------------------- Successfully applied setting. --------------------------------------- ---Exiting-----------------------------

---Processing-------------------------- --------------------------------------- Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product: SKU ID: LICENSE NAME: Office 16, Office16ProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 16, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel Last 5 characters of installed product key: WFG99 ERROR CODE: 0xC004F038 ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could not be activated. The count reported by your Key Management Service (KMS) is insufficient. Please contact your system administrator. NOTICE: A KB article has been detected for activation failure: 0xC004F038 FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT: [http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2870357#Error0xC004F038] --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ---Exiting-----------------------------

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Answer 1

Hi,
As the forum's AI recommended, please verify the Office Current Count on your KMS host. Microsoft confirms that Office clients cannot activate through KMS when the Office KMS count is below 5 unique client computers. See 0xC004F038 computer couldn't be activated - Microsoft 365 Apps | Microsoft Learn

If your organization has fewer than five Office client computers, you can consider Multiple Activation Key (MAK) activation, provided your organization has a valid MAK for Office Professional Plus 2016 with available activations. MAK uses Microsoft-hosted activation services, so it does not rely on the Office KMS count. Please check with the person responsible for your organization’s volume licensing whether an appropriate MAK is available. Activate volume licensed versions of Office by using MAK - Office | Microsoft Learn

If a suitable MAK is available and you want to switch this installation to MAK activation, open Command Prompt as administrator. Using the Office folder shown in your output, run:

cd /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16"
cscript ospp.vbs /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
cscript ospp.vbs /act
cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

Replace the placeholder with your organization’s MAK. The /inpkey command replaces the existing product key, /act attempts activation, and /dstatus displays the license information. See Tools to manage volume activation of Office - Office | Microsoft Learn for ospp.vbs.

Could you confirm how many Office client computers are trying to activate through this KMS host and what Office Current Count it reports? If there are enough computers but the count remains low, further investigation is needed. Duplicate Office client IDs are one possibility documented by Microsoft for computers deployed from an image.

Sun Shengwei (XC-CE/EBS-CN) 0 Reputation points

2026-09-07T09:29:30.99+00:00

Hello Helen, thx for your answer, the PC is belong to Enterprise Edition without Internet, I am not sure I can get the MAK from our IT support team, thanks so much anyway~
Helen Luu 2,785 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-08T07:35:11.8+00:00

You're welcome, and thank you for clarifying.

Since the PC has no Internet access, please check with your IT support team before proceeding with the MAK steps. If your organization has a suitable MAK, Microsoft documents telephone activation and MAK proxy activation through VAMT as options. With VAMT proxy activation, a separate Internet-connected computer processes the activation requests on behalf of other computers. Your IT team can determine which option fits your environment. See Microsoft’s MAK activation guidance.

If your organization continues using KMS, the Office KMS count still needs to reach five unique client computers before activation can proceed, as explained in Microsoft’s guidance for error 0xC004F038.

Please let me know if your IT team needs any clarification on the guidance above.

Answer 2

0xC004F038 means the Office KMS activation count on the KMS host is below the required threshold. Office 2016 KMS clients will not activate until the Office KMS pool reaches 5 or more unique client computers.

What to do:

On the KMS host, verify the current Office count:
```
   Cscript slmgr.vbs -dlv all >c:\temp\KMSInfo.txt
```
Then open c:\temp\KMSInfo.txt, search for Office, and check Current Count.
If Current Count is less than 5, add more Office volume-licensed clients and have them contact the KMS host. Activation will not succeed before the count reaches 5.
After the Office KMS pool contains 5 or more clients, activate Office again by using the Office activation wizard, ospp.vbs, or VAMT.
If there are already more than five computers trying to activate and the error still occurs, check the KMS host Event Viewer log on the KMS server for activation entries.
Confirm the client is pointing to the correct KMS host. If needed, the KMS host name and port can be set manually. The default KMS port is 1688.

Check the Office client license state:

   cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

or for all Office products:

   cscript ospp.vbs /dstatusall

Important:

ospp.vbs must be run from an elevated command prompt.
For Office volume activation, ospp.vbs is typically in Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 or Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16. Earlier versions may not include \root\ in the path.
If Sysprep was used to create images, duplicate Office client IDs can prevent the KMS count from increasing correctly.

There is no supported way to force Office 2016 KMS activation with an Office KMS count below 5.