Can't remember old Microsoft account. How can I activate Office 2016?

A short time ago a friend of mine had an issue with her Windows 10 laptop. The system said that the PIN would not work due to security changes to the system. The system was set up by the store that sold the laptop many years ago so she does not recall the password that was used for the Microsoft account that was used. The mail account that was in use at the time has been dead for several years, so there is no way to recover the password. We did contact the ISP to try and reactivate the account without success.

At this point the laptop has been formatted and Windows 10 reinstalled, using a current Microsoft account. Since Office 2016 Home & Student was not purchased/installed with the current account we are not permitted to activate it. Office is installed and we do have the key for the software.

Is there any way to recover the account info for the old Microsoft account so that we can activate Office? Is there a way to deactivate Office on the old account so that we an reactivate it under the new account?

Try ringing Microsoft. You will be able to explain the situation to a real person and they can activate it if they beleve you are telling the truth.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...4-6e06865484c7

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...e-28de8afeb3f2