How to Activate Windows and Microsoft Office Yourself

You can activate Windows and Office for free using the MAS utility — safely, quickly, and directly from the command line without any downloads.

Most people don’t realize that Windows and Microsoft Office are actually paid software. Sure, there are many ways to get them for free, but those options aren’t always safe or convenient. In reality, you can do everything yourself right from the command line.

So What’s the Magic?

Microsoft allows you to download installation files for its OS and Office apps for free, but they’ll only work for a limited time in trial mode.

To activate them, you can use a special command-line utility called Microsoft Activation Scripts (MAS), which includes built-in activation methods such as HWID, Ohook, TSforge, KMS38, and KMS. Most importantly, you don’t need to download anything externally — the tool is open-source, which makes it safer and more reliable.

How to Get Windows for Free

There are two main ways to use MAS. The first method works from the command line on Windows 8 and newer.

1. Launch PowerShell: press Windows + X and choose PowerShell or Windows Terminal.
2. Copy and paste the following command into it:

irm https://get.activated.win | iex

If everything is done correctly, you’ll see two options:

• [1] HWID for activating Windows
• [2] Ohook for activating Office

Just press the corresponding number, and the tool will activate the selected product automatically.

The second method is similar, but you’ll need to download the tool yourself from this link. After downloading, extract the archive and run the file MAS_AIO.cmd from the folder via the command line. You’ll see a similar menu.

Which Products Can Be Activated and For How Long?

The table below shows the supported Windows and Office versions and their activation durations:

For much older systems like Windows Vista or rare cases like Office for macOS, there are separate solutions available.