This guide was written to help users solve Error Code 0xC004F074 in Windows 10 (typically with Office 2016 activation). We have provided three solutions you can try.
In case you are getting an error code 0xC004F074 while trying to activate your Office 2016 volume licensed client, then you are most probably facing an issue related to your Key Management Service. This error code usually occurs when you are trying to host the Office 2013 KMS and the Office 2016 KMS hosts on the same system. Most commonly, the Error 0xC004F074 appears if you are running either Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 on your PC. The message that you get on your screen states the following:
“The Software Licensing Service determined that the specified Key Management Service (KMS) cannot be used. Error Code 0xC004F074”
In some cases, this problem may occur even from a sync issue between the time and the date of the system and the server or may be related to some DNS update issue. Either way, in this guide, we are going to show you a few options that may help you solve that Office 2016 activation issue. Below, you will find detailed descriptions of the steps you need to take, so if you follow them closely, you won’t have any difficulty to fix the 0xC004F074 Error.
Error Code 0xC004F074 in Windows 10 Fix
The Guide
Option 1: Download and install latest Microsoft Office 2016 Volume license Pack
In case that your operating system is either Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and you co-host the Office 2016 KMS host and Office 2016 KMS host, getting this error is something you could expect. This appears to be a bug that could easily be solved if you simply download and install the latest Volume License pack. This is what the Microsoft Support Team suggests as a solution to that problem. Some users have reported that this solution worked for them, so you can get the download link from here. If this doesn’t work, however, there are two more methods you can try.
Option 2: Disable and Re-enable DNS host
Error 0xC004F074 may also appear due to some DNS updating issues. In this case, if you disable the DNS publishing and re-enable it again, it may help you fix the error. To do this manually, simply follow the instructions below:
- First, open the Command Prompt as administrator and type “Regedit”
- Next, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform in the registry.
- Then, create a new DWORD Value. Name it “DisableDnsPublishing” and set its value to 1.
This should disable DNS publishing. - Next, to re-enable DNS publishing you should set the value of this Key to 0 and your error should be fixed.
Option 3: Sync system date and time
A very silly but probable reason for the Office 2016 activation client error is the difference in the date and time between your client system and the server. In case of more than 4 hours of difference, error 0xC004F074 may occur. However, it has been detected that the synchronization between the client computer and the system KMS host can fix the issue. To do that, we recommend you use Network Time Protocol (NTP) as a time source. Another option to synchronize time between the client and the server on the network is to configure Active Directory Service.