Shared Computer Activation for Microsoft 365 Apps on RDS

Shared Computer Activation (SCA) is the Microsoft 365 Apps licensing mode designed for computers that are shared by multiple users. On a Windows Server Remote Desktop Session Host, it lets Office be installed once while each RDS user activates Word, Excel, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 Apps with their own eligible Microsoft 365 account.

For a typical RDS deployment, the licensing stack is:

Windows Server / RDS host
+
Microsoft 365 Apps installed with Office Deployment Tool
+
SharedComputerLicensing = 1
+
Eligible Microsoft 365 license for each user
+
RDS access licensing

The most important 2026 change is Windows Server support. Microsoft now explicitly supports Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows Server 2025 while Windows Server 2025 remains in Mainstream Support, through October 2029. Windows Server 2022 remains supported only through October 2026, although Microsoft says security updates for Microsoft 365 desktop apps on Windows Server 2022 will continue through October 10, 2028 while customers migrate.

That makes Windows Server 2025 the stronger starting point for a new Microsoft 365 Apps + RDS deployment in 2026, assuming the rest of your application stack is compatible.

In short

Use Shared Computer Activation when multiple users sign in to the same RDS host and run Microsoft 365 Apps. Install Office with the Office Deployment Tool, set SharedComputerLicensing to 1, assign each user an eligible Microsoft 365 license, and license RDS access separately.

What is Shared Computer Activation?

Shared Computer Activation is a licensing mode for Microsoft 365 Apps on devices used by multiple people. It is commonly used for:

• Remote Desktop Services Session Hosts;
• shared Windows computers;
• pooled or shared virtual desktops;
• call centers and shift-worker environments;
• MSP-managed application servers;
• business-software servers where users also need Word, Excel, or Outlook.

Without SCA, Microsoft 365 Apps activation follows the normal per-user device model. That is appropriate when a user has their own PC, but it is not the right model when many people sign in to one RDS server.

With SCA enabled:

1. Microsoft 365 Apps is installed once on the shared computer.
2. User A signs in to Windows and opens an Office app.
3. Microsoft checks User A's eligible Microsoft 365 license.
4. A licensing token is stored in User A's profile.
5. User B signs in separately and receives their own activation state.

One user's activation does not activate Office for the entire server.

Windows Server 2025 vs 2022 for Microsoft 365 Apps

Microsoft's current support guidance changes the recommendation for new RDS deployments.

Microsoft also provides an extended security-update runway for Microsoft 365 desktop apps on Windows Server 2022, 2019, and 2016 through October 10, 2028. That does not make those older combinations equivalent to a currently supported new deployment.

For a new environment in late 2026, prefer Windows Server 2025 unless a required application, driver, add-in, or vendor certification still requires Server 2022.

If you are maintaining an existing Server 2022 RDS host, build a migration plan rather than treating the October 2026 date as an immediate shutdown date.

Which Microsoft 365 plans support SCA?

Microsoft's current RDS deployment guidance lists these common qualifying paths:

• a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 plan that includes Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise;
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium, which includes Microsoft 365 Apps for business and the SCA entitlement;
• supported Project or Visio subscription plans for those desktop apps.

A critical distinction is Business Premium versus Apps for business generally. Microsoft explicitly states that the ability to enable Shared Computer Activation is a Microsoft 365 Business Premium entitlement, not a general feature of Microsoft 365 Apps for business.

A practical planning table:

Always verify the exact tenant SKU and current Microsoft licensing terms before production.

Microsoft 365 license vs RDS license

Microsoft 365 licensing and Remote Desktop licensing solve different problems.

For a typical multi-user hosted environment, think in layers:

Microsoft 365 Apps license
≠
Windows Server license
≠
RDS CAL / hosted RDS SAL

For Raff-hosted SPLA environments, RDS access uses the hosted-provider licensing model and is handled separately from Microsoft 365 Apps licensing. For customer-owned licensing environments, follow the applicable Microsoft CAL terms.

See RDS CAL Licensing on Windows Server and Microsoft SPLA Licensing Explained for the distinction.

What you will build

A straightforward design looks like this:

Remote users
  ↓
RDP / RDS Session Host
  ↓
Windows Server 2025 or supported alternative
  ├── Microsoft 365 Apps installed once
  ├── SharedComputerLicensing = 1
  ├── Per-user Microsoft 365 activation
  ├── User profiles / profile containers
  └── Internet access to Microsoft licensing services

Each user signs in to Windows and Microsoft 365 separately with their own identity.

Prerequisites

Before you install Microsoft 365 Apps, confirm:

• a Windows Server version supported by Microsoft 365 Apps;
• RDS Session Host if multiple users will use server-based sessions;
• an eligible Microsoft 365 license assigned to each user;
• RDS licensing planned separately;
• local Administrator access for installation;
• Office Deployment Tool (ODT);
• reliable outbound internet access;
• a profile strategy, especially if Outlook is used;
• backups or a snapshot before changing an existing production host.

Do not install Office first and solve licensing later. For RDS, the OS support lifecycle, user licensing, RDS licensing, and profile design should be decided before production.

Step 1 — Prepare the RDS host

Start with a clean, updated Windows Server environment.

1. Confirm the Windows Server version against Microsoft's current Microsoft 365 Apps support matrix.
2. Install Windows updates.
3. Reboot.
4. Install and configure RDS Session Host if required.
5. Confirm intended users can sign in through the approved RDP/RDS path.
6. Confirm each user has an eligible Microsoft 365 license.
7. Confirm outbound access to Microsoft licensing services.
8. Remove or account for incompatible legacy Office installations.
9. Decide how user profiles and Outlook data will persist.

For a new 2026 deployment, Windows Server 2025 is now the preferred lifecycle starting point for this workload.

Step 2 — Download the Office Deployment Tool

Download the Office Deployment Tool from Microsoft and create a working folder:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\ODT" -Force

Extract the ODT files into:

C:\ODT

The folder should contain setup.exe plus your configuration XML.

Step 3 — Choose the correct Office product ID

Use the product ID that matches the user's Microsoft 365 entitlement.

For Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise:

<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">

For Microsoft 365 Business Premium's Apps for business installation:

<Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">

This distinction matters because the installed product must align with the user's licensing entitlement.

Step 4 — Create configuration.xml with SCA enabled

Create:

C:\ODT\configuration.xml

Example: Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="MonthlyEnterprise">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" />
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" Channel="MonthlyEnterprise" />
</Configuration>

Example: Microsoft 365 Business Premium

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="MonthlyEnterprise">
    <Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" />
  <Updates Enabled="TRUE" Channel="MonthlyEnterprise" />
</Configuration>

The key setting is:

<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />

Microsoft's current RDS deployment documentation specifically requires Shared Computer Activation for a shared RDS installation.

Step 5 — Decide whether to install OneDrive

Do not automatically remove or install OneDrive without considering the RDS profile design.

On a simple RDS host, OneDrive can increase profile and disk usage. In larger deployments it can still be appropriate, but it should be planned around:

• profile containers;
• storage capacity;
• Files On-Demand behavior;
• tenant policies;
• user logon/logoff patterns;
• backup expectations.

If you do not need OneDrive on the session host, exclude it in ODT. If users do need it, test it under the actual profile strategy.

Step 6 — Download and install Microsoft 365 Apps

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

cd C:\ODT
.\setup.exe /download configuration.xml

Then install:

.\setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

If the XML uses Display Level="None", setup runs without a normal interactive installer window.

Step 7 — Verify Shared Computer Activation

After installation, confirm the Click-to-Run configuration:

$key = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration'
(Get-ItemProperty -Path $key).SharedComputerLicensing

Expected result:

1

If the value is missing or 0, SCA is not enabled correctly. Correct the ODT configuration or use a Microsoft-supported policy/configuration method before user testing.

Step 8 — Test with two real non-admin users

Do not validate the deployment only as Administrator.

Test User A:

1. Sign in to the RDS host.
2. Open Word.
3. Sign in with the user's Microsoft 365 work account.
4. Open File → Account and confirm the user is licensed.
5. Create, edit, and save a document.

Then repeat with User B in a separate session.

The success criterion is not simply “Office opens.” Both users should activate independently and retain their own identity and profile state.

Step 9 — Understand SCA licensing tokens

SCA activation information is stored per user and needs periodic renewal from Microsoft's licensing services.

On traditional profile configurations, Office licensing data is associated with the user's profile. Reliable internet access is therefore a licensing requirement, not merely an installation convenience.

If profiles are deleted or reset at logoff, users may be prompted to activate repeatedly. That is usually a profile-persistence problem rather than an Office binary problem.

Step 10 — Plan profiles and Outlook carefully

Outlook is usually the most demanding part of Microsoft 365 Apps on RDS because the user environment can include:

• Outlook profiles;
• OST cache data;
• signatures;
• add-ins;
• search indexes;
• shared mailboxes;
• Microsoft identity tokens;
• Teams or browser integration.

Common profile approaches include persistent local profiles and profile-container technologies such as FSLogix. The correct choice depends on whether the RDS host is persistent, whether users can move between hosts, and how much Outlook cache data must be retained.

For a production RDS farm, profile design should be treated as architecture, not as an afterthought.

Step 11 — Grant RDS access through groups

For a standalone host, users typically receive access through the appropriate Remote Desktop Users / RDS security configuration.

Example:

Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Remote Desktop Users" -Member "DOMAIN\jane.doe"

In a domain, prefer a dedicated group such as:

RDS-Office-Users

Then manage membership centrally instead of adding users individually on each server.

Step 12 — Verify every user's license assignment

Before troubleshooting an Office activation error, check the Microsoft 365 admin center for the affected user:

• correct license SKU assigned;
• Microsoft 365 Apps service enabled;
• user sign-in allowed;
• account not blocked;
• MFA / Conditional Access flow tested from the RDS session;
• SCA entitlement actually included in the user's plan.

A wrong license assignment cannot be fixed by reinstalling Office.

Common Shared Computer Activation problems

User has Office but cannot activate on the shared server

Check whether the user's plan actually supports SCA. Microsoft 365 Business Standard is a common source of confusion because it includes desktop Office apps for normal user devices but does not grant the Business Premium SCA entitlement.

Second user fails after the first user activates Office

This often indicates that Office was installed without Shared Computer Activation or that the environment was tested only under one profile.

Verify:

$key = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration'
(Get-ItemProperty -Path $key).SharedComputerLicensing

Expected: 1.

Office repeatedly asks users to sign in

Common causes include:

• temporary or deleted user profiles;
• licensing data not persisting;
• Conditional Access or MFA issues;
• blocked internet connectivity to Microsoft licensing services;
• profile-container problems;
• incorrect SCA configuration.

Fix the identity/profile path before rebuilding the server.

Outlook profile disappears after logout

This is generally a profile-management issue. Review the persistence strategy, profile cleanup policy, FSLogix or other container configuration, storage capacity, and permissions.

Business Premium users cannot activate

Confirm both the user entitlement and the installed product ID. For the Apps for business product used with Business Premium, the ODT product ID is typically:

<Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">

Server 2022 deployment is approaching end of support

As of September 2026, Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows Server 2022 is supported only through October 2026. Microsoft says security updates will continue through October 10, 2028, but new deployments should generally evaluate Windows Server 2025 instead.

Update channel planning

For multi-user RDS hosts, avoid treating Office updates as a consumer-PC task. An Office update can affect every active user on the server.

MonthlyEnterprise can be a practical controlled channel for many business RDS deployments:

Channel="MonthlyEnterprise"

Before standardizing a channel, consider:

• add-in compatibility;
• accounting/ERP integrations;
• maintenance windows;
• test rings;
• rollback procedures;
• Microsoft support lifecycle requirements.

Security and operations checklist

Before production, verify:

• supported Windows Server version;
• RDS Session Host configuration;
• RDS licensing model;
• eligible Microsoft 365 licenses;
• SCA enabled;
• unique identity for each user;
• MFA / Conditional Access tested;
• user profiles persist correctly;
• Outlook tested under load;
• OneDrive behavior intentionally configured;
• users are not local administrators;
• RDP/RDS access is restricted and hardened;
• Office update channel documented;
• VM backup / snapshot policy configured;
• recovery process tested.

How Raff fits this workload

Raff provides the Windows VM infrastructure layer for customer-managed Windows Server workloads. A typical architecture is:

Raff Windows VM
  ↓
Windows Server 2025
  ↓
Remote Desktop Services
  ↓
Microsoft 365 Apps with Shared Computer Activation
  ↓
Individually licensed users

Raff does not replace Microsoft 365 licensing or tenant administration. You still need the correct Microsoft 365 entitlement for each user and the correct RDS licensing model.

For infrastructure planning, see Raff Windows VM, Windows VPS Sizing for Remote Users, and Multi-User RDP vs RDS Session Host.

Recommended 2026 deployment path

For a new Microsoft 365 Apps RDS deployment today:

1. Start with Windows Server 2025 unless another required application prevents it.
2. Configure RDS for genuine multi-user access.
3. License RDS separately from Microsoft 365 Apps.
4. Assign every user an eligible Microsoft 365 plan.
5. Install Microsoft 365 Apps with ODT.
6. Enable SharedComputerLicensing=1.
7. Test two or more non-admin users.
8. Validate Outlook and profile persistence.
9. Harden RDP/RDS access.
10. Document backups, updates, and support ownership.

Sources

• Microsoft Learn — Overview of shared computer activation for Microsoft 365 Apps
• Microsoft Learn — Deploy Microsoft 365 Apps by using Remote Desktop Services
• Microsoft Learn — Windows Server end of support and Microsoft 365 Apps
• Microsoft Learn — Microsoft 365 Apps migration from Windows Server
• Microsoft Learn — Install Remote Desktop Services client access licenses
• Sources verified: 2026-09-09