SOLVED: Office Activation Error 0xc004f074 – "Key Management Service (KMS) is unavailable"

I ran into the dreaded 0xc004f074 error while trying to activate Microsoft Office (Professional Plus / 2016/2019/2021). The activation wizard fails with the message: "The Key Management Service (KMS) is unavailable." This typically happens on volume-licensed versions of Office that are trying to activate against a local KMS host instead of Microsoft’s public servers.

Let me know if any of these steps resolve it for you! 👇

cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 (Use Office16 for 2016/2019/2021, Office14 for 2010, Office15 for 2013)