I bought Microsoft 365 Personal but I can't access basic features

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heavenlywild

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#323709 5-Jan-2026 10:13

I recently bought online from PB Tech Microsoft 365 Personal.

Activated it. Then opened up Word only to find basic features like background colour to texts are greyed out. It says when I hover over it something like "this is a premium feature". What's going on?

I've activated Microsoft 365 many times and this is the first time where I am getting a half baked version? Same with Excel - conditional formatting is greyed out.

Can anyone shed any ideas?

heavenlywild

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#3449857 5-Jan-2026 10:15

See a screenshot of Word.

I can see my subscription is live on my Microsoft account.

I can still see an ad on the side of Word that says to remove ads subscribe to Microsoft 365. I am baffled.

trig42

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#3449859 5-Jan-2026 10:18

In that blue circle next to the 'Buy Microsoft 365', are you signed in? Normally it would show either a profile picture (if you've loaded one) or your Initials in that circle.

If you click on it, does it give you the option to sign in/add account?

heavenlywild

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#3449860 5-Jan-2026 10:21

trig42:

In that blue circle next to the 'Buy Microsoft 365', are you signed in? Normally it would show either a profile picture (if you've loaded one) or your Initials in that circle.

If you click on it, does it give you the option to sign in/add account?

Thank you. I did check that and it had the right account BUT I didn't realise I had an old tertiary account below it that was also signed in. No idea how you could have two accounts signed in at the same time? Anyway I signed out and it worked. Thank you - gosh, MS don't know it simple, or maybe it's just me.

ANglEAUT

altered-ego
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#3449865 5-Jan-2026 10:32

heavenlywild: ... - gosh, MS don't know it simple, or maybe it's just me.

Thankfully, it's not you. See the many comments about Microsoft in Examples of brain dead software design

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