How to sign out of 2021 Office Home & Student Edition?

cheaterslick · Oct 11, 2025

This is not Office 365.

This may sound like a silly question but I had to sign into a little used email account I had to set up in order to download 2021 Office Home & Student Edition to my Windows Surface Pro Machine running Windows 25H2 and now I can't figure out how to sign out of that.

I specifically bought this version of Office so I wouldn't have to pay a subscription and not be tied to the cloud all the time. This version is supposed to be bare metal to my hard drive so I should have access to it whether I'm signed into it or not.

Again, I'm not talking Office 365

Again, I did not set up Windows 11 Pro with an email account. I used a local account not tied to an email address, instead.

Not quite the typical setup so that's why I asked.

Thanks for any help here.

glasskuter · Oct 11, 2025

Despite what you think Ofc2021 is not 100% onedrive free.
To sign out, Open any office app. Select "account" in bottom left corner. Under your user name there is a "sign out" button. However, OFC2021, like 365, automatically saves files to Onedrive by default so they are not editable offline. You can only use it offline for documents saved to your computer. When you try to sign out, you get this

If you want files saved to your computer by default, you have to go into Word and Excel settings and change the default save location.

cheaterslick · Oct 11, 2025

glasskuter said:
Despite what you think Ofc2021 is not 100% onedrive free.
To sign out, Open any office app. Select "account" in bottom left corner. Under your user name there is a "sign out" button. However, OFC2021, like 365, automatically saves files to Onedrive by default so they are not editable offline.

Fortunately I haven't created and saved any documents yet. And I'm getting ready to remove OneDrive entirely. All documents will be stored locally on various drives.

You can only use it offline for documents saved to your computer. When you try to sign out, you get this

That's fine. I just need to know how to begin all this from scratch.

glasskuter said:
If you want files saved to your computer by default, you have to go into Word and Excel settings and change the default save location.

Looking around, I don't see that option. On Office Home & Student Edition (or any other bare metal Office edition), where would that be?

And should I do that before or after I sign out? (Remember, I haven't saved anything yet)

IanMosley · Oct 11, 2025

If you want files saved to your computer by default, you have to go into Word and Excel settings and change the default save location.

Load Word & navigate thus - File => Options => Save

Unset the checkmark 'Save to Cloud by default' and set the checkmark 'Save to Computer by default'

Do the same for Excel.

cheaterslick · Oct 12, 2025

IanMosley said:
If you want files saved to your computer by default, you have to go into Word and Excel settings and change the default save location.

Load Word & navigate thus - File => Options => Save

View attachment 148527

Unset the checkmark 'Save to Cloud by default' and set the checkmark 'Save to Computer by default'

Do the same for Excel.

That's exactly what I was looking for. I kept looking at the OS Settings -> Accounts for some way through there.

Thanks to both you and @glasskuter.

cheaterslick · Oct 21, 2025

glasskuter said:
Despite what you think Ofc2021 is not 100% onedrive free.

Ok, well one other thing that I'm not clear about. I'm about to install this 2021 Office Home & Student Edition again and I want to know if I can delete OneDrive before I install it?

What happens when I've already deleted OneDrive off my machine?

Or do I have to keep OneDrive around long enough to install 2021 Office Home & Student Edition and then be able to delete OneDrive?

~

PS: I hope I'm making sense here.

glasskuter · Oct 21, 2025

If onedrive has been removed I believe installing office will reinstall it though I've not gone it myself to prove that..

dacrone · Oct 21, 2025

just create an xml in the setup.exe directory and exclude the programs you dont want to install

...if you dont know how, heres a tutorial

Install Office 2021 using the Office Deployment Tool (Quickstart Video Guide)

How to install Office 2021 volume license edition using the Office Deployment Tool. Download the Office Deployment Tool, create an XML configuration file and install Office using the Office Deployment Tool.

techlabs.blog

cheaterslick · Oct 21, 2025

Remember, no documents have ever been created on this machine, and I never have signed into a MS account yet.

I will have to when I have to download 2021 Office from my email link, but I only plan on signing in when I do the download. Just that one time. The rest of the time, I'm signed out and only saving documents locally as I was shown at the beginning of this topic. It seems it's the only way to do it.

glasskuter · Oct 21, 2025

I can only tell you what has worked for me. I had onedrive uninstalled. I bought Ofc 2021 in 2022. When I installed it, it reinstalled Onedrive. Knowing that 2021 would get the same major updates that 365 would get, instead of uninstalling Onedrive again, I disabled it from auto-starting. It has survived every update since and is still disabled.

Whether I'm right or wrong I do not know. I just know what has worked for me. Now that Office 2021 gets only security updates, it may not apply anymore and I might could uninstall it again but it works so I'm not going to chance that there is some dependency in 2021 that Onedrive must be present whether one uses Onedrive or not.

MisterEd · Oct 21, 2025

I have Windows 11 on my laptop and desktop. They both use a local account to login. I have Office Pro Plus 2021 on both of them. The only time I used my Microsoft account was when I used it to retrieve the Office setup when I bought Office. After that I configured Office 2021 to save and autosave on my computers.

BTW, there is a free Microsoft 365 Online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) that runs in your browser. It saves the files in the web-based OneDrive associated with your Microsoft account. It is different than the OneDrive on your computer.

cheaterslick · Oct 23, 2025

glasskuter said:
I can only tell you what has worked for me. I had onedrive uninstalled. I bought Ofc 2021 in 2022. When I installed it, it reinstalled Onedrive. Knowing that 2021 would get the same major updates that 365 would get, instead of uninstalling Onedrive again, I disabled it from auto-starting. It has survived every update since and is still disabled.

Whether I'm right or wrong I do not know. I just know what has worked for me. Now that Office 2021 gets only security updates, it may not apply anymore and I might could uninstall it again but it works so I'm not going to chance that there is some dependency in 2021 that Onedrive must be present whether one uses Onedrive or not.

MisterEd said:
I have Windows 11 on my laptop and desktop. They both use a local account to login. I have Office Pro Plus 2021 on both of them. The only time I used my Microsoft account was when I used it to retrieve the Office setup when I bought Office. After that I configured Office 2021 to save and autosave on my computers.

BTW, there is a free Microsoft 365 Online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) that runs in your browser. It saves the files in the web-based OneDrive associated with your Microsoft account. It is different than the OneDrive on your computer.

Yeah, I left OneDrive in place after I installed Office 2021 in case of there being a OneDrive dependency out there. Then after instillation I deleted it using Revo.

Bear in mind I could've also deleted it using the Chris Titus tool as well.

The Ultimate Windows Utility

Refined over years, this utility goes beyond debloating Windows: Install and update hundreds of apps via WinGet with a single click Apply safe, practical tweaks …

christitus.com

I use that for other de-bloat purposes but the OneDrive disabling option is in there as well.

MisterEd · Oct 23, 2025

glasskuter said:
I can only tell you what has worked for me. I had onedrive uninstalled. I bought Ofc 2021 in 2022. When I installed it, it reinstalled Onedrive. Knowing that 2021 would get the same major updates that 365 would get,..

There is a big difference in the updates.

Feature updates
Microsoft Office 2021 one-time license: Security updates are included, but you won't get any new features. Upgrades to major releases aren't included.
Microsoft 365 subscription:
Your apps will always be improving. You'll get all the latest features and updates, as well as security updates and bug fixes.

Office 2021 will reach its end-of-life on October 13, 2026.
Office 2024 will reach its end of life on October 9, 2029.
This means that after these dates, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, bug fixes, or technical support for the software. You will still be able to use the software.

cheaterslick · Oct 23, 2025

MisterEd said:
There is a big difference in the updates.

Thanks for the info.

Yup, I understand all that, but I refuse to pay a subscription for Office365 and I also refuse to have it tied to OneDrive. Microsoft doesn't need to know every document I create or every file I save. I don't care what their EULA says, that's none of their business.

That's why it's best for me to save my files locally.

glasskuter · Oct 23, 2025

MisterEd said:
There is a big difference in the updates.

Well maybe I said it wrong. I should have said Ofc 2021 gets it basic features updated that align with feature changes in the 365 apps...until 2026..

How to sign out of 2021 Office Home & Student Edition?

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