Question Tutorial: Disable the Cloud sign-in option on Office 2019

[Kaido]

Office 2019 annoyingly wants you to sign in to either a domain or the cloud. It shares the same registry space as Office 2016, so the procedure is:

Preparation:

1. Note that this must be done on a per-user basis, for anyone who logins into the machine. So 2 users on the same machine = do it twice. Or if that user signs into another machine, do it again.
2. Go into one of the Office apps, go to Account, and select "Sign out" & then click Yes when prompted.

First, close all Office applications:

Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
etc.

Second, open the Registry Editor: (may need to Run As Admin)

Start > Run > regedit

Third, navigate down the tree:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Office
16.0
Common

Third, add the SignIn folder:

Right-click on the Common folder
Go to New > Key
Name it "SignIn" (without the quotes)

Fourth, add the registry key to disable the sign-in option:

Right-click on the SignIn folder
Go to New > DWORD (32-bit) VALUE
Name it "SignInOptions" (without the quotes)
Set the value to 3

Fifth, verify that it worked:

Open up Word
It should no longer have the "Sign in" button in the top bar
Under File > Account, all of the sign-in verbage should be gone

If you ever need to add it back in, just delete the SignInOptions reg key!

 

[Jstanthr]

Thanks for this!!!

 

[mikeymikec]

It wants you to sign in, sure, but IIRC you can just sign out (using the UI, top-right corner of an office app) right after activation and that's it.

 

[Kaido]

It wants you to sign in, sure, but IIRC you can just sign out (using the UI, top-right corner of an office app) right after activation and that's it.

Yes, but it leaves the Sign-in button on the top right side of the app, which leads to (1) user confusion, and (2) user temptation to sign in. Then people either (1) sign up for a Microsoft account with their company email address, or (2) use their personal email address to sign in. A lot of companies don't want either of those things to happen due to cloud restrictions & data control, so by removing the option to do so, it negates the issue because then it turns it back into a standalone document-editing app instead of a cloud-connected app.

 

[Kaido]

Thanks for this!!!

You're welcome! Two additional notes:

1. In Options, under General, disable the "Enable LinkedIn features in my office applications" checkbox
2. In Options, under General > Privacy Settings..., disable "Enable optional connected experiences" checkbox (cloud-backed services)

It's all about data harvesting & selling your data for money, under the guise of convenience. Which is just how we roll in today's world of online advertising, Facebook, etc. But for example, from LinkedIn:

LinkedIn in Microsoft Applications with Your Personal Account | LinkedIn Help

LinkedIn in Microsoft Applications with Your Personal Account

www.linkedin.com

Super scummy stuff to have enabled by default:

Sharing data from your Microsoft work or school account with your LinkedIn account

When you connect your Microsoft work or school account to your LinkedIn account, you allow Microsoft to provide the following data to LinkedIn:

• Profile data - includes your account information, your photo, and contact information.
• Calendar data - includes the meetings in your calendars, their times, locations, and attendees.
• Interests data - includes the interests associated with your account, based on your use of Microsoft services.
• Subscriptions data - includes subscriptions provided by your organization to Microsoft apps and services, such as Office365.
• Contacts data - includes your contact lists in Outlook, Skype, and other Microsoft account services, including the contact information for people you frequently communicate or collaborate with. Your contacts will be periodically imported, stored, and used by LinkedIn, for example to suggest connections, help you organize your contacts, and show you updates about your contacts.

Likewise, Microsoft does the same garbage:

Connected experiences in Microsoft 365 - Microsoft Support

Some Microsoft 365 features are backed by cloud-based services. Learn about connected experiences that analyze your content and download online content.

support.office.com

From a high level:

Experiences that analyze your content

Experiences that download online content

As routed through their Bing search engine:

Overview of optional connected experiences in Office - Microsoft 365 Apps

Provides Office admins with information about optional connected experiences, including which terms of use apply.

docs.microsoft.com

Here's a more detailed list of all services;

SOLVED: What are Connected Experiences In Office? – Up & Running Inc – Tech How To's

www.urtech.ca

If you to go down the rabbit hole:

Privacy and Consent changes in Microsoft Office 16.28 - Kevin M. Cox

The latest release contains a new privacy dialog and changes to the preferences used for controling feature availability and telemetry settings.

www.kevinmcox.com

If you're on a domain, you can control more stuff through various policies & whatnot. Just more stuff to add to the setup & configuration checklists lol. Windows 10 itself is a goldmine for your personal data through the various telemetry angles. Here's one such tool to manage it:

O&O ShutUp10++ - O&O Software GmbH

O&O ShutUp10++: Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11 Download Version 1.9.1444, File size 2074KB. Released on: 02/12/2025 O&O ShutUp10++ means you have full control over which comfort functions under Windows 10 and Windows 11 you wish to use, … Continue reading →

www.oo-software.com

But there are risks involved:

Why You Shouldn't Use "Anti-Spying" Tools for Windows 10

Since Windows 10's release and the privacy controversy that followed, many "anti-spying" apps have sprung up.

www.howtogeek.com

For now, my Office 2019 installation procedure is:

1. Install the package
2. License the package (click on the link below the sign-in to switch to activating it via a key)
3. Disable cloud sign-in
4. Disable LinkedIn
5. Disable connected experiences

At that point, it starts behaving more like the older versions of Office. I still do some additional tweaks, like disabling "Show Start screen when the application starts" so that the app boots straight into a blank page of whatever (spreadsheet/presentation/etc.), which is what 99% of the users want. Again, just more stuff for the ole' setup checklists haha!

 

[mikeymikec]

Yes, but it leaves the Sign-in button on the top right side of the app, which leads to (1) user confusion, and (2) user temptation to sign in. Then people either (1) sign up for a Microsoft account with their company email address, or (2) use their personal email address to sign in. A lot of companies don't want either of those things to happen due to cloud restrictions & data control, so by removing the option to do so, it negates the issue because then it turns it back into a standalone document-editing app instead of a cloud-connected app.

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[MLKlingen]

Is there another option for when the RegEdit doesn't work? Per screen shot (attached), I created the SignInOptions key and set to 3. When I reopened Word (Office 2019) the Sign In button was still there. Thanks for the tutorial and for any additional guidance you can provide!

,

 

[MLKlingen]

Please disregard the above...Ran Regedit as administrator, so the change took effect on a different account. Worked perfectly when I followed the steps correctly. Thanks again!

 

[Kaido]

Please disregard the above...Ran Regedit as administrator, so the change took effect on a different account. Worked perfectly when I followed the steps correctly. Thanks again!

I added "may need to Run As Admin" to the instructions, thanks!

Did you run regedit as admin under the account you wanted it changed under? Or did you run as administrator, log into a different account, and then it applied to that?

 

[MLKlingen]

I added "may need to Run As Admin" to the instructions, thanks!

Did you run regedit as admin under the account you wanted it changed under? Or did you run as administrator, log into a different account, and then it applied to that?

I initially ran as administrator (on a standard account), and it changed the registry in the admin account. Once I saw that, I logged back into the standard account and opened the registry without specifying to run as administrator and was able to effect the change. ... I know just enough to be dangerous!

 

[Kaido]

I initially ran as administrator (on a standard account), and it changed the registry in the admin account. Once I saw that, I logged back into the standard account and opened the registry without specifying to run as administrator and was able to effect the change. ... I know just enough to be dangerous!

Yeah, unfortunately it's a per-user-account setting. My other settings include activation, updates, disable those load options so it just opens to an empty template immediately, disable LinkedIn, disable the connected stuff, etc. Gotta figure out how to get rid of the "share" button.

I miss Office 2007 sometimes lol.

 

[coyote3]

delete please

 

[Kaido]

I tried regedit both as not Administrator, and then as Administrator. (Only one account on the machine, so it was already there by the time I tried as Administrator.)

The Sign In link still appears in Word.

Are you on Windows 10 64-bit with Office 2019?

 

[coyote3]

Are you on Windows 10 64-bit with Office 2019?

Please disregard, sorry, I made the mistake of creating a String value. Once I correctly used a 32-bit DWORD value it worked.

Yes, I'm on Windows 10 64-bit with Office 2019.

(Wow you are fast! I solved it and deleted the post in just a couple minutes, but you had already replied!)

 

[Kaido]

Please disregard, sorry, I made the mistake of creating a String value. Once I correctly used a 32-bit DWORD value it worked.

Yes, I'm on Windows 10 64-bit with Office 2019.

(Wow you are fast! I solved it and deleted the post in just a couple minutes, but you had already replied!)