Error 0x80072EFD: Office or Windows Won’t Activate — Fix (Reset the Proxy)
On one computer I ran into a problem: online activation of Office 2010 failed with error 0x80072EFD.
In short: 0x80072EFD means the computer can’t connect to Microsoft’s server. In my case the cause was an old proxy server stuck in the system WinHTTP settings. On Windows XP the command proxycfg -d fixed it; on Windows Vista and later it’s netsh winhttp reset proxy.
What I tried
- Made sure the internet works: opened, for example, microsoft.com — everything loaded. Check this first.
- Ran the Microsoft Fix it Windows Update troubleshooter — it didn’t help: updates wouldn’t install and Office wouldn’t activate.
- I could have activated Office by phone, but I wanted to fix the problem properly.
What helped: resetting the WinHTTP proxy
The error was on Windows XP. Updates and activation were trying to go through a proxy server that no longer existed. The proxy was turned off in Internet Explorer’s settings, but deep in the system — in the settings of the WinHTTP service used by activation and Windows Update — it was still there.
This command (in the Command Prompt) fixed it:
proxycfg -d
The -d switch sets direct internet access, without a proxy. A quirk: I had to run it both under the Administrator account and under the user account you work in (if you work as Administrator, once is enough).
After that the system “realized” the proxy was gone, and activation succeeded.
Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10
Newer versions of Windows don’t have proxycfg — use these instead (in an administrator Command Prompt):
netsh winhttp show proxy netsh winhttp reset proxy
The first command shows whether a proxy is set for WinHTTP; the second resets it to a direct connection.
If that didn’t help
The error code is the same, but the causes vary. Readers fixed it in other ways too: on Windows XP, manually installing a missing update downloaded from Microsoft’s site helped. Also check whether an antivirus or firewall blocks the connection, and whether the date and time are set correctly. I’d be glad if you shared in the comments how you beat error 0x80072EFD.