In my case, the laptop had been used mostly offline for documents, so the activation prompt appeared only after it was connected again and updates finished. The files were still opening, but every new Word session started with the same message. For that Office install, Activator Office refreshed the activation status without changing the saved templates or recent document list. I checked a few spreadsheets afterward, and the formatting stayed exactly the same. The practical win was getting Office back to a clean launch state without rebuilding the whole profile.