The university offers all students and employees the opportunity to obtain Office 365 (2016) and MS Teams free of charge via our Office portal. It includes the following programs:
You can install Microsoft Office 365 and MS Teams on PC/Mac, tablet and smartphone (5 each). Please note that the programs can only be used as long as you are a member of the university!
Another requirement for downloading Office 365 is that it is activated on the portal provided by Microsoft.
To do this, we need your consent for your data to be transferred to Microsoft.
This data is: first name, last name, telephone number (work), address of the university and a password hash. Further information on Microsoft’s data processing can be found in the MS data protection declaration.
Students can give their consent in EMMA (https://emma.hnee.de) under "My Emma" > "Personal Data" in the additional Office 365 field.
Employees should instead send an email to itsz@hnee.de .
Example:
As an employee of the university, I would like to take part in the Microsoft Office 365 program. I hereby declare my consent to the forwarding of my personal data and its use for the purpose of setting up Microsoft Office 365. These data are: first name, last name, telephone number (work), university address and a password hash. I have been made aware of the Microsoft data protection declaration <https://privacy.microsoft.com/de-de/privacystatement>.
As soon as the portal is activated for you, you will receive an email from the address HNE_Office365@hnee.de with further instructions. Do not reply to this email address as it is generated automatically and the mailbox is not monitored. If you have not received an email after 48 hours, please contact the address itsz@hnee.de .
Instructions for the Office365Portal (de/eng).pdf
When you register for Office365, you will receive a Microsoft account via HNEE that you can use to activate Windows 11. This step happens during installation. To download Windows 11, please use the regular route via the Microsoft download page.
What you need to activate Enterprise with your university license
Your “A3 for Faculty” license allows you to upgrade from Windows Pro → Enterprise.
That means:
You need Windows 10/11 Pro as the base system.
You do not need a product key.
You do not need to buy anything if your device already has Pro.
🟦 When you do NOT need to buy anything
You don’t need to buy anything if:
your device already came with Windows 10/11 Pro, or
you previously had a Windows Pro key, or
the device has a Pro OEM key in the BIOS (many business laptops do)
This is fully sufficient to activate Enterprise through your university.
🟥 When you would need to buy Windows Pro
Only if you currently have Windows Home and absolutely no Pro key.
Because:
Upgrade Home → Pro = paid
Upgrade Pro → Enterprise (A3 license) = free through your university
🔎 How to check if you already have Pro
Go to:
Settings → System → About
Under “Windows specifications” it will show:
Windows 11 Home → upgrade needed
Windows 11 Pro → you're good, Enterprise can activate automatically
Windows 11 Enterprise → already activated
Important
The A3 license only activates Windows Enterprise — it does not provide an installation key or an ISO.
You first install Windows 10/11 Pro, and the Enterprise features are unlocked through your university license.
How to proceed
Install Windows 10/11 Pro
(You can officially download the ISO from Microsoft.)After installation, sign in with your university account:
Settings → Accounts → Access work or schoolWindows detects the A3 license and performs an automatic upgrade to Enterprise.
Verify the activation
Run
winver
orGo to Settings → System → About → Windows specifications
If it shows Enterprise, everything is correct.