Enable Modern authentication for Office 2013 on Windows devices

In this article

1. Software requirements
2. Enable modern authentication for Office 2013 clients
3. Disable modern authentication on devices
4. Related content

Microsoft Office 2013 on Microsoft Windows computers supports Modern authentication. But, to turn it on, you need to configure the following registry keys:

To enable MFA for Office 2013 client apps, you must have the following software installed (the version listed below, or a later version) based on whether you have a Click-to-run based installation or an MSI-based installation.

To determine whether your Office installation is Click-to-run or MSI-based:

1. Start Outlook 2013.

2. From the File menu, select Office Account.

3. For Outlook 2013 Click-to-Run installations, an Update Options item displays. For MSI-based installations, an Update Options item does not display.

   

For Click-to-run installations, you must have the following files installed. If your file version is not equal to or greater than the file version listed, follow these steps below to update it.

* If Groove.EXE isn't part of your Office installation, it doesn't need to be installed for the Azure Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) to work. However, if Groove.EXE is present, then the file version listed in the table is required.

For MSI-based installations, you must have the following files installed. If your file version is not equal to or greater than the file version listed, use the link in the Where to get the update column to update it.

* If Groove.EXE isn't part of your Office installation, it doesn't need to be installed for the Azure Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) to work. However, if Groove.EXE is present, then the file version listed in the table is required.

1. Close Outlook.

2. Copy and paste the following text into Notepad:

   textCopy

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange] "AlwaysUseMSOAuthForAutoDiscover"=dword:00000001 
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common] 
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity] "EnableADAL"=dword:00000001 "Version"=dword:00000001
   

3. Save the file with the file extension .reg instead of .txt in a location that's easy for you to find. For example, C:\Data\Office2013_Enable_ModernAuth.reg.

4. Open File Explorer (formerly known as Windows Explorer), browse to the location of the .reg file you just saved, and then double-click it.

5. In the User account control dialog that appears, click Yes to allow the app to make changes to your device.

6. In the Registry Editor warning dialog that appears, click Yes to accept the changes.

Once you've set the registry keys, you can set Office 2013 apps to use multifactor authentication (MFA) with Microsoft 365. For more information, see Set up multifactor authentication.

If you're currently signed in to any of Office client apps, you need to sign out and sign back in for the change to take effect. Otherwise, the MRU and roaming settings will be unavailable until the identity is established.

The procedure to disable modern authentication on a device is very similar, but fewer registry keys are required, and you need to set their values to 0.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange] "AlwaysUseMSOAuthForAutoDiscover"=dword:00000000 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common] 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity] "EnableADAL"=dword:00000000

Sign in to Office 2013 with a second verification method

Outlook prompts for password and doesn't use Modern Authentication to connect to Office 365