New forum for Office 2010 volume activation

Since the November 18 launch of the Microsoft Office 2010 public beta, many of you have installed and activated the Volume License version of Office 2010. The volume activation process is evolving with each new version of Office; to provide answers to issues and questions, there is now a public forum on TechNet dedicated to Office 2010 volume activation.

In the Office 2010 volume activation forum, most commonly discussed are issues that involve problems activating when Office 2010 is installed for the first time. The following are examples of the issues we have received and their solutions.

Installing Office 2010 Beta build after uninstalling the Tech Preview build: When clicking "Change Product Key," an error message appears and the install of the Beta build fails.

This is a known issue when uninstalling the Tech Preview build and then installing the Beta build.

1) Go to Start Menu --> Control Panel --> Programs and Features.

2) Click Microsoft Office 2010, then click Change on the bar on top.

3) Select the option to "Enter a Product Key" and enter it there. Click "Continue."

4) There will be a progress bar and the button to continue with the installation. Note that this is actually the installation of the product key, so continue with it (i.e. do not cancel out of it).

5) When installation of the key is complete, then restart Office 2010 to activate. Office 2010 may need to be restarted again in order to see the new licensing status reflected in the Backstage view.

Office 2010 attempts to activate, but error codes 0x8007232B and 0x8004F807 are received.

The product installs with a default Key Management Service (KMS) product key, and the error code is because Office 2010 is attempting to activate against a non-existent KMS host. This behavior is specific to the Enterprise edition and should not be used if you are using Office in a non-Enterprise/commercial environment. Change the product key as described in the steps below so you can activate through the Internet:

Use Multiple Activation Key (MAK) key: 2PWHY-KT4X6-96PYW-XQR7V-HW2W9

1) Open Office 2010 Beta and click the File tab (top left icon). This will take you to the Backstage view. Click "Help" in the set of tabs on the left.

2) Click “Change Product Key” on the right side of the screen.

3) Enter the following MAK key: 2PWHY-KT4X6-96PYW-XQR7V-HW2W9 and then Click "Continue."

4) Select the check box to activate automatically or restart Office 2010 to activate by using the activation dialog box. Entering the MAK key in Microsoft Word 2010 Beta automatically activates all the Office 2010 Beta applications.

5) Click the File tab to return to the Document view.

To enter the MAK key manually:

1) In the Start menu, search for “cmd”, then right click on the cmd.exe result and select “Run as administrator.”

2) In the command window, enter the MAK key (including dashes) in the following line by typing:

    cscript "%ProgramFiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs" /inpkey:<MAK key>

    Note: If you are running the 32-bit version of Office 2010 with a 64-bit operating system, %ProgramFiles% = Program Files (x86)

3) Starting an Office 2010 application will then prompt you for activation through the UI. Alternatively, you can trigger it by running the following:

    cscript "%ProgramFiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs" /act

4) Check the status by running the following:

  cscript "%ProgramFiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs" /dstatus

 

What is the KMS client reactivation schedule?

With KMS client activation, the Office 2010 client is licensed for 180 days from the day it is activated. A notification to the client is then issued every seven days giving you the opportunity to extend the 180-day license period beginning on the day the client is successfully reactivated. If by the 180th day the Office 2010 you do not reactivate the client, then the client license goes into a 30-day grace period.

During this 30-day period, an activation attempt is sent to the client every two hours as well each time an Office 2010 application launches until the Office 2010 client is activated successfully. This process is designed so that KMS traffic for a large corporation (where there might be tens of thousands of computers) would have a balance between network traffic and successful activation.

This applies to Office 2010 clients running on Windows Vista and Windows 7. On Windows XP, you must start an Office 2010 application once to start the OSPP service.

If you're concerned about running low on the number of days that the Office 2010 client is licensed, then you can manually trigger an activation attempt against the KMS host by doing the following:

1) In the Start menu, search for “cmd”, then right click on the cmd.exe result and select “Run as administrator.”

2) In the command window, type the following:

    cscript "%ProgramFiles%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs" /act

 

Office 2010 installs correctly (product key accepted), but after closing and restarting Word, the Activation Wizard requests an online activation. When attempting to comply, an error message appears saying there's a connectivity issue and to try activating again.

Reboot the computer and start any Office 2010 application. If requested, re-activate.

 

Office 2010 activation behind a proxy server/phone activation

Activation behind a proxy is not supported. The workaround is to activate by phone, yet this is not supported for Office 2010 Beta. If you have rights to the proxy server, see the following KB article:

https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/921471

Another option is to use Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) 2.0 proxy activation. VAMT 2.0 is designed for disconnected activation and for computers in labs or other networks that should not be connected to the Internet. You need two computers for this – one must have Office 2010 beta installed.

1) Computer A: This is the computer on which you installed Office 2010. Download VAMT 2.0 at:

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8265fdef-b921-4dbf-ba8b-bb1cbe238ce6&displaylang=en

2) Computer A: Install VAMT 2.0.

3) Computer A: Use VAMT 2.0 to get the installation ID (IID)

4) Computer B: Take the IID to another computer with an Internet connection and VAMT 2.0 installed. Use this computer to get the confirmation ID (CID).

5) Computer A: Copy the CID back to Computer A, and use VAMT 2.0 to activate your computer.

 

For more information about volume activation for Office 2010, see Overview of volume activation for Office 2010 and Volume activation quick start guide for Office 2010 in the Office 2010 Beta Resource Kit on TechNet.

Thank you for being our real-world product testers. Your support helps us continually improve our processes and product offerings.

- Darryl