When launching Office 2010 applications, a message appears indicating that Office is not activated. Attempts to activate Office may result in the following error:

"Error 0xC004F074: The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Event Log for additional information."

Error 0xC004F074 equates to, "The Key Management Server (KMS) is unavailable". This error occurs when volume license versions of Office 2010 are installed on client machines using the built-in, KMS client key and an Office KMS host is not available to activate installations of Office 2010.

The following is a partial Office Web Apps Setup product key, required for product installation on Microsoft SharePoint, rather than a product key that is specific to client installations of the Office 2010 suites:

FC7HF-CF42G-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Attempting to enter this key via the File/Help and Change Product Key link will result in the error, "This is not a valid Office Product key. See above examples to learn more".

Attempting to input this key via the ospp.vbs script will result in the error, "0xc004f050 The Software Licensing service reported that the product key is invalid"

To resolve this issue, obtain a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) volume license product key for Office 2010, and then do one of the following:

1) Open an Office 2010 application (i.e., Microsoft Word), go to File/Help, and then click on the Change Product Key link. Enter the Office 2010 product key. After the process of installing the product key completes, close all open Office applications, open Microsoft Word, go to File/Help, and check to see if “Product Activated” is displayed.

—or—

2) From an elevated command prompt, run command lines similar to the following (if you are running 32-bit Office 2010 on a 64-bit operating system, the path should include Program Files (x86)):

%windir%\System32\cscript.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx     (where xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx is your 25 digit MAK product key for Office 2010)

%windir%\System32\cscript.exe “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs” /act

For most Microsoft products, there are two ways to obtain volume license product keys:

1)  Go to the Product Keys section of the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) for Open, Open Value, Select, Enterprise Agreements and the Services provider License Agreement (SPLA)  - https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/home.aspx

2) Call your Microsoft Activation Center - http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/activation-centers.aspx

Related links:

Frequently asked questions: Volume activation of Office 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678211.aspx

Volume activation quick start guide for Office 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624359.aspx

Microsoft Volume Licensing Product Activation and Key Information

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/product-activation.aspx

Microsoft Volume Licensing Frequently Asked Questions About Volume License Keys

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/product-activation-faq.aspx

There are a few upgrade options available when planning to move to Office 2010 from a previous version. Microsoft has a technet article that touches on these various options here:

Plan an upgrade to Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624354.aspx

There are three options for upgrading to Office 2010:

• In-place upgrade The earlier version of Office, such as the 2007 Microsoft Office system, is already installed on computers.
• Uninstall upgrade The earlier version of Office, such as the 2007 Office system, is first uninstalled before the upgrade to Office 2010.
• New operating system upgrade The computers get a new version of the operating system, such as Windows 7, and an upgrade to Office 2010.

One of the options that is discussed is performing uninstall-upgrades.

For a single machine this is pretty simple. Remove the previous version of Office via add/remove programs or KB290301, and then manually install Office 2010. For enterprise deployments though this gets to be trickier as these deployments will typically be automated. The purpose of this blog post is to demonstrate how to perform automated uninstall-upgrades.

The idea is that we will create a script that can automatically remove the previous version of Office, and then proceed to install Office 2010. To do this we need to first understand how to automate the removal Office 2003/2007. 

There are two methods for automating the removal Office 2003/2007.

1. Uninstall Office using the supported uninstall command line 
How to automate the uninstallation of Office 2003 products via command line
How to automate the uninstallation of Office 2007 products via command line

2. Uninstall Office by utilizing the Office removal tool. (Offscrub.vbs)
How to obtain and use Offscrub to automate the uninstallation of Office products

When choosing between which method to use for the automated removal of Office there are a couple things to consider.

If you choose to remove Office 2003/2007 with the command line uninstall option, keep in mind that the uninstallation could fail if the health of the product is poor. IE… if the source cache directory is corrupt, or if cached patches are broken. If you are removing Office 2007 and are wanting to have the uninstallation be silent, and you want to prevent the reboot, you will need to create a config.xml that contains those options and have it accessible on a share to call via the uninstall command line.

If you choose to remove Office 2003/2007 via the Offscrub technique, be familiar with the switches available for Offscrub and the FAQ.

Now that we know how we can automate the removal of Office 2003/2007 and we have decided on a method, we just need a script that can perform the uninstall actions, and then the install actions for Office 2010. 

For my examples below I am modifying the script from the technet article entitled Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts. 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602181.aspx

*note*
If you decide to use GPO to deploy, make sure that you are familiar with the above article as there are some other considerations.
If you use this script, ensure that your share for Office 2010 doesn’t have any spaces. ie.. \\server\share\Office14
If you are deploying this script via a deployment mechanism that utilizes the SYSTEM account, make sure the system account can access the shares that are specified in the script.

In the example below, the script will first check to see if Office 2010 is installed, if it is not it will automate the removal of Office 2003/2007 via the uninstall command line, and then perform the installation of Office 2010.

Check for Office 2010, if not installed, uninstall Office 2007 via command line, and then after that is finished, install Office 2010.

uninstall-upgrade.bat

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file, and then add "office14." as a prefix. 
set ProductName=Office14.PROPLUS

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files. (the user doing the install needs write access)
set LogLocation=\\server\Office2010LogFiles

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" (goto ARP64) else (goto ARP86)

REM Operating system is X64. Check for 32 bit Office in emulated Wow6432 uninstall key
:ARP64
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432NODE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if NOT %errorlevel%==1 (goto End)

REM Check for 32 and 64 bit versions of Office 2010. (Office 64bit would also appear here on a 64bit OS) 
:ARP86
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
start /wait \\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus /config \\server\share\UninstallConfig.xml
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

If we wanted to use Offscrub.vbs to perform the uninstall we could use the same script and just change the uninstall line for Office 2007 to use offscrub rather then the uninstall command line.

Check for Office 2010, if not installed, uninstall Office 2007 via Offscrub2007.vbs, and then after that is finished, install Office 2010.

uninstall-upgrade.bat

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file, and then add "office14." as a prefix. 
set ProductName=Office14.PROPLUS

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files. (the user doing the install needs write access)
set LogLocation=\\server\Office2010LogFiles

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" (goto ARP64) else (goto ARP86)

REM Operating system is X64. Check for 32 bit Office in emulated Wow6432 uninstall key
:ARP64
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432NODE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if NOT %errorlevel%==1 (goto End)

REM Check for 32 and 64 bit versions of Office 2010. (Office 64bit would also appear here on a 64bit OS) 
:ARP86
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
call cscript \\server\share\Offscrub07.vbs ProPlus /bypass 1 /q /s /NoCancel
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

These are example batch files. You could certainly create a VBS script, or use any other method of deployment that follows the same logic.
#1. Uninstall Office 2003/2007 using one of the available methods for automated uninstallation
#2. Wait for the uninstallation to complete.
#3. Install Office 2010.

FAQ

Will user settings still migrate if we are removing the previous version of Office 2003/2007 prior to installing Office 2010?
A- Any user settings that would migrate during a typical upgrade would still migrate when performing an uninstall-upgrade. The user settings will migrate upon the first user of each Office 2010 application.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624354.aspx#section2
The registry keys that are included or excluded when you use the in-place upgrade or the uninstall-upgrade option to migrate Microsoft Office 2003 or Office 2007 user data to Microsoft Office 2010 are listed in the following article.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624352.aspx

We are pushing the uninstall-upgrade using a deployment method that will perform the installation while a user is logged on to the machine. We have elected to use the Offscrub method and hide the CMD prompt window that Offscrub populates, but now find that there is no message to the user that the Office installation is taking place. Can we generate a notice to the users so they know that Office is being installed, and don’t try to shut down or disconnect the PC in the middle of the install?
A- It is not uncommon for folks to want to disable the command prompt window that Offscrub generates, because if that command prompt window is closed by the end user, than Offscrub will not complete. See Offscrub FAQ 

You can launch a custom IE window or a CMD window to act as the user notification if you wish. As an example, you could add the following to launch a nice notice to the user:

start "----NOTICE----" cmd.exe /t:ec /Q /k "echo OFFICE 2010 IS BEING INSTALLED. THIS WINDOW WILL CLOSE WHEN COMPLETE&&prompt $h"

Then after the install completes, close the CMD notification with:

XP
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ ----NOTICE----"

Win7
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ Administrator: ----NOTICE----"

So the portion of the install code above would look like this:

*note*
I am using taskkill twice in my example to ensure that the notice window would close correctly in WinXp or Win7. (cmd.exe operates slightly different in newer operating systems). It is expected that one of the lines will fail silently.

When automating the uninstallation of Office 2003, we can call msiexec to perform the work from a command line.

Example syntax:
msiexec /x {GUID} /qb

*note*
You could use /qb for an automated uninstall with a progress bar, or use /qn for a totally silent uninstall.
You could also use a /norestart switch to prevent a reboot of the machine after installation.
The GUID for the Office 2003 products is different depending on which version of Office 2003 you are using.

To find the GUID for Office 2003 products look at the following registry key:

x86 OS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}

x64 OS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}

The GUID for Office 2003 will be similar or equal to {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}
The GUID may be slightly different then what I have listed here. Verify you found the correct GUID by verifying the product under the “Displayname” key listed in the GUID.

Here is a screenshot of this registry key on my machine

So on my machine I can automate the silent uninstallation of Office 2003 via the following command line:

Msiexec /x {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9} /qn /norestart

When automating the removal of Office 2007, we need to call setup.exe to perform the work.
Because Office 2007 is a multi-msi based product we cannot use msiexec for the installation, nor the uninstallation of Office 2007.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc982159(office.12).aspx#BKMK_UninstallProd

To run Setup.exe to remove a specified Office product from the user’s computer, use the /uninstall command-line option, which uses the following syntax:

/uninstall [ProductID]

where:

[ProductID] is the value for the product that you want to modify. Look up the value of [ProductID] in the Setup.xml file for the product.

The following example shows how to use the /uninstall command to remove an Office Professional Plus 2007 installation. Office12 is the root of the network installation point for ProPlus:

\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus

In enterprise deployments, we recommend that you run a silent uninstall. To run a silent uninstallation of a Office 2007 product that requires no user interaction, you must modify the Config.xml file for the product that you want to uninstall and set the Display element's Level attribute to "none" (Display Level="none"), and then save the Config.xml file as UninstallConfig.xml. You may also want to prevent the reboot of the machine after the uninstallation. We can also set this in a custom Config.xml.

Example Uninstallconfig.xml:

<Configuration Product="ProPlus">
<Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" /> 
<Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="NEVER" />
</Configuration>

To then uninstall Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 after you modify the Config.xml to set silent options, use the following command where \\server\share\Office12 is the path of the Office 2007 Professional Plus source files, and <pathtoUninstallConfig.xml> is the location of your modified Config.xml file for Office Professional Plus:

\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus /config <pathtoUninstallconfig.xml>\UninstallConfig.xml

Sometimes you cannot uninstall the existing 2003, 2007 or 2010 Microsoft Office suite on your computer by using the Add or Remove Programs feature in Control Panel of Windows XP or the Programs and Features feature in Control Panel of Windows Vista/Win7. To help with this Microsoft has created Fix it utilities at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301.

Office uninstallation can fail if any of these are true:

• The installation process did not complete when you tried to install a new program. Therefore, you are left with a partially installed program. When you try to install the program again, you are unsuccessful.
• A previously installed program cannot be removed because the installation files are corrupted.
• If you had problems installing Office 2010 from a previous attempt.
• Office cached patches, or cached source is corrupt.

These fix it utilities can remove Office 2003-2010 products regardless of the current health of Office. These fix it utilities are provided as MSI files and run automatically without user invention. This is a good solution for folks that have a single machine that cannot uninstall the Office Suite under normal conditions. There are some limitations to the fix it solutions however. Because it is automatic, the end user cannot specify which products to remove, and the MSIs will only remove Office Suites. It will not help with the removal of standalone products. Also, the fix its lack the ability to be automated. So if you needed to run these on multiple machines, you would need to do so manually.

Fortunately, the VBS engine that the fix it uses can be obtained from the fix it and can then be automated.

Instructions to obtain Offscrub.vbs from the fix it utilities:

1. Download the fix it for the appropriate version of office, and run it.
2. Agree to the EULA and click next.
3. When you get to this screen stop and browse to the %temp% directory.

4. Find the Fixit directory in the %temp% directory and copy it to the desktop

5. You can now cancel the Fixit utility. Browse to the Fixit folder you copied to the desktop, and inside you will find offscrub.vbs. (OffScrub07.vbs in my example since I ran the Fixit for Office 2007)

Now that we have obtained the Offscrub07.vbs script from the Office 2007 Fixit, we can run it manually outside of the Fixit. We can also automate it’s usage from a command line with a variety of variables.

If you run the Offscrub2007.vbs script manually, by double-clicking or by calling it with cscript without any switches you will be presented a screen like the following:

In my example screenshot we can see that Offscrub found Access 2007 Standalone, Office 2007 Standard, and Visio Standard 2007 are installed. If I click ok on this screen the way it is, Offscrub will remove all three products from the machine. If I only wanted to remove Visio, I would remove everything in this box except VISSTD and click ok.

Using this manual method you can use Offscrub to remove Office 2007 standalone products, which you would not be able to do if you were running the Fixit alone.

If you want to automate Offscrub you can do so via command line.

Usage:  OffScrub07.vbs [List of config ProductIDs] [Options]

        /?                               ' Displays the help
        /Force                           ' Enforces file removal. May cause data loss!
        /S           ' Does not search the local hard drives for shortcuts  (*NOTE* The help file lists /SkipShortcutDetection as a valid switch to skip shortcut detection but this is incorrect. Use /S instead.)

        /Log [LogfolderPath]             ' Custom folder for log files
        /NoCancel                        ' Setup.exe and Msiexec.exe have no Cancel button
        /OSE                             ' Forces removal of the Office Source Engine service
        /Q                         ' Setup.exe and Msiexec.exe run quiet with no UI
        /Preview                         ' Run this script to preview what would get removed

Examples:
        OffScrub07.vbs CLIENTALL         ' Remove all Office 2007 Client products
        OffScrub07.vbs SERVER               ' Remove all Office 2007 Server products
        OffScrub07.vbs ALL                     ' Remove all Office 2007 Server & Client products
        OffScrub07.vbs ProPlus,PrjPro   ' Remove ProPlus and Project
 
Stages of the script
===============
- Basics :    Non customizable tasks
- Stage 1:    Component detection. Builds a list of files which are installed/registered to a product that's going to be removed.
        Depending on the amount of applications that are removed - this can be a very time consuming task.
        "/Bypass 1" allows to bypass this detection.
- Stage 2:     Remove products with Setup.exe
- Stage 3:     Remove products with direct calls to Windows Installer
- Stage 4:     CleanUp - scrub files and registry settings that remained from the previous stages.
        In combination with 'Stage 1' this is the core of the removal concept.

Usage Examples
==============
- "Safe" (Similar to calling setup.exe)
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Bypass 1,3,4
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Bypass 1,3,4 /Quiet
    OffScrub07.vbs ProPlus /Bypass 1,3,4 /Quiet

- "Preview"
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Preview
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Bypass 2 /Preview

   Note: The preview option will not give the same results as the true removal. 
   Still useful to get a good picture of what will be removed on the client

- "Quiet"
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Quiet

   Note: The CMD output window will still receive all messages but the UI for Setup and Msiexec tasks will be suppressed.

- "NoCancel"
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /NoCancel

   Note: Setup and Msiexec tasks have no "Cancel" option

So if we were going to script the automation of Office 2007 ProPlus so that the uninstallation was silent, and couldn’t be cancelled, we would run a command like so:

cscript offscrub2007.vbs ProPlus /Q /NoCancel /BYPASS 1

I would advise that when automating Offscrub you skip the component detection (Stage 1) . You do this by using “/Bypass 1”.
The reason is because I have seen instances where component detection causes third party products to attempt repair. Usually this is not big deal, but if the third party product is in an unhealthy state (for example it’s missing it’s cached MSI) than it will prompt the user to locate the MSI and thus stall Offscrub. Obviously not desired if we are looking to automate the removal with no user intervention.

FAQ-

How can we remove the black window that populates when Offscrub is run?
A- If the command prompt screen is closed while offscrub is running it will fail to continue. We can prevent that by hiding the command prompt window. Edit the the Offscrub.vbs file and find for the following code at the bottom of the script:

We have elected to use the Offscrub method and hide the CMD prompt window that Offscrub populates, but now find that there is no message to the user that the Office installation is taking place. Can we generate a notice to the users so they know that Office is being installed, and don’t try to shut down or disconnect the PC in the middle of the install?
A- It is not uncommon for folks to want to disable the command prompt window that Offscrub generates, because if that command prompt window is closed by the end user, then Offscrub will not complete.

You can launch a custom IE window or a CMD window to act as the user notification if you wish. As an example, you could add the following to launch a nice notice to the user:

start "----NOTICE----" cmd.exe /t:ec /Q /k "echo OFFICE 2010 IS BEING INSTALLED. THIS WINDOW WILL CLOSE WHEN COMPLETE&&prompt $h"

Then after the install completes, close the CMD notification with:

XP
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ ----NOTICE----"
Win7
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ Administrator: ----NOTICE----"


The shortcut detection seems to take a long time. Can it be avoided? 
A- Yes. The shortcut detection will try to scan all drives on a machine for the Office shortcuts that align with the product being removed. This can be skipped by use a “/s” option switch when running Offscrub.

There are a couple common scenarios that occur that can cause an invalid product key error with Office 2010 volume license edition when attempting to install the VL MAK key. 

1. After purchasing a Volume License edition of Office 2010, when entering the key that came with the discs that were sent in the mail, you get invalid product key.

2. After installing the Volume License edition of Office 2010 and entering the MAK product key that you obtained from the Volume License Service Center you get invalid product key error

First it is important to understand that 32 bit versions of Office 2010 that are volume license will not ask you for a product key during the installation. Both of the scenarios above assume that you have already installed Office 2010 VL, and are now trying to enter the product key post installation by clicking on “change key”.

Issue #1

When you purchase Office 2010 from a Volume License retailer and you opt for physical media to be sent to you, you will find that it comes with 3 discs and a product key.

After you install Office 2010 successfully and try to input the product key that comes with the media you will get an invalid key error. The reason for this is because the product key that ships with the media is for “Office Web Apps” and not in fact for Office 2010 ProPlus.

To obtain the VL MAK key for Office 2010 you will need to logon to the Volume License Service Center. After you purchased your Volume License version of Office 2010, you should have received an email from the Volume Licensing Service Center (msvlop@microsoft.com) welcoming you to register at the VLSC. You will need to find this email, and login to the VLSC and obtain your VL MAK key from there. If you didn’t receive this email and you expect that you should have, or need assistance logging on to the VLSC you can call the following number for VLSC support (866-230-0560 Option 3) They should be able to pull up your VL agreement using the email address or company name of the purchaser.

Issue #2

After installing the Volume License edition of Office 2010 and entering the MAK product key that you obtained from the Volume License Service Center you get invalid product key error.

It is not uncommon for folks to install the volume license version of Office 2010 on a machine without first uninstalling the preinstalled OEM version of Office 2010 from the machine. Then when running Microsoft Office 2010 from the start menu they are actually launching the OEM version of Office 2010 rather than the VL Standard/Proplus version. The Office 2010 OEM version has an icon that looks like this:

If you are clicking on this icon, it is expected that your VL MAK key would give you an invalid key error message, because the OEM version is being run and that version will not accept a VL key.

Solution-
Check programs and features in the control panel, and ensure that you only have one entry for the Office 2010 suite. Uninstall the OEM version of the Office 2010 suite. 

Here is an example of what Programs and Features will look like when the OEM version is installed along side the Office 2010 ProPlus VL version.

The entry above that says “Microsoft Office 2010” is the OEM version of Office 2010 and will not accept a VL product key. Since you installed the Volume License version of Office 2010 Standard/ProPlus feel free to uninstall the version that is labeled “Microsoft Office 2010”.

After you uninstall the OEM version of Office 2010 now you can click on start, programs, Microsoft Office, and click on an Office application. (IE Word, Excel). Then you can input the MAK key by going to file, and help inside the application and choosing Change Product Key.

ISSUE:

When attempting to activate Microsoft Office running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 clients using KMS activation, the activation fails with an error code 0xC004F074.

Running ospp.vbs /dstatus shows the following output:

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15,VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
LICENSE STATUS: ---OOB_GRACE---
ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application is running within the valid grace period.
REMAINING GRACE: 29 days (43178 minute(s) before expiring)
Last 5 characters of installed product key: GVGXT

Running ospp.vbs /act shows the following output:

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: GVGXT
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F074
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Event Log for additional information.

The application event log will show an event ID 12288 containing an error 0x8007000D.  You can also run the following command-line from an administrative command-prompt to determine the issue:
x86:
cscript "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /dhistorykms

x64
cscript "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /dhistorykms

MORE INFORMATION:

This issue occurs due to a change made to the activation engine of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 that prevents KMS host running on down-level operating systems from activating these clients.  Microsoft has published a hotfix to address this issue.  This hotfix has to be applied to all down-level operating systems that are running KMS Host.  No update to hosts running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 is needed.

RESOLUTION:

Download and install the appropriate hotfix from the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2885698

When launching Office 2010 applications, a message appears indicating that Office is not activated. Attempts to activate Office may result in the following error:

"Error 0xC004F074: The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Event Log for additional information."

Error 0xC004F074 equates to, "The Key Management Server (KMS) is unavailable". This error occurs when volume license versions of Office 2010 are installed on client machines using the built-in, KMS client key and an Office KMS host is not available to activate installations of Office 2010.

The following is a partial Office Web Apps Setup product key, required for product installation on Microsoft SharePoint, rather than a product key that is specific to client installations of the Office 2010 suites:

FC7HF-CF42G-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Attempting to enter this key via the File/Help and Change Product Key link will result in the error, "This is not a valid Office Product key. See above examples to learn more".

Attempting to input this key via the ospp.vbs script will result in the error, "0xc004f050 The Software Licensing service reported that the product key is invalid"

To resolve this issue, obtain a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) volume license product key for Office 2010, and then do one of the following:

1) Open an Office 2010 application (i.e., Microsoft Word), go to File/Help, and then click on the Change Product Key link. Enter the Office 2010 product key. After the process of installing the product key completes, close all open Office applications, open Microsoft Word, go to File/Help, and check to see if “Product Activated” is displayed.

—or—

2) From an elevated command prompt, run command lines similar to the following (if you are running 32-bit Office 2010 on a 64-bit operating system, the path should include Program Files (x86)):

%windir%\System32\cscript.exe "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /inpkey:xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx     (where xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx is your 25 digit MAK product key for Office 2010)

%windir%\System32\cscript.exe “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs” /act

For most Microsoft products, there are two ways to obtain volume license product keys:

1)  Go to the Product Keys section of the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) for Open, Open Value, Select, Enterprise Agreements and the Services provider License Agreement (SPLA)  - https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/home.aspx

2) Call your Microsoft Activation Center - http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/activation-centers.aspx

Related links:

Frequently asked questions: Volume activation of Office 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678211.aspx

Volume activation quick start guide for Office 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624359.aspx

Microsoft Volume Licensing Product Activation and Key Information

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/product-activation.aspx

Microsoft Volume Licensing Frequently Asked Questions About Volume License Keys

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/product-activation-faq.aspx

There are a few upgrade options available when planning to move to Office 2010 from a previous version. Microsoft has a technet article that touches on these various options here:

Plan an upgrade to Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624354.aspx

There are three options for upgrading to Office 2010:

• In-place upgrade The earlier version of Office, such as the 2007 Microsoft Office system, is already installed on computers.
• Uninstall upgrade The earlier version of Office, such as the 2007 Office system, is first uninstalled before the upgrade to Office 2010.
• New operating system upgrade The computers get a new version of the operating system, such as Windows 7, and an upgrade to Office 2010.

One of the options that is discussed is performing uninstall-upgrades.

For a single machine this is pretty simple. Remove the previous version of Office via add/remove programs or KB290301, and then manually install Office 2010. For enterprise deployments though this gets to be trickier as these deployments will typically be automated. The purpose of this blog post is to demonstrate how to perform automated uninstall-upgrades.

The idea is that we will create a script that can automatically remove the previous version of Office, and then proceed to install Office 2010. To do this we need to first understand how to automate the removal Office 2003/2007. 

There are two methods for automating the removal Office 2003/2007.

1. Uninstall Office using the supported uninstall command line 
How to automate the uninstallation of Office 2003 products via command line
How to automate the uninstallation of Office 2007 products via command line

2. Uninstall Office by utilizing the Office removal tool. (Offscrub.vbs)
How to obtain and use Offscrub to automate the uninstallation of Office products

When choosing between which method to use for the automated removal of Office there are a couple things to consider.

If you choose to remove Office 2003/2007 with the command line uninstall option, keep in mind that the uninstallation could fail if the health of the product is poor. IE… if the source cache directory is corrupt, or if cached patches are broken. If you are removing Office 2007 and are wanting to have the uninstallation be silent, and you want to prevent the reboot, you will need to create a config.xml that contains those options and have it accessible on a share to call via the uninstall command line.

If you choose to remove Office 2003/2007 via the Offscrub technique, be familiar with the switches available for Offscrub and the FAQ.

Now that we know how we can automate the removal of Office 2003/2007 and we have decided on a method, we just need a script that can perform the uninstall actions, and then the install actions for Office 2010. 

For my examples below I am modifying the script from the technet article entitled Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts. 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602181.aspx

*note*
If you decide to use GPO to deploy, make sure that you are familiar with the above article as there are some other considerations.
If you use this script, ensure that your share for Office 2010 doesn’t have any spaces. ie.. \\server\share\Office14
If you are deploying this script via a deployment mechanism that utilizes the SYSTEM account, make sure the system account can access the shares that are specified in the script.

In the example below, the script will first check to see if Office 2010 is installed, if it is not it will automate the removal of Office 2003/2007 via the uninstall command line, and then perform the installation of Office 2010.

Check for Office 2010, if not installed, uninstall Office 2007 via command line, and then after that is finished, install Office 2010.

uninstall-upgrade.bat

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file, and then add "office14." as a prefix. 
set ProductName=Office14.PROPLUS

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files. (the user doing the install needs write access)
set LogLocation=\\server\Office2010LogFiles

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" (goto ARP64) else (goto ARP86)

REM Operating system is X64. Check for 32 bit Office in emulated Wow6432 uninstall key
:ARP64
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432NODE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if NOT %errorlevel%==1 (goto End)

REM Check for 32 and 64 bit versions of Office 2010. (Office 64bit would also appear here on a 64bit OS) 
:ARP86
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
start /wait \\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus /config \\server\share\UninstallConfig.xml
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

If we wanted to use Offscrub.vbs to perform the uninstall we could use the same script and just change the uninstall line for Office 2007 to use offscrub rather then the uninstall command line.

Check for Office 2010, if not installed, uninstall Office 2007 via Offscrub2007.vbs, and then after that is finished, install Office 2010.

uninstall-upgrade.bat

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file, and then add "office14." as a prefix. 
set ProductName=Office14.PROPLUS

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\Office2010SourceFiles\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files. (the user doing the install needs write access)
set LogLocation=\\server\Office2010LogFiles

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" (goto ARP64) else (goto ARP86)

REM Operating system is X64. Check for 32 bit Office in emulated Wow6432 uninstall key
:ARP64
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432NODE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if NOT %errorlevel%==1 (goto End)

REM Check for 32 and 64 bit versions of Office 2010. (Office 64bit would also appear here on a 64bit OS) 
:ARP86
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
call cscript \\server\share\Offscrub07.vbs ProPlus /bypass 1 /q /s /NoCancel
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

These are example batch files. You could certainly create a VBS script, or use any other method of deployment that follows the same logic.
#1. Uninstall Office 2003/2007 using one of the available methods for automated uninstallation
#2. Wait for the uninstallation to complete.
#3. Install Office 2010.

FAQ

Will user settings still migrate if we are removing the previous version of Office 2003/2007 prior to installing Office 2010?
A- Any user settings that would migrate during a typical upgrade would still migrate when performing an uninstall-upgrade. The user settings will migrate upon the first user of each Office 2010 application.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624354.aspx#section2
The registry keys that are included or excluded when you use the in-place upgrade or the uninstall-upgrade option to migrate Microsoft Office 2003 or Office 2007 user data to Microsoft Office 2010 are listed in the following article.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624352.aspx

We are pushing the uninstall-upgrade using a deployment method that will perform the installation while a user is logged on to the machine. We have elected to use the Offscrub method and hide the CMD prompt window that Offscrub populates, but now find that there is no message to the user that the Office installation is taking place. Can we generate a notice to the users so they know that Office is being installed, and don’t try to shut down or disconnect the PC in the middle of the install?
A- It is not uncommon for folks to want to disable the command prompt window that Offscrub generates, because if that command prompt window is closed by the end user, than Offscrub will not complete. See Offscrub FAQ 

You can launch a custom IE window or a CMD window to act as the user notification if you wish. As an example, you could add the following to launch a nice notice to the user:

start "----NOTICE----" cmd.exe /t:ec /Q /k "echo OFFICE 2010 IS BEING INSTALLED. THIS WINDOW WILL CLOSE WHEN COMPLETE&&prompt $h"

Then after the install completes, close the CMD notification with:

XP
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ ----NOTICE----"

Win7
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ Administrator: ----NOTICE----"

So the portion of the install code above would look like this:

*note*
I am using taskkill twice in my example to ensure that the notice window would close correctly in WinXp or Win7. (cmd.exe operates slightly different in newer operating systems). It is expected that one of the lines will fail silently.

When automating the uninstallation of Office 2003, we can call msiexec to perform the work from a command line.

Example syntax:
msiexec /x {GUID} /qb

*note*
You could use /qb for an automated uninstall with a progress bar, or use /qn for a totally silent uninstall.
You could also use a /norestart switch to prevent a reboot of the machine after installation.
The GUID for the Office 2003 products is different depending on which version of Office 2003 you are using.

To find the GUID for Office 2003 products look at the following registry key:

x86 OS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}

x64 OS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}

The GUID for Office 2003 will be similar or equal to {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}
The GUID may be slightly different then what I have listed here. Verify you found the correct GUID by verifying the product under the “Displayname” key listed in the GUID.

Here is a screenshot of this registry key on my machine

So on my machine I can automate the silent uninstallation of Office 2003 via the following command line:

Msiexec /x {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9} /qn /norestart

When automating the removal of Office 2007, we need to call setup.exe to perform the work.
Because Office 2007 is a multi-msi based product we cannot use msiexec for the installation, nor the uninstallation of Office 2007.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc982159(office.12).aspx#BKMK_UninstallProd

To run Setup.exe to remove a specified Office product from the user’s computer, use the /uninstall command-line option, which uses the following syntax:

/uninstall [ProductID]

where:

[ProductID] is the value for the product that you want to modify. Look up the value of [ProductID] in the Setup.xml file for the product.

The following example shows how to use the /uninstall command to remove an Office Professional Plus 2007 installation. Office12 is the root of the network installation point for ProPlus:

\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus

In enterprise deployments, we recommend that you run a silent uninstall. To run a silent uninstallation of a Office 2007 product that requires no user interaction, you must modify the Config.xml file for the product that you want to uninstall and set the Display element's Level attribute to "none" (Display Level="none"), and then save the Config.xml file as UninstallConfig.xml. You may also want to prevent the reboot of the machine after the uninstallation. We can also set this in a custom Config.xml.

Example Uninstallconfig.xml:

<Configuration Product="ProPlus">
<Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" /> 
<Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="NEVER" />
</Configuration>

To then uninstall Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 after you modify the Config.xml to set silent options, use the following command where \\server\share\Office12 is the path of the Office 2007 Professional Plus source files, and <pathtoUninstallConfig.xml> is the location of your modified Config.xml file for Office Professional Plus:

\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus /config <pathtoUninstallconfig.xml>\UninstallConfig.xml

Sometimes you cannot uninstall the existing 2003, 2007 or 2010 Microsoft Office suite on your computer by using the Add or Remove Programs feature in Control Panel of Windows XP or the Programs and Features feature in Control Panel of Windows Vista/Win7. To help with this Microsoft has created Fix it utilities at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971179.

Office uninstallation can fail if any of these are true:

• The installation process did not complete when you tried to install a new program. Therefore, you are left with a partially installed program. When you try to install the program again, you are unsuccessful.
• A previously installed program cannot be removed because the installation files are corrupted.
• If you had problems installing Office 2010 from a previous attempt.
• Office cached patches, or cached source is corrupt.

These fix it utilities can remove Office 2003-2010 products regardless of the current health of Office. These fix it utilities are provided as MSI files and run automatically without user invention. This is a good solution for folks that have a single machine that cannot uninstall the Office Suite under normal conditions. There are some limitations to the fix it solutions however. Because it is automatic, the end user cannot specify which products to remove, and the MSIs will only remove Office Suites. It will not help with the removal of standalone products. Also, the fix its lack the ability to be automated. So if you needed to run these on multiple machines, you would need to do so manually.

Fortunately, the VBS engine that the fix it uses can be obtained from the fix it and can then be automated.

Instructions to obtain Offscrub.vbs from the fix it utilities:

1. Download the fix it for the appropriate version of office, and run it.
2. Agree to the EULA and click next.
3. When you get to this screen stop and browse to the %temp% directory.

4. Find the Fixit directory in the %temp% directory and copy it to the desktop

5. You can now cancel the Fixit utility. Browse to the Fixit folder you copied to the desktop, and inside you will find offscrub.vbs. (OffScrub07.vbs in my example since I ran the Fixit for Office 2007)

Now that we have obtained the Offscrub07.vbs script from the Office 2007 Fixit, we can run it manually outside of the Fixit. We can also automate it’s usage from a command line with a variety of variables.

If you run the Offscrub2007.vbs script manually, by double-clicking or by calling it with cscript without any switches you will be presented a screen like the following:

In my example screenshot we can see that Offscrub found Access 2007 Standalone, Office 2007 Standard, and Visio Standard 2007 are installed. If I click ok on this screen the way it is, Offscrub will remove all three products from the machine. If I only wanted to remove Visio, I would remove everything in this box except VISSTD and click ok.

Using this manual method you can use Offscrub to remove Office 2007 standalone products, which you would not be able to do if you were running the Fixit alone.

If you want to automate Offscrub you can do so via command line.

Usage:  OffScrub07.vbs [List of config ProductIDs] [Options]

        /?                               ' Displays the help
        /Force                           ' Enforces file removal. May cause data loss!
        /S           ' Does not search the local hard drives for shortcuts  (*NOTE* The help file lists /SkipShortcutDetection as a valid switch to skip shortcut detection but this is incorrect. Use /S instead.)

        /Log [LogfolderPath]             ' Custom folder for log files
        /NoCancel                        ' Setup.exe and Msiexec.exe have no Cancel button
        /OSE                             ' Forces removal of the Office Source Engine service
        /Q                         ' Setup.exe and Msiexec.exe run quiet with no UI
        /Preview                         ' Run this script to preview what would get removed

Examples:
        OffScrub07.vbs CLIENTALL         ' Remove all Office 2007 Client products
        OffScrub07.vbs SERVER               ' Remove all Office 2007 Server products
        OffScrub07.vbs ALL                     ' Remove all Office 2007 Server & Client products
        OffScrub07.vbs ProPlus,PrjPro   ' Remove ProPlus and Project
 
Stages of the script
===============
- Basics :    Non customizable tasks
- Stage 1:    Component detection. Builds a list of files which are installed/registered to a product that's going to be removed.
        Depending on the amount of applications that are removed - this can be a very time consuming task.
        "/Bypass 1" allows to bypass this detection.
- Stage 2:     Remove products with Setup.exe
- Stage 3:     Remove products with direct calls to Windows Installer
- Stage 4:     CleanUp - scrub files and registry settings that remained from the previous stages.
        In combination with 'Stage 1' this is the core of the removal concept.

Usage Examples
==============
- "Safe" (Similar to calling setup.exe)
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Bypass 1,3,4
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Bypass 1,3,4 /Quiet
    OffScrub07.vbs ProPlus /Bypass 1,3,4 /Quiet

- "Preview"
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Preview
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Bypass 2 /Preview

   Note: The preview option will not give the same results as the true removal. 
   Still useful to get a good picture of what will be removed on the client

- "Quiet"
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /Quiet

   Note: The CMD output window will still receive all messages but the UI for Setup and Msiexec tasks will be suppressed.

- "NoCancel"
    OffScrub07.vbs ALL /NoCancel

   Note: Setup and Msiexec tasks have no "Cancel" option

So if we were going to script the automation of Office 2007 ProPlus so that the uninstallation was silent, and couldn’t be cancelled, we would run a command like so:

cscript offscrub2007.vbs ProPlus /Q /NoCancel /BYPASS 1

I would advise that when automating Offscrub you skip the component detection (Stage 1) . You do this by using “/Bypass 1”.
The reason is because I have seen instances where component detection causes third party products to attempt repair. Usually this is not big deal, but if the third party product is in an unhealthy state (for example it’s missing it’s cached MSI) than it will prompt the user to locate the MSI and thus stall Offscrub. Obviously not desired if we are looking to automate the removal with no user intervention.

FAQ-

How can we remove the black window that populates when Offscrub is run?
A- If the command prompt screen is closed while offscrub is running it will fail to continue. We can prevent that by hiding the command prompt window. Edit the the Offscrub.vbs file and find for the following code at the bottom of the script:

We have elected to use the Offscrub method and hide the CMD prompt window that Offscrub populates, but now find that there is no message to the user that the Office installation is taking place. Can we generate a notice to the users so they know that Office is being installed, and don’t try to shut down or disconnect the PC in the middle of the install?
A- It is not uncommon for folks to want to disable the command prompt window that Offscrub generates, because if that command prompt window is closed by the end user, then Offscrub will not complete.

You can launch a custom IE window or a CMD window to act as the user notification if you wish. As an example, you could add the following to launch a nice notice to the user:

start "----NOTICE----" cmd.exe /t:ec /Q /k "echo OFFICE 2010 IS BEING INSTALLED. THIS WINDOW WILL CLOSE WHEN COMPLETE&&prompt $h"

Then after the install completes, close the CMD notification with:

XP
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ ----NOTICE----"
Win7
taskkill /IM cmd.exe /FI "WINDOWTITLE EQ Administrator: ----NOTICE----"


The shortcut detection seems to take a long time. Can it be avoided? 
A- Yes. The shortcut detection will try to scan all drives on a machine for the Office shortcuts that align with the product being removed. This can be skipped by use a “/s” option switch when running Offscrub.

There are a couple common scenarios that occur that can cause an invalid product key error with Office 2010 volume license edition when attempting to install the VL MAK key. 

1. After purchasing a Volume License edition of Office 2010, when entering the key that came with the discs that were sent in the mail, you get invalid product key.

2. After installing the Volume License edition of Office 2010 and entering the MAK product key that you obtained from the Volume License Service Center you get invalid product key error

First it is important to understand that 32 bit versions of Office 2010 that are volume license will not ask you for a product key during the installation. Both of the scenarios above assume that you have already installed Office 2010 VL, and are now trying to enter the product key post installation by clicking on “change key”.

Issue #1

When you purchase Office 2010 from a Volume License retailer and you opt for physical media to be sent to you, you will find that it comes with 3 discs and a product key.

After you install Office 2010 successfully and try to input the product key that comes with the media you will get an invalid key error. The reason for this is because the product key that ships with the media is for “Office Web Apps” and not in fact for Office 2010 ProPlus.

To obtain the VL MAK key for Office 2010 you will need to logon to the Volume License Service Center. After you purchased your Volume License version of Office 2010, you should have received an email from the Volume Licensing Service Center (msvlop@microsoft.com) welcoming you to register at the VLSC. You will need to find this email, and login to the VLSC and obtain your VL MAK key from there. If you didn’t receive this email and you expect that you should have, or need assistance logging on to the VLSC you can call the following number for VLSC support (866-230-0560 Option 3) They should be able to pull up your VL agreement using the email address or company name of the purchaser.

Issue #2

After installing the Volume License edition of Office 2010 and entering the MAK product key that you obtained from the Volume License Service Center you get invalid product key error.

It is not uncommon for folks to install the volume license version of Office 2010 on a machine without first uninstalling the preinstalled OEM version of Office 2010 from the machine. Then when running Microsoft Office 2010 from the start menu they are actually launching the OEM version of Office 2010 rather than the VL Standard/Proplus version. The Office 2010 OEM version has an icon that looks like this:

If you are clicking on this icon, it is expected that your VL MAK key would give you an invalid key error message, because the OEM version is being run and that version will not accept a VL key.

Solution-
Check programs and features in the control panel, and ensure that you only have one entry for the Office 2010 suite. Uninstall the OEM version of the Office 2010 suite. 

Here is an example of what Programs and Features will look like when the OEM version is installed along side the Office 2010 ProPlus VL version.

The entry above that says “Microsoft Office 2010” is the OEM version of Office 2010 and will not accept a VL product key. Since you installed the Volume License version of Office 2010 Standard/ProPlus feel free to uninstall the version that is labeled “Microsoft Office 2010”.

After you uninstall the OEM version of Office 2010 now you can click on start, programs, Microsoft Office, and click on an Office application. (IE Word, Excel). Then you can input the MAK key by going to file, and help inside the application and choosing Change Product Key.

ISSUE:

When attempting to activate Microsoft Office running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 clients using KMS activation, the activation fails with an error code 0xC004F074.

Running ospp.vbs /dstatus shows the following output:

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15,VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
LICENSE STATUS: ---OOB_GRACE---
ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application is running within the valid grace period.
REMAINING GRACE: 29 days (43178 minute(s) before expiring)
Last 5 characters of installed product key: GVGXT

Running ospp.vbs /act shows the following output:

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: GVGXT
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F074
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Event Log for additional information.

The application event log will show an event ID 12288 containing an error 0x8007000D.  You can also run the following command-line from an administrative command-prompt to determine the issue:
x86:
cscript "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /dhistorykms

x64
cscript "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /dhistorykms

MORE INFORMATION:

This issue occurs due to a change made to the activation engine of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 that prevents KMS host running on down-level operating systems from activating these clients.  Microsoft has published a hotfix to address this issue.  This hotfix has to be applied to all down-level operating systems that are running KMS Host.  No update to hosts running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 is needed.

RESOLUTION:

Download and install the appropriate hotfix from the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2885698

A few weeks ago the following update containing a great improvement to the Ospp.vbs script was released:

2883036  August 12, 2014 update for Office 2013 KMS activation component

So, the next time you are troubleshooting a KMS activation issue and run the Ospp.vbs script, please note the addition of two items to the output:

• A ‘notice’ advising you that a KB article is available for the error code generated by the script
• A URL to the section of article 2870357 that is bookmarked specifically for the error code

These items can be seen in the following figure:

In the above example, the URL takes you to the details targeting the 0xC004F038 error:

Prior to this update, you would have to manually search for content related to the 0xC004F038 error and then navigate your way through all the hits on this error to look for your solution. After this update is installed you only need to copy the URL from the Ospp.vbs output, paste it into your browser and then follow the directions provided in the article (for that error).

For Enterprise Customers using Office 365 ProPlus, users will be migrated to the latest version in February of 2016. If you want your users to stay on Office 2013 and continue to receive 2013 security updates, you can delay their migration to Office 2016 ProPlus. Your users will continue to receive security updates for Office 2013 ProPlus until February 2017 through the same update method you are currently using. However after that time, no additional security updates will be made for Office 2013 ProPlus, so we strongly recommend that you migrate to the latest version before February of 2017.

There are three ways we can delay the migration to Office 2016 ProPlus, The first is to use a GPO setting that blocks the update or you can push out a registry key manually that will do the same. Those options are outlined in our KB here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3097292

Thirdly, we can use the Office Deployment Tool (ODT) and the configuration.xml file to prevent the migration as well.

In the configuration.xml file we will add the AutoUpgrade attribute and set it to "FALSE" like in this example configuration.xml file here:

<Configuration> 
<Updates Enabled="TRUE" AutoUpgrade="FALSE" />
</Configuration>

The Office Deployment tool was updated in December of 2015 to accommodate this new switch. If you are using the old version of the tool you can download the newest one here.

Additional Links:

Prepare to update Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt422981.aspx

The first step in configuring local Office 365 updating is to download the Office media using the Office Deployment Tool.  See the following article for more information on downloading and installing using the ODT.  Once it has been successfully downloaded, place the media in your desired network share location.  It is imperative that client machines have Read access to this folder.  One of the most common issues experienced with local updating is due to a lack of read permissions on the share.  The recommended method for directing client machines to a network location for updates is to set the UpdatePath at install.  To set the UpdatePath remove the XML comment tags <!–   –> from either side of the updates property in the configuration.xml file. Change the UpdatePath to the location where the updated versions will be stored.

<Updates Enabled="TRUE" UpdatePath=\\Server\Share\ />

This method is automatically creating the UpdateURL key in the registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\ClickToRun\Configuration) and assigning the value "\Server\Share\" to it.  Client machines will look to the location specified in the UpdateURL key at increments according to the scheduled task Office Automatic Updates.  Please note that if the UpdateURL key does not exist, client machines will download updates from the Microsoft Client Delivery Network (CDN).  If you choose to circumnavigate the scheduled task, client machines can be forced to check for updates immediately using the following command:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX64\OfficeC2RClient.exe /Update User displaylevel=True

For more information on available Office 365 update commands see the following article.

Additional Information:

Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219422(v=office.15).aspx

Reference for Click-to-Run configuration.xml file
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426(v=office.15).aspx

Managing Updates for Office 365 ProPlus
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_resource_kit/archive/2014/01/28/managing-updates-for-office-365-proplus-part-2.aspx

It’s very common for users to switch devices or for an enterprise company to add/move Office 365 tenants. Once an Office 365 user activates a client machine there are three locations that need to be cleared to reset the activation/install to a clean state.

** If utilizing Shared Computer Activation there are two additional locations that must be cleared.
*** The path will change if you’ve installed 2013 or 2016 Office Click To Run.
**** The location of the OSPP file will change depending on your client architecture of Office X86 vs x64. 

1. The Office 365 license:

1. 1. To remove the Office 365 license you must run two cscript command lines. The command lines are as follows.

C:\program files <x86>\Microsoft office\office15>cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

The above command line will generate a report of the currently installed/activated license. (See Below)

The line you need to reference is “Last 5 characters of installed product key” Once you have the last 5 of the installed/activated product key tap the up arrow to bring back you most recently used command line. Then remove /dstatus and replace with /unpkey:(Last 5 of Product key)  NOTE: Make sure you Do Not have any spaces

(See below)

After running /unpkey: command line you will see a “Product Key successfully removed” message. You can now close the Command Prompt and move onto Step 2.

*NOTE: Make sure you remove all of the licenses that show up in the /dstatus report until it states “No Installed Product Keys”.

2. Remove Credentials in HKCU registry:

1. 1. Navigate to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\Identities and remove all of the identities under the key. Simply right click and choose delete. **

**NOTE: If using SCA on a Terminal Server/Citrix remove the above Identities from the users SID from HKEY Users as well.

3. Remove the stored Credentials in the Credential Manager:

a. Click on Start > Click in Search and type cred > Then click on Credential Manager in the list. or go to Control Panel > Credential Manager.  Remove all credentials titled with Office15. (See Below)

To remove the Credential Click on the Drop down arrow and choose Remove from Vault.

***NOTE: In Shared Computer Activation scenarios (RDS/Terminal Server/Citrix VDI) You will need to remove the Tokens Credentials listed below.

File Location

Appdata\local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Licensing

Registry Location

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity

HKU\(The Users SID)\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity

After the above process is completed your Office 365 install will be reset to the initial install state for Activation.

Office 365 ProPlus User Activations Management
(Authored by Shubham Gupta, Program Manager)

User Management Admin and Global Admin roles can now view and manage users’ O365 ProPlus Desktop Installations.

When a user is unable to install office, most likely because they have exhausted their allowed installs; the user would call the IT Admins to help troubleshoot the issue. IT Admins would then help the user to get to the portal page and deactivate office from a computer that is no longer in use.

With User Activations Management feature, IT Admins can now view and manage PCs/Macs the user has Office Apps installed on.

[View:https://youtu.be/uh_LB3kl-v8:0:0]

To manage a user’s O365 ProPlus desktop installs, go to:

1. On the O365 Admin Center and select Active Users.

2. Select the user for whom you want to manage desktop installs.

3. In the fly out page on the right you will see a new setting: Office Installations. Click on “Edit”.

4. The following page will list the devices the user has installed Office apps on.

5. Click on the “Deactivate” link to deactivate Office from the computer

6. Deactivating the install will free up the number of available installs allowing the user to activate office on a new PC/Mac.

Important Notes:

• The computer names are obfuscated to the IT Admins in order to comply with privacy requirements of certain countries.
• Once an Office install is deactivated, office apps may enter into reduced-functionality mode and function more like viewers.
• Deactivating a device doesn’t remove the app from the device. If the user wants to keep using the app on a device you have deactivated, they can reactivate it the next time they open the app.

Background

When you attempt to download the Office 365 ProPlus from the Microsoft content delivery network (CDN) using the Office Deployment Tool (ODT) you get the following message:

More Information

This occurs when you leave the SourcePath blank in the configuration.xml.  For example, your configuration.xml looks as follows:

<Configuration>
<Add SourcePath=" " OfficeClientEdition="32" >
  <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
  </Add> 
</Configuration>

Workaround

To workaround this issue, you will need to specify a path (UNC or Local folder) in the SourcePath attribute of the configuration.xml file.  This requirement is for /download only and not for /configure.