An activation notification dialog box usually appears when a copy of Office 2010 is not yet activated. An error code is displayed on the lower-left portion of the dialog box to help you troubleshoot activation issues. No dialog box is shown until 25 days after installation, at which time the user sees a notification dialog box. If Office 2010 has not been activated 30 days after installation, the notification dialog box contains a red title bar.

When you install Office 2010, you must activate it by using either Multiple Activation Key (MAK) or Key Management System (KMS) connecting to a KMS host on the intranet.

If you install a MAK key, you must activate Office 2010 online.

The Office 2010 client software includes an embedded KMS client key. Once the Office 2010 KMS client automatically discovers the Office 2010 KMS host on the intranet, and at least five Office 2010 KMS clients have already requested activation from the KMS host, the KMS client is automatically activated.

To display licensing information, on the File menu, click Help. You must restart the Office 2010 applications for the licensing information to be updated. For example, if you open Microsoft Word 2010 and then click Help on the File menu, you might see that product activation is required. If you activate by using ospp.vbs /act or Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) 2.0 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=183042), you must restart Word 2010 to see that the product has been activated, even though Office 2010 is in the licensed state. For more information about the ospp.vbs script, see Tools to configure client computers in Office 2010.

All Office 2010 volume products have the KMS client keys preinstalled. If you entered a MAK key for a product and you want to change the activation method back to KMS, use the appropriate the KMS client key shown in the table later in this article. The recommended way to enter the key is by using VAMT 2.0 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=183042). You can also use ospp.vbs /inpkey to enter the key. For more information about the ospp.vbs script, see Tools to configure client computers in Office 2010.

For Office 2010 suites, only one key is required for all the products in the suite. For example, if you use Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, you must enter only the Office Professional Plus 2010 key for the entire suite.

If you are deploying Microsoft Visio 2010, the key that you enter determines which features are available. For more information, see Deploy Visio 2010 in Deploy volume activation of Office 2010.

The following table shows the KMS client keys for the Office 2010 suites and stand-alone products.

Relevant error code: 0x8007001

If you have daemon tools installed, such as CD emulation software, a registry key is preventing the hardware ID from being acquired. The workaround is as follows:

1. On the Start menu, click Run, and then type regedit.

2. In Registry Editor, search for the following registry key: HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\CLASS\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

3. Look for UpperFilters, which is of type REG_MULTI_SZ.

4. Double-click UpperFilters, and then under Value data, add PartMgr to the top of the list. Click OK.

5. Restart the computer.

6. Start any Office 2010 application and follow the prompts to activate.

   Important:
   If you want to activate by using VAMT or the Office Software Protection Platform script (ospp.vbs), you must first start an Office 2010 application so that the OSPP service is started.

For information about how to resolve this issue, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 916180: You tried to set up your Xbox 360 console as a Media Center Extender, but the Setup program did not start (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=184076).

Note:
Although Knowledge Base article 916180 describes a fix that is not specific to Office and activation, the fix is relevant to Windows XP and applies to this issue.

Independent MAK activation requires an Internet connection. If the Office 2010 client is connected to the Internet through an authenticated proxy, you must activate the client over the telephone. For more information about how to resolve this issue, see Knowledge Base article 921471: Activation fails when you try to activate Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 over the Internet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=183044).

There might be several reasons why the Office 2010 Key Management Service (KMS) client is not activated. This section describes issues and how to resolve them.

The KMS host is not activated

Relevant error code: 0xC004F041

The KMS host must be activated first, and then the KMS clients can be activated. For more information, see Prepare and configure the KMS host in Deploy volume activation of Office 2010. You must run KeyManagementServiceHost.exe, which you can download at Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=169244). Then, you enter the Office 2010 KMS host key and activate the KMS host.

Note:
When you enable the firewall on a KMS host, the default TCP communications port number is 1688.

If you use slmgr.vbs, you must activate the KMS host within the command and include the following Office 2010 activation ID:

cscript slmgr.vbs /ato bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864

The client activation request count on the KMS host is not high enough for client computers to activate

Name: Microsoft Office 2010, KMSHost edition
Description: Microsoft Office 2010 KMS, VOLUME_KMS channel
Activation ID: bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864
Application ID: 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663
Extended PID: 55041-00096-199-000004-03-1033-7600.0000-3632009
Installation ID: 008585014214769124199722184000850026888810090785321136
Processor Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88342
Machine Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88343
Use License URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88345
Product Key Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88344
Partial Product Key: RP3HH
License Status: Licensed
Remaining Windows rearm count: 1
Trusted time: 12/29/2009 1:45:54 PM

Key Management Service is enabled on this computer
    Current count: 0
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Key Management Service cumulative requests received from clients
    Total requests received: 0
    Failed requests received: 0
    Requests with License Status Unlicensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Licensed: 0
    Requests with License Status Initial grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status License expired or Hardware out of tolerance: 0

    Requests with License Status Non-genuine grace period: 0
    Requests with License Status Notification: 0

The KMS host cannot be reached