If you are considering the deployment of a 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010, it is important to understand the differences between the 32 and 64-bit versions, and be aware of the deployment considerations.

See the following blog posts and TechNet articles for related information:

Microsoft Office Product Development Group blog post, Understanding 64-Bit Office
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office2010/archive/2010/02/23/understanding-64-bit-office.aspx

64-bit editions of Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792.aspx

Deployment considerations
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792.aspx#BKMK_DeploymentConsiderations

Blocking and nonblocking Office applications in 64-bit installations
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792.aspx#BKMK_AppsAffectingInstall

The images below are excerpts from a visual representation of the 64-bit Client Installation of Microsoft Office 2010, which can be found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=168620.

By default when you install a volume license version of Office 2010 it will not ask for a product key. All Office 2010 client VL builds are pre-PID’ed with a single global product key. When you install Office 2010 VL without a product key it automatically enables Office to seek out a KMS host to activate against.

You may want to deploy Office 2010 VL with a MAK key however. When you deploy Office 2010 VL with a MAK key you may find that on first launch a user gets the activation screen like so.

You can attempt to avoid this screen by automating the MAK internet activation by adding the following line in the config.xml

<Setting Id="AUTO_ACTIVATE" Value="1"/>

*Note*
Activation success will depend upon the internet status of the machine. Naturally if the machine (or the user that does the install) is not connected to the internet, or proxy info for that user is not setup correctly during the install the automatic activation attempt will fail.

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

If you are running a volume licensed edition of Office 2010 and it needs to be activated, you may see this message when you open any Office 2010 application:

This message means Office is failing to activate against a KMS host on your network. KMS activation is the default activation type when you install a volume license edition of Office 2010. There are two ways of getting Office 2010 activated:

• Enter a MAK key and activate over the internet or phone
• Setup an Office 2010 KMS host and activate using it.

Option 1: Enter a MAK key and activate over the internet or phone

To enter a MAK key, click the “Change Product "Key” button and enter your key when prompted:
 

Click “Continue”, then “Install Now”.

Office will configure itself. Close any open Office 2010 applications. The next time you launch an Office application you will see a screen like this:

Go through the activation wizard. Once it is done you will be activated and should not see any of these messages again.

Option 2: Setup an Office 2010 KMS host and activate using it.

See this blog post for a very detailed guide on how to setup an Office 2010 KMS Host: http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/archive/2010/06/01/office-2010-kms-installation-and-troubleshooting.aspx

Use the following steps to see detailed information about what type of activation your Office 2010 installation us using and what the status of your activation is.

1. Open an administrative level command prompt.
2. Navigate to the Office14 folder:
   • 32bit Office on 64bit OS – “cd \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14”
   • 32bit Office on 32bit OS and 64bit Office on 64bit OS – “cd \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14”
3. Execute “cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus”
4. Look at “LICENSE NAME” for license type and “LICENSE STATUS” for activation status

If Office is KMS activated you will see “KMS_Client edition” in the license name field:

If Office is MAK activated you will see “MAK edition” in the license name field:

If Office is Retail activated you will see “Retail edition” in the license name field:

7/19/2011 UPDATE: This issue has been addressed in the Service Pack 1 (SP1) version of the Office Customization Tool (OCT).

To prevent multiple Exchange accounts from being created in one profile when you upgrade users to Outlook 2010, you must download and use the Service Pack 1 (SP1) version of the OCT, which is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=189316.

To update the OCT, replace the /Admin folder that is in your Office 2010 installation files or installation image with the new /Admin folder that is included in the download package.

When using the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to create an MSP file for a customized installation of Office 2010, you may find that after installing Office 2010, users with existing Outlook profiles have multiple Exchange accounts configured instead of a single one that is desired.

The following screenshot depicts an example of this behavior:

To prevent this issue from occurring, use the following steps:

1) Use the Office 2010 Customization Tool (OCT) to open an existing MSP file, then:

a. Under the Outlook section, select the Export Settings option.

b. Click Export Profile Settings.
c. Save the .prf file to the local drive as Custom14.PRF or any other desired filename. This file will eventually be embedded in the MSP and copied to client machines during the installation of Office 2010.

2) Open the exported .prf file using Notepad and make the following changes:

a. Add the following line to the [General] section:

BackupProfile=False

The following is an example of this change:

[General]
Custom=1
DefaultProfile=Yes
OverwriteProfile=Append
ModifyDefaultProfileIfPresent=true
BackupProfile=False

b. In the section that corresponds to the Microsoft Exchange Service (as shown in the [Server List] section), change the line with UniqueService=No to UniqueService=Yes.

Note: The Microsoft Exchange Service section is typically the [Service1] section.

The following is an example of this change:

[Service1]
OverwriteExistingService=No
UniqueService=Yes
MailboxName=%UserName%
HomeServer=Exchange07

c. Save and close the file (ensure that the .prf file extension is maintained).

3) Back in the OCT:

a. Click Outlook profile.
b. Select the Apply PRF option.

c. Click Browse and select the modified .prf file from step 1c above.

d. Save and close the MSP file.

4) Use the custom MSP file to deploy a customized installation of Office 2010.

NOTE: If Outlook/Exchange settings in the MSP file need to be edited in the future, the custom PRF file created to work around this issue must be copied to the same location as it was when originally imported into the OCT (i.e., C:\Custom14.PRF) on the machine that you’re running the Office Customization Tool on when modifying the MSP file.

The following screenshot depicts an error which will occur when editing an MSP on a machine where the custom PRF file does not exist in the location that it was originally imported into the MSP from:

If you are deploying volume editions of Office 2010 using KMS or MAK activation, the Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) 2.0 can be used to manage activation for these products. In this video I walk you through using VAMT 2.0 to activate Office 2010 installations and manage Office 2010 product keys.

If you haven’t already downloaded VAMT 2.0 you can grab a copy here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582

This article on TechNet that walks you through VAMT 2.0 usage. It is focused on Windows activation, but the same steps apply for Office 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686878.aspx

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