Posted June 11, 2010 by Ronny de Jong .

Activate Office 2010 by KMS

To activate your Office 2010, Visio 2010 or Project 2010 you can use both MAK or KMS volume activation methods. For midsize and large enterprise environments (250> seats) KMS activation is the best suitable solution. If you currently using KMS for activating your operating systems (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2) you are ready to activate Office 2010 as well by using the current Volume Activation solution.

Review activation methods

Office 2010 activation technologies provides two activation methods:

Key Management Service (KMS) A server-client model in which a computer serves as the KMS host, which requires a KMS host key to be installed and activated. This establishes a local activation service in your environment. Office 2010 client computers connect to the local Office 2010 KMS host for activation.
Multiple Activation Key (MAK) With a MAK key, Office 2010 client computers activate online by using the Microsoft hosted activation servers or by telephone.

The kind of key installed determines the activation method. All Office 2010 volume license editions have the KMS client key pre-installed. You do not have to enter a product key if you are deploying KMS clients. If you want to use MAK activation, you have to enter the correct MAK key.

Overview of Microsoft Office 2010 Volume Activation can be downloaded here.

A combination of KMS and MAK can also be used. For example, Office 2010 running on desktops has the KMS client key installed, whereas Office 2010 running on portable computers has the MAK key installed.

The model chosen depends on the size, network infrastructure, connectivity, and security requirements. You can choose to use only one or a combination of these activation models. Typically, the same activation method for a particular instance of Windows would be used for Office. For more information about how to decide which activation method to use, see the Windows Volume Activation Planning Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183040).

Key Management Service (KMS)

KMS is a server-client model in which a computer serves as the KMS host. KMS activation requires TCP/IP connectivity. By default, KMS hosts use DNS to publish the KMS service, and client computers connect to the KMS host for activation by using anonymous remote procedure calls (RPCs) through TCP port 1688. You can use the default settings, which require little or no administrative action, or manually configure KMS hosts and clients based on network configuration and security requirements.

KMS activation steps

Although you have six KMS host activations on the KMS host key, we recommend that you activate no more than one or two KMS hosts. To activate the KMS host on the Internet, run KeyManagementServiceHost.exe in the Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=169244). This is a free download from Microsoft. To activate the KMS host on the telephone or manually, and to configure the KMS host, use the slmgr.vbs script. For more information, see Deploy volume activation of Office 2010.
When the KMS host is activated, existing KMS clients activate automatically. Certain instances require KMS clients to be configured by using the ospp.vbs script. For more information details, see Tools to configure client computers in Office 2010.

The KMS host key for Office 2010 is not specific to a particular operating system. It is designed to be used on any of the operating systems supported as an Office 2010 KMS host, including both 32-bit and 64-bit editions: