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Microsoft does not invite many people to join the official MS Office 2010 RC (Release Candidate) beta testing program in Connect website. For people who downloads and installs Office Professional 2010 RC (RTM Escrow) build 14.0.4734.1000 for volume licensing distribution channel, it’s possible to install the Office 2010 without any product key. For user who wants to activate the installed Office 2010, which may become the final RTM version (the RTM version is now rumored to be build 14.0.4740.1000), here’s the trick or hack on how to activate Office 2010 RC.

The workaround to crack Office 2010 activation as detailed below works by replacing the unactivated tokens.dat and pkeyconfig-office.xrm-ms, with activated version, which provided for free by Microsoft for Office 2010 Beta program. The free product key for Office 2010 Beta is a MAK type (Multiple Activation Key), which is now required to activate volume licensing version of Office 2010 products.

One benefit of using MAK to activate a Microsoft product is that, the system does not required to update or refresh its activation status, internally or externally against any activation servers. The convenience is provided from computers, such as laptops or notebooks, which does not connected to the corporate network persistently or consistently. Reactivation is only required when there is a hardware change. Best of all, if for any reason the software product which has received a MAK product key loses activation or fails validation, its functionality is not limited or restricted. Only nagging notifications will appear, which will disappear when the product is activated again.

Furthermore, the time bomb, which renders the pre-release Office 2010 useless after an expiry date does not exist in the leaked volume or Select versions of Office 2010. So, the activated Office 2010 RC (RTM Escrow) will likely to stay activated forever, even if it’s been activated with license files from the beta.

1. If there is any existing Office 2010 been installed, uninstall it, then reboot the system.
2. Download and install official Microsoft Office 2010 Beta (the version of Office 2010 suites to install is Office Professional 2010 Beta build 14.0.4536.1000, and must be the same system architecture of x86 or x64 that intends to be installed at RC, i.e. 32-bit Office 2010 Beta activation files will activate 32-bit Office 2010 RC/RTM while 64-bit Office 2010 Beta activation files will activate 64-bit Office 2010 RC/RTM).While at the Office 2010 Beta page, register and request for a free product key (which is a MAK – Multiple Activation Key) for Office 2010 to activate the installed Office Professional 2010 Beta over Internet against Microsoft’s activation key.
3. Once Office Professional 2010 Beta has been installed and activated, copy the pkeyconfig-office.xrm-ms file from the following folder to another folder location for safekeeping:%ProgramFiles%Common FilesMicrosoft SharedOFFICE14Office Setup ControllerTip: User who installs 32-bit Office 2010 in 64-bit OS should find the file at %ProgramFiles(x86)%Common FilesMicrosoft SharedOFFICE14Office Setup Controller folder.
4. Also copy and save the tokens.dat file in the following folder to another but same folder location as above for safekeeping (for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server):%ProgramData%MicrosoftOfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatformIn Windows XP, it’s located here:

   %AllUsersProfile%MicrosoftOfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform

5. After copying above two files, uninstall the installed Office 2010 Beta product.
6. Download and install Office 2010 RC (RTM Escrow) for corporate volume licensing distribution channel.
7. Download ActivateOffice2010beta.7z script by SoLoR from MDL forum.
8. Extract the activate.cmd script from the archive and place the file inside the same folder with the two saved tokens.dat and pkeyconfig-office.xrm-ms files in steps above.
9. Edit the activate.cmd file with any text editor, and the modify the following line to include the Office 2010 MAK product key used to activate the beta version:cscript “%PROGRAMFILES%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs” /inpkey:GVFBT-K6Q6T-HTX3P-C4K7G-7V2FRReplace the GVFBT-K6Q6T-HTX3P-C4K7G-7V2FR in the line above to own personalized Office 2010 MAK product key.
10. Run a console command prompt as administrator.
11. Change directory to the folder with three files mentioned above – activate.cmd, tokens.dat and pkeyconfig-office.xrm-ms.
12. Execute the activate.cmd.The script will automate the process to take ownership and grant full access permissions on tokens.dat and pkeyconfig-office.xrm-ms, and then replace the files with activated copy. It then calls the ospp.vbs via cscript engine to re-input the product key for Office 2010 and activate the full version product:
    

    cscript “%PROGRAMFILES%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs” /inpkey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
    cscript “%PROGRAMFILES%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs” /act

13. The Office 2010 should be activated. To check activation status of Office 2010, run the following command:cscript “%PROGRAMFILES%Microsoft OfficeOffice14ospp.vbs” / dstatus

Tip: For user who has problem activating Office 2010 RC or RTM Escrow after following steps above, try to delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftOfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform registry key after uninstalling Office 2010 Beta.

Tip: The data inside tokens.dat file is generated based on the hardware configuration, so it will be different on each PC. If you intend to activate Office 2010 with crack method above, backup the tokens.dat from each PCs you intend to do so.

The MS Office 2010 activation crack is likely able to crack and activate Office 2010 RTM build. As the method has been revealed, it’s likely that Microsoft will fix the loophole before releasing the final RTM version of Office 2010. Thus, the RTM build version of Office 2010 is unlikely to stay at 14.0.4734.1000, especially when the target RTM data to be around April.