Microsoft Office Activation

This article is about how to manually force Microsoft Office 2010 to activate and obtain a license from the university KMS server.

When do I need to do this?

Most users will not need to do this in order to use Microsoft Office. The only time this will need to be done is if Office is installed on a host that goes an extended length of time (180 days or more) without connecting to the campus network (either physically or through a VPN) and needs to be activated in a hurry.

How to Activate Office

In order to activate office and obtain a new 180 day license, you will first need to connect to the campus network, if you have a laptop you can do physically connect it to the UMIACS proxy when you are on campus, or if you need to activate on a machine at home, you can connect to the UMIACS VPN. Once you are connected to the campus network follow these instructions:

1. Open the Command Prompt as Administrator by opening the start menu and navigating to "All Programs->Accessories", right clicking on Command Prompt and clicking "Run as administrator"

   File:Activate Office Screen 1.jpg

2. Run one of the following two commands to set the correct KMS server:

   For 64-bit Windows:

   cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /sethst:kms.umd.edu

   For 32-bit Windows:

   cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /sethst:kms. umd.edu

   File:Activate Office Screen 2.jpg

3. Run one the following two commands to force an activation against the KMS server

   For 64-bit Windows:

   cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /act

   For 32-bit Windows:

   cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /act

   File:Activate Office Screen 3.jpg

4. You can use one of the following two commands to check the license status, this example shows 3 licenses because Viso and Project Pro are installed along side of the standard Office installation.

   For 64-bit Windows:

   cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

   For 32-bit Windows:

   cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

   File:Activate Office Screen 4.jpg