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I just acquired two Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus keys. But I'm replacing the machine that I have soon. I don't want to have to use one key on the current machine and then use up the other key when I get the new machine.

Isn't there a way of "uninstalling" office that would effectively place the key back in my pool? That way I have no problem moving the license to a new machine.

IAmAN00B
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    Seems like your question is along the lines of "are there Retail and OEM versions of *Office* as there are for Windows OS? So perhaps an answer would be aided by you providing the circumstances of how these Office product keys were obtain? Were they tied to the purchase of PCs, or were they retail SW packages? – sawdust May 17 '12 at 23:39
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    As per [this question](http://superuser.com/questions/277422/will-it-help-to-uninstall-microsoft-office-before-installing-it-on-a-different-m), you can't. You simply have to use phone activation if you hit the max number of installs your license permits. – Lèse majesté May 17 '12 at 23:39
  • @Lèse majesté: please make this an answer, and provide a short extract from the link. –  May 17 '12 at 23:45
  • And if you think about it, it must be this way. Otherwise, you could just back up your machine, unactivate it, and then restore from the backup. – David Schwartz May 18 '12 at 00:34
  • @sawdust: It appears you're over-thinking my question. I only have two keys. I want to keep them. It's that simple. I have to have a machine fixed. That means I have to install Office a minimum of 3 times and I only have two keys: One install on the original machine, one on the backup machine, and finally on my machine that gets back to me fixed. The only installation that'll remain will be the final install when I get my machine back. – IAmAN00B May 29 '12 at 23:17

2 Answers2

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The standard way of doing this is just uninstalling the copy of Office from the current computer and—because Microsoft only gets notified of new installs/activations, not uninstalls/deactivations—then using phone activation when you've hit the activation limit permitted by your license. If you explain the situation to them, they should give you a new key to activate Office on your new computer.

See this Technet question and this Superuser question.

Community
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Lèse majesté
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I use the ospp.vbs script that ships with Office (2016 in my case):

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
PRODUCT ID:....
LICENSE STATUS:  ---LICENSED---
Last 5 characters of installed product key: XXXXX

cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:XXXXX

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
Uninstalling product key for: Office 16, Office16ProPlusXXXXX_Retail edition
<Product key uninstall successful>
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

The exact workflow depends on the Office version in question. See https://www.forscope.eu/software-support/how-to-uninstall-windows-and-office-product-keys/

wp78de
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  • Have you confirmed this answer is applicable to Office 2010? – Ramhound Jun 08 '20 at 01:03
  • @Ramhound I have not personally verified it but the linked guide lists Office 2010 - 2019 (Office v14 - v16). Searching the web for `office 2010 ospp.vbs` gives positive results. So, I think it is applicable. – wp78de Jun 08 '20 at 14:45