How to download, install and activate Office 2010 Professional Plus
The office 2010 download comes from the link in your order email, and it usually arrives as an .img or .iso disc image. Mount it by double-clicking, run Setup.exe, then open Word and enter your Microsoft Office 2010 product key under File, Help, Change Product Key. Note that Office 2010 puts activation under Help, not Account.
| Official download | The link in your order email |
|---|---|
| Installer type | .img or .iso disc image, then Setup.exe |
| Time needed | 20 to 40 minutes, mostly downloading |
| Activation | Product key in Word, under File, Help |
| Works on | Windows XP SP3 through Windows 10, not Windows 11 |
| Free help | Email every day, phone Mon–Fri 9am–6pm ET |
Before you start
Check the Windows version on that PC first. Office 2010 does not support Windows 11, and we would rather say so now than after the key is redeemed.
- Your 25-character product key. In your order email and in your account on our site.
- A PC running Windows 10 or older. Windows 11 is not supported by this release.
- No other Office on the PC. Remove older versions through Control Panel before you start.
- A way to open a disc image. Windows 10 does it on a double-click. Windows 7, 8 and XP need 7-Zip or WinRAR.
- An administrator account. Setup writes into Program Files, so a standard user account is stopped.
| Requirement | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows XP SP3 through Windows 10 |
| Not supported on | Windows 11 |
| Processor | 500 MHz or faster |
| Memory | 256 MB RAM or more |
| Disk space | 3 GB free |
| Apps included | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher |
| Support status | Ended 13 October 2020 |
Start the office 2010 download
Microsoft no longer publishes Office 2010 media on its own pages, and setup.office.com will not take a volume key. Use the link in your order email.
- Open your order email. It holds the 25-character office 2010 product key and the download link. Both are also in your account on our site.
- Click the download link. Professional Plus is a volume edition, so it is not on setup.office.com. A key typed there is refused.
- Choose 32-bit or 64-bit. On an older PC the 32-bit build is the safer pick, because more legacy add-ins were written for it.
- Let the file finish downloading. It usually arrives as an .img or .iso disc image rather than a plain setup file. That is the normal format for this release.
A disc image is not a sign that anything is wrong. Office 2010 was distributed on DVD, and the image is that disc in a file.
Mount the image and install Office 2010
Clear the old Office out first, then open the image and run Setup.exe from it. Nothing here asks for your key, which is normal.
- Uninstall any other Office first. Control Panel, Programs, then remove older Office versions. On Windows XP that list is Add or Remove Programs.
- Mount the .img or .iso. On Windows 10 and 11, double-click the file and it opens as a drive in File Explorer. On older Windows, extract it with 7-Zip or WinRAR instead.
- Run Setup.exe from that drive. Right-click it, choose Run as administrator where offered, then accept the license terms.
- Wait for the install to finish. Office 2010 uses the older progress wizard. Click Close at the end, then eject the mounted drive.
On a slower PC, leave the machine alone while setup runs. The 2010 installer is less forgiving than later ones if interrupted.
Activate Office 2010 under File, Help
This is the step that trips people up. Office 2010 keeps activation under Help, where every later version moved it to Account.
- Open Word from the Start menu. Any Office app works, but Word is the quickest way in.
- Go to File, then Help. Office 2010 puts activation under Help rather than Account, which is where people used to newer versions get stuck.
- Click Change Product Key. It sits on the right-hand side of the Help pane, under the activation status.
- Type the key and click Continue. Dashes are filled in for you and case does not matter. The Help pane should then report the product as activated, and every installed app is licensed at once.
If activation is refused with 0xC004C020, the key needs telephone activation and a Confirmation ID. That is a normal route for volume keys and still gives a fully activated copy. Our Confirmation ID guide covers the call.
Check that it worked
Half a minute tells you whether the license landed. If anything looks wrong, the troubleshooting below covers it.
- File, Help in Word reports the product as activated, with no countdown of remaining uses.
- No activation prompt appears when you open Excel or Outlook.
- You can edit and save a document, with no read-only warning.
- The mounted drive is ejected and the .img file can be moved to a backup folder.
Common errors and how to fix them
The messages customers actually hit on this release. If yours is not here, email contact@officegsm.com with a screenshot and your order number.
You cannot find Change Product Key
Office 2010 keeps activation in a different place from every later release, which is the most common thing people ask us about this version. It is under File, then Help, on the right of that pane, not File, Account. If the Help pane shows no activation section at all, the copy may be a trial build rather than the Professional Plus installer, so check what you downloaded against the link in your order email and reinstall from there.
Error 0xC004C020 when you activate
The key has reached the number of online activations Microsoft allows it, so the server declines and offers the telephone route. Nothing is wrong with the key. Choose phone activation, read out the installation ID and type back the Confirmation ID you are given. Our Confirmation ID guide walks through the call, which takes about five minutes. If the automated line will not issue a code, email contact@officegsm.com with your order number.
Setup fails or Office behaves oddly on Windows 11
Office 2010 does not support Windows 11, and that is a hard limit rather than something a setting can work around. The release predates it by more than a decade, and Microsoft stopped supporting Office 2010 in 2020. If Windows 11 is what you have, this is the wrong product for that machine, and we will swap your order or refund it under the 180-day guarantee while the key is unredeemed. For a Windows 11 PC, look at Office 2016 or later instead.
The download will not open, or Windows does not recognise the file
Disc images are the normal format for this release. Windows 10 and 11 mount them when you double-click, so if nothing happens, right-click the file, choose Open with, and pick Windows Explorer. On Windows 7, 8 or XP there is no built-in mounting, so extract the image with 7-Zip or WinRAR into a folder and run Setup.exe from there. Do not rename the file or change its extension, because that is what usually breaks the association.
Office 2010 Professional Plus download questions
What buyers ask us most.
Where is the official office 2010 download?
It is the link in your order email. Professional Plus is a volume edition, and volume editions were never published on setup.office.com, which is why a key typed there is refused. Microsoft no longer offers Office 2010 media on its own download pages either, since the product left support in 2020. Your email carries the installer link and the key together, and the same pair sits in your account on our site. We never point customers at third-party download hosts, because repackaged installers often refuse a genuine key.
Where is the activation option in Office 2010?
Under File, then Help. Office 2010 is the odd one out here: every version from 2013 onwards moved activation to File, Account, so people who have used a newer Office look in the wrong place and assume the install failed. Open Word, click File, click Help, and the activation status and a Change Product Key link appear on the right of that pane. Type the 25-character key from your order email there. One key licenses every app that was installed, so you only do this once.
Does Office 2010 run on Windows 11?
No. Office 2010 does not support Windows 11, and there is no supported way around that. It was built for Windows XP through Windows 7 and reached the end of Microsoft support on 13 October 2020, well before Windows 11 appeared. On Windows 10 it generally still installs and activates, though without any further updates. If the PC you have in mind runs Windows 11, tell us before you redeem the key and we will swap the order for a version that fits, or refund it under the guarantee.
Which apps come with Office 2010 Professional Plus?
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access and Publisher, installed as ordinary desktop programs. Professional Plus is the fullest Office 2010 edition, so Access and Publisher are included where the Home editions leave them out. Commercial use is covered. One key licenses the whole set, so there is no separate activation per app. Files save in the standard Office formats and open in later versions without conversion, although very new features in those versions will not appear when a file is opened here.
Need a genuine Office 2010 Professional Plus key?
$14.99 once, emailed within minutes, with a 180-day money-back guarantee and free help if activation gives you trouble.