free upgrade from Office 2007 to 2010

If I have a copy of microsoft office home and student 2007 would there be a way to get a key for 2010? I have a copy of home and student 2010, just not the key.

Hi Rohn,

Thanks for your further reply.  That's very kind of you to mail me that information.

Its a Bank Holiday tomorrow (Monday) in the UK (a day off work!) so I shall set about the task of retrieving the product key.  I will put the semi-failed hard disc in another PC I have and run the software you have provided links to.  I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for your help - I really appreciate it.

Kind regards

Garry

That is correct, the 2007 key will not work in 2010. The keys are year and bundle specific.

Yes, there is a chance you can extract your 2010 product key from the old HD if you connect it to another computer.  Here are some tools you can use.  Give them a try on your new machine first.  Run the old drive for the minimum time, just connect it and do the extraction first thing.

Tools to Extract Product Key

http://www.7tutorials.com/how-recover-your-lost-windows-7-or-windows-8-product-key

You can use any of the following tools to extract the Product Key from you computer. These tools report on many installed programs on your computer, not just Office.

PS: you should keep a copy (printed and/or file copies on external storage devices) of the report(s) generated by these tools so you have all of your product keys / registration numbers available for future re-installs

FYI: I (Rohn) have not tested these tools in Windows 8 (just haven’t had an excuse to make/waste the time), but I don’t expect any problem. The underlying mechanics of Windows 8 are essentially the same as Windows 7 if you ignore the Metro User Interface. Think of metro as “lipstick on a pig”. The pig is not changed by adding a little paint on the surface.

Normally you have several resources to find your Retail Product Key.

1.      Your original package or purchase confirmation e-mail

2.      Online download account

3.      You can extract the Product Key from the machine itself

4.      Image copy backups of system with Office installed

5.      Activation backup utilities

From what I’ve read, MS uses a file called TOKENS.DAT to store encrypted product activation keys:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\Tokens.DAT

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareLicensing\Tokens.data

C:\Windows.Old\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\Tokens.DAT (if you did an in-place Windows Upgrade)

After you extract the Product Key, make sure to write it down and keep it in a safe place. Burning a copy of the installation file to a CD would also be a good idea if you don’t have the installation disk.

NOTE: OEM (factory install and activated) licenses use a different key than the one reported.  Only the factory can use the PK from the original factory activation. You would have been provided with a separate piece of paper with a Product key for reactivation.

I have tried the first 6 in this list with various degrees of success:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html  - not only does Belarcextract product keys, it reports on a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff you want to know. Printing the report, or saving it is probably a good idea.

http://www.gtopala.com/  SIW – System Information for Windows(portable app), the install keys for Windows, Office and some other programs are displayed. Start SIW (no install required) and click on Software | Licenses. (SIW for Win 2010 Build 0714g)

http://www.**magicaljellybean**.com/  V 2.0.8- Office 2003 OK, 2007 OK, 2010 na, Win Vista Wrong)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/keyfinder / - Enchanted Keyfinder Beta Portable- Win (9X, ME, NT/2K/XP, Vista, Win7), MS Office (97, XP, 2003, 2007, 2010), Recover key for 484 other software and counting

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html  Nirsoft ProduKey V1.45- Office 2003 OK, 2007, 2010, Win Vista)

ProduKey may be able to extract product key information from a registry file saved externally. This is useful if you’re trying to get the key details from the backup of a now defunct machine. Try the /Regfile option.

http://www.**winkeyfinder**.com/download.php  (Office 2003 , 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista )

http://www.technibble.com/**license-crawler**-find-product-keys-in-the-registry/  License Crawler V1.2 B98 (Office 2003, 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista )

http://www.sterjosoft.com/list/ - SterJo Software Key Finder. Confirmed to work on XP through Win8, Office XP/2002 through 2010

http://techblissonline.com/product-key-cd-keyserial-number-software-vista-xp/  - License Crawler for Vista XP (Office 2003 , 2007 , 2010 , Win Vista )

Abelssoft MyKeyFinder- http://www.abelssoft.net/mykeyfinder.php - found all Office keys correctly

Product Key Explorer http://www.techrepublic.com/software/product-key-explorer-324-windows/32741939

Product Key Extract Tool Chart

Hi Rohn007,

Thanks for your helpful reply.

I have the product code that came with the Office 2007 discs - but not the product code that I presumably had to enter with the 2010 upgrade.

I still have the removed faulty HD, which "half" works.  I thought I had made an image of it on an external drive I had, but no joy when I tried to load it onto the new HD I installed on my PC - hence problems now.

Do you think it possible that I could retrieve the product key if I were to reinstall the (semi-working) hard drive? (perhaps on another old pc I have)

regards  Garry