How To Use Microsoft Office 2010 for 180 days Free without Activating?

If you have installed Microsoft Office 2010 and haven’t activated it, you will find that Microsoft allows you to use the full functionality of Office 2010 for 30 days. After this 30 days of free usage, you have to register Microsoft Office 2010 to continue using it. But most of you will be happy to know that much like Microsoft Windows 7 (you can extend the trial up to 120 days), you can rearm and use Microsoft Office 2010 and extend the trial up to 6 months or 180 days. After this grace period, Office 2010 will automatically start functioning in reduced functionality mode to remind the user that the software needs to be activated.

Microsoft now requires all installed copy of Office 2010 to be activated, including licenses sold through volume licensing. So, the rearm function in Office 2010 is actually provided for the convenience of corporate customers. Microsoft allows in total 5 rearm of Office 2010, where after reset, added 30 days of free usage is allowed without activation. If the rearm is timed correctly at the last day of current 30 day cycle’s end, theoretically, the 5 rearm can extend the free usage of Office 2010 up to 6 months or 180 days.

To rearm Office 2010 and get another 30 days of free usage, simply, run the OSPPREARM.EXE command file at the following folder:

%Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\

You can open a command prompt window (Windows 7 or Vista users should open an elevated command prompt window), and type the following command:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPREARM.EXE

If you are using 64-bit Windows OS and have installed 32-bit Office 2010, then you will need to run the following command in command prompt:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPREARM.EXE

And the path of the file is located at:

%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\

Another easy and simple method to rearm Office 2010 and extend its trial period involves downloading a small program and clicking on a single button. The Office 2010 Trial Extender is a free portable application that does the job for you. It can be used to execute the rearm command by simply clicking on a single button “Rearm“.

This is much faster and offers less hassle for novice users. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 for running and can be easily downloaded directly from the developer’s website.

[ Download Office 2010 Trial Extender ]