I decided to replace my Office 2010 Technical Preview with the Beta, which was released in November and I ran into an error with activation. Since I didn’t see this really documented on the net (it probably is, but I couldn’t find it), I decided to write up my experience.
When I first tried to install the beta, I got an error saying that I had to first uninstall the technical preview. Ok, no problem.
After uninstalling the tech preview, I installed the beta. It never prompted me for a license key and everything seemed to go fine, until I fired up Outlook for the first time. When I did, Outlook came up like normal, but I got a message saying that I needed to activate. I searched and found this: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/activation.aspx . This page explains that you need to enter a new license key.
After clicking the Change Activation Code button, I got this message in another dialog: “The setup controller has encountered a problem during install. Please review the log files for further information on the error." Ugh.
I searched and found some odd references to a “Office Setup Controller” folder in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12 and how I should move it to my desktop. This fix didn’t work for me.
SO, what finally did work? I uninstalled Office 2010. Downloaded a fresh copy of the beta (the file downloaded was named ProfessionalPlus.exe), installed it, ran Outlook – got the same activation dialog and the same controller error. Ran the ProfessionalPlus.exe again and this time it allowed me to enter a license key.
AND THEN, when I fired up Outlook, it asked me to activate online – which I did. It works fine now.
I’m thinking this is all due to these installers being “beta”, but what a pain to get an otherwise very stable/usable version of Office running.