Re-downloading Microsoft Office 2010 using an existing Product Key

Just a quick one for now, as I’ve still not got around to finishing up the several posts I currently have in the offing, due to playing about with HDInsight on Windows Azure. I did however, spend a rather frustrating couple of hours at the weekend trying to find a way to re-download Office 2010 for an older PC after upgrading my laptop to Office 2013. I had the absolute brainwave of signing up to Office 365, which would allow me to install the latest suite on each of my PC’s. Only after signing up did I realise that my old desktop, running Windows Vista, didn’t support Office 2013. Luckily, I have a copy of Office 2010 on my account, so all I needed to do was go to my office account and re-download the 2010 installer, right? Right?

Easier said than done. Microsoft have totally changed the Office site to support 2013, so much so, that even following “download Office 2010” links from other sites on the web all redirect you to the same landing page, inviting you to try Office 365 (with the 2013 suite). It’s actually much easier to find the page on the MS site to buy Office 2010, than it is to find the key in your account and re-download. Sucks if you run Vista.

Eventually, as I was close to losing the plot, I managed to find my way to the Microsoft Office “backup” page which, way down at the bottom, has a nice section on Office 2010. Following this link allowed me to get to a page where I could enter my product key and re-download the 2010 installer. Fortunately, I’d kept the original email containing my Product Key, I have no idea what I would have done if I didn’t have it.

Here’s the (UK) link for re-downloading Office 2010 with an existing Product Key, just in case anyone’s having the same trouble finding it that I did.