Too Many Offices

[crashtech]

I'm working on a laptop upon which, at one time, Office 2003 and 2007 had been installed, as well as the OE installed trail Office 2010. Somewhere along the way, the directories containing the Word 2003 and 2007 executables have been deleted, but the software was never properly uninstalled. So the registry is a mess.

What we want to do is uninstall all Office software and re-install a new version of Word because that is all that the user needs. I've done some manual registry cleaning in the past, and while search terms like "Office" might be helpful, but "word" probably won't be. I don't really want to nuke and pave this thing. None of the installation media used is available. Looking for some advice on the most efficient way to remedy this situation; while I tend not to use automated registry tools, this might be a good time.

 

[TheGardener]

You don't have a legal version of 2010 to install? Is it not backwards compatible? I use Libre Office which allows me to read and write to current and older Word docs. But maybe that is not an acceptable alternative.

 

[Ketchup]

CCleaner is nice because:
1. It looks for entries that don't go anywhere, which sounds like it would be good here.
2. It shows you what it finds before giving you the option of what do delete.
3. You can sort it (by file location, data, key), which would probably be helpful since a lot of this data would be in the same place.

Also, if you are willing to look places, and I won't say where, you could just install a "trial" version of whichever Office you want to get rid of (truth be told, the keys are probably still in the registry and will give you a fresh install), then you will have the means to do a proper uninstall.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Getting to all the office entries is a real arduous task. I had to do it when my outlook 2010 screwed up and I couldn't use it in anything but safe mode. I had to get every single office reference out of the registry which took a long time but once I was done and reinstalled office it worked right. I'm hoping that my university will offer 2013 or 2016 soon so I can get it. I love how 2016 trial will generate an APA reference when you cut and paste into it. I wish 2010 would do that but alas it doesn't so I wait for the student software store to offer it .

 

[crashtech]

You don't have a legal version of 2010 to install? Is it not backwards compatible? I use Libre Office which allows me to read and write to current and older Word docs. But maybe that is not an acceptable alternative.

There is the trial version of Office 2010 which has not been used, but the offer is monthly/yearly subscription which is not desirable. Yet I feel this user must have the software with which she is most familiar, therefore Word it shall be, which I can download for around $70 and she won't have to deal with recurring payments.

CCleaner is nice because:
1. It looks for entries that don't go anywhere, which sounds like it would be good here.
2. It shows you what it finds before giving you the option of what do delete.
3. You can sort it (by file location, data, key), which would probably be helpful since a lot of this data would be in the same place.

Also, if you are willing to look places, and I won't say where, you could just install a "trial" version of whichever Office you want to get rid of (truth be told, the keys are probably still in the registry and will give you a fresh install), then you will have the means to do a proper uninstall.

I might try CCleaner, but I don't want to mess around trying to find two different clean torrents to do this. I wanna stay legit, man.

Getting to all the office entries is a real arduous task. I had to do it when my outlook 2010 screwed up and I couldn't use it in anything but safe mode. I had to get every single office reference out of the registry which took a long time but once I was done and reinstalled office it worked right. I'm hoping that my university will offer 2013 or 2016 soon so I can get it. I love how 2016 trial will generate an APA reference when you cut and paste into it. I wish 2010 would do that but alas it doesn't so I wait for the student software store to offer it .

I might want to pick your brain as far as what search terms yielded the best results .

For now I think I will take a clone of this drive and play with that, which will allow me to be aggressive with my technique without worrying about borking the whole deal.

 

[ninaholic37]

I am guessing that one way would be to install each version, then uninstall them again, one at a time. Like:

- Install Office 2003
- Uninstall Office 2003
- Install Office 2007
- Uninstall Office 2007
- Install Trial Office 2010
- Uninstall Trial Office 2010

This might clean up the leftovers in a more efficient manner, or make the WinSXS and registry a mess if it doesn't uninstall everything correctly - heh. Perhaps running a registry cleaner after each uninstall would help too. Of course a fresh install of Windows would be most efficient way to start clean.

 

[Ketchup]

I might try CCleaner, but I don't want to mess around trying to find two different clean torrents to do this. I wanna stay legit, man....

I may have exaggerated. Installers for trials of 03 here:
http://superuser.com/questions/644945/old-trial-versions-of-office
and 07 here:
http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/51-office-2007-direct-download-links
and here:
http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/51-office-2007-direct-download-links

There are TRIALS here, nothing that's not legitimate AFAIK. Just install and uninstall and you should be in pretty good shape.

 

[crashtech]

Uugghh... Looks like more work than a fresh install that will net worse results, lol. I am piddling with the clone now and we'll see what happens. I really do appreciate all the suggestions, and will update if there is any interest. Thanks!

 

[crashtech]

I thought I might try the trial version install-uninstall routine, but there seems to have been some kind of crackdown on the Office 2007 isos. I do have the 2003, so if there is a live link out there to a 2007 trial version, that might prove helpful.

 

[crashtech]

Well, I just decided to go into the registry and slash and burn everything Office, since I couldn't find a legit Office 2007 trial. Once that was done, Word 2013 installed OK and the startup delays seem much reduced. Oh, I also did use CCleaner and it may have helped some. Thanks all for the advice!

 

[Ketchup]

Glad you got it working!

 

[nemesismk2]

i am glad you got it all working too.

 

[nemesismk2]

i actually gave up on microsoft office and was costing me too much money and now i use openoffice4 + libreoffice which are free very fast and secure.

 

[crashtech]

Thanks for the well wishes!

I use Open Office as well, but we are talking about a little old lady who feels as if it is a miracle any time she is able to do something right on her computer. There was NO WAY I was gonna talk her into an unfamiliar piece of software! I did mention that there were free alternatives but that some functions worked slightly different. She was, shall we say, less than interested.