Office for Mac uninstall install, totally baffled.

[Lankyman]

As title says I'm totally and utterly baffled by Office for Mac 2011, in particular getting the correct version installed. To cut a long story short I downloaded the 30 trial for my iMac from MS which is for the business edition. I already have this version for my Mini but it is only for the one licence. Anyhow, I was offered the Home Student version still sealed by someone I work with (cheap). They had bought this version then decided they needed the Business version hence how I came by it. I already have the Business version on Mini so HS will be fine.

Before I started I went into Library (running Lion so hidden) preferences and deleted all the plists etc for MS. I then deleted MS Office folder in preferences MS Office in applications and MS data file in documents. Finally checked to see if anything related to MS remained, trawled the entire HD - nothing. I then empty trash shut down and rebooted.

I then popped in the DVD and waited whilst it chugged through the install finally putting in my user info for Office. Following this I get the welcome to MS screen follow the prompts and eject the DVD.

Now your thinking this should all be fine? err! NO. I have now done this at least four times and each time the "continuing with trial" screen comes up with days left on trial countdown, I have the full Business edition again e.g. Outlook. Funny thing is that despite the DVD chugging away through the install, at no point am I prompted for the licence key?

How is this possible, especially given the DVD whirrs and chugs away during install plus the user info I put in is all there. I thought Windows could be difficult but I've never ever come across anything like this before.

Anyone think I've missed something?

 

[Mal]

Office includes it's own "Remove Office" tool, which while not perfect, does get the license files from my experience (not sure exactly where they're stored or what they're called). It's in the Microsoft Office folder that's placed the Applications folder, inside of an "Additional Tools" folder. Run that, and then reinstall. Hopefully that'll find whatever you missed.

jW

 

[Lankyman]

Phew! I have managed to uninstall at last and install the one I purchased - only took most of the afternoon and early evening. I managed to find a link on the net which produced a four page document, you really couldn't make it up. Microsoft have said in other links that all you need to do is drag the install into Trash and that's it.

However, they have changed their tune since being inundated with folk having the same problem as I experienced. They don't mention the quite literally thousands of files left behind. I had over three thousand in Trash before I emptied it before reboot.

See THIS for anyone else who comes across this problem.

 

[halledise]

Phew! I have managed to uninstall at last and install the one I purchased - only took most of the afternoon and early evening. I managed to find a link on the net which produced a four page document, you really couldn't make it up. Microsoft have said in other links that all you need to do is drag the install into Trash and that's it.

However, they have changed their tune since being inundated with folk having the same problem as I experienced. They don't mention the quite literally thousands of files left behind. I had over three thousand in Trash before I emptied it before reboot.

See THIS for anyone else who comes across this problem.

jeez, MS sure like to complicate things, hey.

far easier would be to employ the uninstaller mentioned earlier, then simply 'spotlight' for all things 'microsoft' (using discretion of course) then emptying the trash.
upon restarting, run spotlight for all things 'microsoft' again and bob's your uncle

 

[Lankyman]

jeez, MS sure like to complicate things, hey.

far easier would be to employ the uninstaller mentioned earlier, then simply 'spotlight' for all things 'microsoft' (using discretion of course) then emptying the trash.
upon restarting, run spotlight for all things 'microsoft' again and bob's your uncle

Of maybe the cynic would argue they just want you to buy the more expensive version so once you have downloaded the free trial there's no going for the cheaper option?