Program Uninstall

[ZeeOSix]

My new Dell laptop was delivered today with Windows 10. First computer for me with Windows 10, so trying to get use to that.

So the computer came with a 30 day free trial of Office 2019. I didn't "activate" it yet ... it wants me to "active" the trial when I try to open anything in Office.

I have a DVD disc and a license key for Office 2013 I bought back in 2015, and I want to load onto this new laptop instead ... I don't want/need the 30 day trial of Office 2019.

I see in "Apps & Features" I can "Uninstall" Office. But before I go any farther I want to look at the various paths and go from there.

1) Should I "activate" Office 2019 before I use the built in "Uninstall" feature in "Apps & Features"?

2) Should I just use the "Uninstall" feature in "Apps & Features? ... or,

3) Would it be better to install Revo Uninstaller and use that to uninstall Office instead of the built in "uninstall"? Revo Uninstaller seems to result in a cleaner uninstall because it cleans up related folders and the registry.

 

[ecotourist]

I bought a laptop a few years ago and had much the same questions. I found I had to uninstall the 30 day trial version, then do a clean install of Office 2013. That worked fine.

With my current laptop I was unable to install Office 2013 as it was related to previous employment - and I'm retired now.

 

[jayjr1105]

Do yourself a favor and download the windows 10 media creation tool and make a windows 10 bootable flash drive (8GB minimum) and fresh install that thing. Gets rid of all the bloat and you get a clean slate to install what you want.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
My new Dell laptop was delivered today with Windows 10. First computer for me with Windows 10, so trying to get use to that.

So the computer came with a 30 day free trial of Office 2019. I didn't "activate" it yet ... it wants me to "active" the trial when I try to open anything in Office.

I have a DVD disc and a license key for Office 2013 I bought back in 2015, and I want to load onto this new laptop instead ... I don't want/need the 30 day trial of Office 2019.

I see in "Apps & Features" I can "Uninstall" Office. But before I go any farther I want to look at the various paths and go from there.

1) Should I "activate" Office 2019 before I use the built in "Uninstall" feature in "Apps & Features"?

2) Should I just use the "Uninstall" feature in "Apps & Features? ... or,

3) Would it be better to install Revo Uninstaller and use that to uninstall Office instead of the built in "uninstall"? Revo Uninstaller seems to result in a cleaner uninstall because it cleans up related folders and the registry.


Had the same thing on my HP laptop I uninstalled the Office trial version and installed the Office 2013 works great.

 

[MParr]

I imagine your laptop came with MacAfee or Norton security bloat ware. You need to get rid of that, too. The Windows Defender will work fine. Yes, uninstall the Office bloat ware before loading your Office 13.

 

[blufeb95]

Originally Posted by jayjr1105
Do yourself a favor and download the windows 10 media creation tool and make a windows 10 bootable flash drive (8GB minimum) and fresh install that thing. Gets rid of all the bloat and you get a clean slate to install what you want.

+1

 

[Touring5]

Revo can remove things the normal uninstaller omits, but it can be a bit risky if you use the agressive mode. In the pro version you have the option to monitor the installation and then use that data for uninstall - a much safer and thorough removal. I've used Revo and other installers in the past to remove all traces of trial software (some trials add registry key data that doesn't get uninstalled, so if you re-install you can't "reset" the counter).

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Had the same thing on my HP laptop I uninstalled the Office trial version and installed the Office 2013 works great.


Did you "active" the trial version of Office before uninstalling? Or did you uninstall it before activation? I don't know if it would make any difference.

Anyone think using Revo Uninstaller would be better than using the built in "Uninstall" function?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by MParr
I imagine your laptop came with MacAfee or Norton security bloat ware. You need to get rid of that, too. The Windows Defender will work fine. Yes, uninstall the Office bloat ware before loading your Office 13.


Yes, it came with a 1 year free subscription of MacAfee anti-virus. What I'd like to do is uninstall MacAfee and install my Malwarebytes Premium which I also have a license key. Malwarebytes should run fine alongside Windows Defender. It does on my Windows 7 machine and seems like a good combo.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by Touring5
Revo can remove things the normal uninstaller omits, but it can be a bit risky if you use the agressive mode. In the pro version you have the option to monitor the installation and then use that data for uninstall - a much safer and thorough removal.


I've used Revo Uninstall (free version) to remove quite a few programs on my Win7 machine over the years. It always seemed to do a great job.

I'd rather have the uninstall be as clean as possible (no left over Office files/folders/Registry files), so thinking I might download Revo Uninstaller (free version) and give it a try. Question is, will it do a complete uninstall on Office if I haven't "activated" Office yet?

Originally Posted by Touring5
I've used Revo and other installers in the past to remove all traces of trial software (some trials add registry key data that doesn't get uninstalled, so if you re-install you can't "reset" the counter).


Can you explain more about your comment in red? So are you saying Revo Uninstaller would take care of that better than just using the Office built in "uninstall".

I don't know what the counter is you're referring too.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Had the same thing on my HP laptop I uninstalled the Office trial version and installed the Office 2013 works great.


Did you "active" the trial version of Office before uninstalling? Or did you uninstall it before activation? I don't know if it would make any difference.

Anyone think using Revo Uninstaller would be better than using the built in "Uninstall" function?


No I didn't.

 

[ecotourist]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Did you "active" the trial version of Office before uninstalling? Or did you uninstall it before activation? I don't know if it would make any difference.

I was using the trial version and tried to install the 2013 version on top of it. The two may have been the same version; I no longer recall. In any case, that really messed things up. So I held my breath and uninstalled that mixed up version and installed the clean 2013. It worked right off.

I'd suggest you not do it that way. Just uninstall whatever is there, whether you've initiated it or not, and go from there.

 

[03cvpi]

The media creation tool has the stub loader for office embedded in it. Remove it from apps & features, reboot and install your copy of office. Installing it over the stub loader may leave the office shortcut in the tray. Clicking on it can really screw up the install. And sometime later the office 365 icon may reappear in the tiles as it wants to push you to office 365

 

[OVERKILL]

No need to activate it, just remove the trial version (and the rest of the garbage) and install your copy.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Just do a Windows 10 Reset. you won't need to reinstall anything and it will bet rid of all of the bloatware.

 

[benjy]

you will love-NOT- when windows 10 opens or closes when you hover or even pass over something, searching shows no cure by adjusting the cursor. like cars newer is NOT always better, i want my windows 7!!!

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
No need to activate it, just remove the trial version (and the rest of the garbage) and install your copy.


What do you mean when you day say "rest of the garbage". You mean associated with Office?

OVERKILL - Would you recommend using Revo Uninstaller? It uses the programs "Uninstall" function, then goes in and cleans up any left over garbage.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
No need to activate it, just remove the trial version (and the rest of the garbage) and install your copy.


What do you mean when you day say "rest of the garbage". You mean associated with Office?

OVERKILL - Would you recommend using Revo Uninstaller? It uses the programs "Uninstall" function, then goes in and cleans up any left over garbage.


No, I'd just uninstall it the traditional way through Programs and Features. By "the rest of the garbage" I mean any trial antivirus programs or proprietary dell software. Trials of PDF software for example....etc.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by benjy
you will love-NOT- when windows 10 opens or closes when you hover or even pass over something, searching shows no cure by adjusting the cursor. like cars newer is NOT always better, i want my windows 7!!!


Not sure what you're describing, but I still have Win7 on my desktop and have been on Win10 for one day and haven't found anything trying to open or close when I hover the mouse curser over something.

Only thing that's jumped out at me is when in File Explorer, if I want to delete a file and hit "delete" the file just deletes. I don't get a pop-up message asking if I want to delete the file. I like the have the 2nd verification of yes or no … it helps reduced accidental file deletions. I looked for a setting to see if the warning is turned off, but didn't see it anywhere.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
No need to activate it, just remove the trial version (and the rest of the garbage) and install your copy.

What do you mean when you day say "rest of the garbage". You mean associated with Office?

OVERKILL - Would you recommend using Revo Uninstaller? It uses the programs "Uninstall" function, then goes in and cleans up any left over garbage.

No, I'd just uninstall it the traditional way through Programs and Features. By "the rest of the garbage" I mean any trial antivirus programs or proprietary dell software. Trials of PDF software for example....etc.


Only other "bloatware" I can see is McAfee antivirus (1 year free subscription of the full version) and Dell's Support software. I actually already used the Dell Support software to update the BIOS and some hardware drivers with newer versions. The Dell Support actually seems to be a pretty useful "one stop tool" as a hardware driver/firmware update tool.

I've got a full lifetime license for Malwarebytes Premium, so I might just leave McAfee on until the 1 year subscription is over, then load Malwarebytes Premium.

I haven't looked to figured out how yet to verify if Windows Defender is also running in parallel with McAfee or not. I'm assuming it is, but not sure yet.

No free PDF software. Windows 10 has a built in PDF printer, but it's lacking quite a few features that may free PDF printers provide. So I may load a free aftermarket PDF printer down the line.