Trying to get rid of Office Professional Trial

[Renny Bosch]

Two years ago I bought a computer with Windows 7 x64 and Office Home and
Student 2010 pre-installed. It also came with Office Professional Trial
version.

Everything went well till about a month ago, when suddenly while
debugging some VBA code associated with a control button in an Excel
spreadsheet I got a message telling me my Trial software had expired and
I could buy a full version. I chose to remove the trial version
instead. At the end of the removal process it asked me for the Product
Key for Office Home and Student 2010. I entered it and it ran the Setup
wizard to register the software.

Ever since then periodically (about every other day) it asks me for the
Product Key all over again. There was no indication that anything had
gone wrong with the installation, yet it doesn't seem to have taken
properly.

What can I do to heal this machine?

[VanguardLH]

You claim you purchased a computer that had BOTH the "Home and Student
2010" *AND* the Professional (trial) versions installed at the same
time? It came with one, you installed another (without installing the
other version), you uninstalled one, and now have to activate the
remaining one. Or it came with one, you uninstalled it and installed
another (probably the Pro trial), uninstalled the Pro, reinstalled the
prior version (probably the Home version), and

If one of the versions was a real full version then you should've
received installation media for it; otherwise, as often is the case, the
garbage bundled with the OS on pre-built computers are trial versions so
both the Home and Pro were trials. Did you get a license for the Home
version (probably what came bundled with the pre-built computer) along
with its installation media?

When you uninstalled the Pro trial version, did you uninstall ALL of it?
After uninstalling it, was there any remaining components of Office
whether they be for the Home or Pro version? You didn't make clear how
you installed or uninstalled the software. Office will permit a mix of
components from different versions of it (except for Outlook), so you
could have Word from one version and Excel from a different version of
Office; however, integration features between them won't work. From
your description, it is unclear if you did a clean install of Home, if
you uninstalled it before installing Pro, if you did a mixed install
where some parts of Home and Pro were installed concurrently, and if you
did a full install of all components of Home after you did a full
uninstall of all components of Pro.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Sometimes the fix-it wizards get rid of remnant garbage from the
registry that the uninstaller leaves behind. While the following has
"2003" in its name, the Office Removal Tool probably works across many
versions of Office:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office-2003-resource-kit/office-removal-wizard-HA001140177.aspx

The page mentioning a Office 2010 Resource Kit ends up pointing to a
2013 version:

http://kurtsh.com/2010/09/01/download-office-2010-resource-kit/

Another possible cleanup tool would be the Revo Uninstaller program.
The real-time install monitor requires their payware version but the
freeware version still provides cleanup using their hardcoded rules.
Then after cleaning out the remnants for all versions of Office, install
the ONE version you want to keep.

[Renny Bosch]

Wow, what a thorough, thoughtful response. I will do some homework and
reply, after I get back from a Thanksgiving trip. Meanwhile I just
wanted to say thank you, VanguardLH. Happy Holidays!

Renny

[Renny Bosch]

I bought an HP computer and had them configure it to include Office Home
and Student. It also contained Office Professional Trial, and in fact I
remember using Access to experiment a little, but didn't stick with it.
I just used Word and Excel. though within Excel I used Visual Basic to
write some macros. I did not install Office Pro, did not pay for it,
and did not receive any media for it. I did receive media and Product
Key for Office Home and Student.

When a month ago I got the message that Office Pro Trial had expired, I
followed a procedure to remove it by clicking various options on the
menus presented to me, which I can't reproduce now.

I did notice one interesting thing. When it asked me to enter the
Product Key for the n'th time, I simply closed the window. After some
confirmation messages, it closed and then a new window came up saying
installation of Outlook has been canceled. So I am wondering if Outlook
is the culprit here. I never use Outlook, and wouldn't care if it were
removed.

Thanks again for any help.

Renny

[VanguardLH]

"Renny Bosch" wrote:

> I did notice one interesting thing. When it asked me to enter the
> Product Key for the n'th time, I simply closed the window. After some
> confirmation messages, it closed and then a new window came up saying
> installation of Outlook has been canceled. So I am wondering if Outlook
> is the culprit here. I never use Outlook, and wouldn't care if it were
> removed.

You can have multiple versions of all components of Office installed at
the same time on the same host EXCEPT for Outlook. When you install
another version of Office that includes Outlook, you get prompted if you
want to keep the old or new version of Outlook. You only get to keep
one version: the old or the new one but not both. So if whomever did
the software config (perhaps the online vendor from whom you purchased
the computer with the pre-installed software) probably used an image of
the software to put on your hard disk and then installed Office Pro.
When it got to where the person got asked whether to keep the old or new
version of Outlook, or if they use a silent install (via scripts) which
accept the defaults, the new version of Outlook got installed - but this
was a from the trial version of Office. When Office Pro expired, so did
the new version of Outlook included in the Pro suite. When the trial
expires and you uninstall the trial Pro suite, you'll be left with the
other [old] version of Office except you won't have Outlook. The
Outlook from the old version suite got removed when the Outlook for the
new version suite got installed. To get Outlook back for the old
version suite, you run its Change option in Add/Remove Programs and
select to include Outlook. Since you are modifying the Office selection
by adding more components from that old suite, you'll need the
installation media for that old version from which the old version of
Outlook can be obtained.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/218861
See "Multiple versions of Outlook" section.

The above explains why Outlook would be missing after uninstalling a
later version of Office atop an existing installation (and keeping both
versions except for Outlook). Yet you never mentioned using Outlook.
You didn't mention loading Outlook or using a "Send to e-mail" option in
a program that would try to find Outlook (since it's probably still
listed as the default e-mail client although the program no longer
exists on your hard disk).

You could try using the Help -> Repair option in any component of that
old version of Office that remains installed on your hard disk to see if
it will stop on whatever is triggering the alert to enter the product
key. Since any fixes or changes it makes requires the install CD,
you'll need it handy in case the repair wizard wants that media.

Because you had two versions of Office jumbled together with concurrent
installation under the same instance of Windows, you may end up having
to uninstall and reinstall the Home edition. However, there's always
some remnant crap left behind after uninstall programs either because
their uninstaller was incomplete or due to entries or files created by
Windows during the use of the program that the uninstaller would have no
clue about (it uses a log created during install to know what to
uninstall, and that log doesn't contain anything about registry or files
created by *using* the program after installation has completed).
That's why I'd probably hunt around the registry for remnant entries and
look for remnant files to get rid of (after first saving a backup
image). However, that's beyond most users so I'd recommend using an
uninstaller that has a database of applications listing what registry
entries and files need to be removed to purge an app from your system.
One such uninstaller program is Revo Uninstaller. The paid version
includes a real-time monitor to watch changes made by installs so it
knows what to remove later. You don't need that plus you've already
installed the programs while not monitored by Revo. The free version of
Revo Uninstaller includes a database of apps and can be used to clean
out remnants left behind after uninstalling a program. So you could
uninstall the trial version (you already did that), uninstall the Home
edition, and then use Revo to purge remnants for both versions. Then
start over with a new install of the Home edition of Office.

Then there are specialty uninstallers that claim to do the uninstalls
and/or following cleanup, like:

http://howto-uninstall.windowsuninstaller.org/how-to-uninstall-microsoft-office-2010-trial-remove-trail-version-of-office-professional-2010home-and-studenthome-and-business-2010-trial-completely/

Warning: I've never used this program and don't recall visiting this
site so I can't tell you if this is good or badware or crapware.

Something here might also help to do a cleanup of the uninstall of the
2010 trial version:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Whatever you use, first save a backup image. Then if the cleanup
generates severe problems, like Windows won't load anymore, you can use
the backup's rescue CD to restore the image. You'll be back to the
prior state with the sporadic prompt for product key but you'll have
working OS again.

[Renny Bosch]

I chose the Revo route. So I downloaded Revo Uninstaller Free. Then I
uninstalled Office Home & Student using Control Panel, Programs and
Features. Restarted.

Ran Revo. It did not offer any Office programs to clean up. But it did
show "Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Windows Live
Messenger 32-bit". I had it uninstall that one, using the default
mode. At the end it reported no leftover items found. Restart.

Installed Office H & S from my original media. All went well until I
tested Excel. (The exact sequence that had produced the problem
before: I opened the spreadsheet that has the control button that
invokes my VBA code, clicked View Code, set a breakpoint, came back to
the spreadsheet and clicked the button. When it hit the breakpoint, in
the Locals window I clicked the + next to Me.) Bingo! It asks for
Product Key. I entered the Key, it validated it, then reported
Configuration of Office Home & Student Complete. When I closed that
window, it reopened it and asked for the Key all over again. Patiently
I entered it. This time after reporting Configuration Complete and I
closed the window it did not re-ask for a Key.

Is there a chance that if I removed Outlook the problem might go away?

[Renny Bosch]

On 11/30/2012 12:36 PM, Renny Bosch wrote:

. . . . .

> I chose the Revo route. So I downloaded Revo Uninstaller Free. Then
> I uninstalled Office Home & Student using Control Panel, Programs and
> Features. Restarted.
>
> Ran Revo. It did not offer any Office programs to clean up. But it
> did show "Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Windows Live
> Messenger 32-bit". I had it uninstall that one, using the default
> mode. At the end it reported no leftover items found. Restart.
>
> Installed Office H & S from my original media. All went well until I
> tested Excel. (The exact sequence that had produced the problem
> before: I opened the spreadsheet that has the control button that
> invokes my VBA code, clicked View Code, set a breakpoint, came back to
> the spreadsheet and clicked the button. When it hit the breakpoint,
> in the Locals window I clicked the + next to Me.) Bingo! It asks for
> Product Key. I entered the Key, it validated it, then reported
> Configuration of Office Home & Student Complete. When I closed that
> window, it reopened it and asked for the Key all over again.
> Patiently I entered it. This time after reporting Configuration
> Complete and I closed the window it did not re-ask for a Key.
>
> Is there a chance that if I removed Outlook the problem might go away?
>

After posting this message I retried the sequence but did not enter a
Key. Instead I just closed the window. It then came up with a message
that configuration of Office was canceled. After I closed that window a
new one came up titled _Microsoft Outlook_, and saying MS Office "cannot
verify the license for this application. A repair attempt failed or was
canceled by the user. The application will now shut down."

So it still looks like Outlook is causing some problem here.

[VanguardLH]

That's not part of MS Office. It's an add-on to Outlook to add the
Deltasync protocol to Outlook (I think Outlook 2010 has support
included, or maybe it was 2007). For OL2003, you need it ONLY if you
want IMAP-like access to your Microsoft account (Hotmail, Outlook.com,
Live). It's Microsoft's proprietary version of IMAP with added sync
function to contacts and calendar. OL2003, and earlier, supported
WebDAV which was Microsoft's prior proprietary IMAP-like protocol, so
the Outlook [Social] Connector add-on would add Deltasync to those
earlier versions of Outlook. While I have Outlook 2003 and do have
Hotmail, Live, and Outlook e-mail accounts (all separate of each other),
I don't bother with that add-on since I only use POP to access my e-mail
accounts. POP has no recognition of folders (there are no folder
commands) and only understands the concept of a mailbox (which is the
default Inbox folder when you use the webmail interface to your
account). I only want to retrieve e-mails that get left in my Inbox
folder up on the server after apply anti-spam and user-defined filters.

So, with Outlook no longer installed then there's no point in leaving
any of its add-ons installed. However, when you reinstall Outlook, and
if you want to use Deltasync to access your Microsoft e-mail account(s),
you'll need to reinstall that add-on. The only e-mail protocols that
their e-mail servers support is POP and Deltasync. They don't support
IMAP. WebDAV support got yanked back in September 2009.

> Installed Office H & S from my original media. All went well until I
> tested Excel. (The exact sequence that had produced the problem
> before: I opened the spreadsheet that has the control button that
> invokes my VBA code, clicked View Code, set a breakpoint, came back to
> the spreadsheet and clicked the button. When it hit the breakpoint, in
> the Locals window I clicked the + next to Me.) Bingo! It asks for
> Product Key. I entered the Key, it validated it, then reported
> Configuration of Office Home & Student Complete. When I closed that
> window, it reopened it and asked for the Key all over again. Patiently
> I entered it. This time after reporting Configuration Complete and I
> closed the window it did not re-ask for a Key.
>
> Is there a chance that if I removed Outlook the problem might go away?

While you want Outlook to be at the same level as the other components
of MS Office for integration features to work between them, it doesn't
sound like you are trigging any integration features but then I don't
know your VBA script does. For example, is your script accessing the
contacts list from Outlook to use in populating some fields in records
in your database, or doing the opposite to shove a list of e-mail
addresses in Excel into Outlook for doing something like a mail merge?
If your script doesn't need anything from Outlook that I don't see that
the presence or absence of Outlook will have any effect.

Apparently the only time you are getting hit for inputting the Office
product key is when you run your script. You haven't mentioned that the
prompt shows up otherwise. It is unclear if "periodically it asks me
for the product key all over again" is due to you reexecuting your
script. I suspect your script is the culprit.

[VanguardLH]

Since your "sequence" involves running the script, it certainly looks
like it is trying to access something in Outlook. There was a security
update way back in 2002 that blocks by default an external process from
accessing data in Outlook unless a special model is used for
communication between Outlook and the external app. There were some
workarounds developed to include with those external products to help
them conform to this security model (I think it was called something
like Resplendence but I'm not sure anymore). Mapilabs has an free
add-on for Outlook where you can grant access to Outlook for a specific
external process. Everytime thereafter when the external process wants
to access Outlook's data, like contacts, the Mapilab add-on will permit
that access if the process was previously added to its whitelist.

Something you are doing in Excel with your script is trying to access
data from Outlook. Note that the Home editions of MS Office do NOT
include Outlook. So your script is trying to utilize an integration
feature between Excel and Outlook or otherwise trying to access data
from Outlook when Outlook isn't even there.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/office-2010-which-suite-is-right-for-you-FX101825640.aspx
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=380

Notice the Home editions do NOT include Outlook. Your script is
triggering an integration function or data access method to a component
(Outlook) that doesn't exist on your host.

I've done very little with VisualBasic with me probably doing VB code
over a decade ago and that was merely to create a context in which I
could add an ActiveX control for a product that my company wanted to
test. I might not see where your VBA macro is doing something with
Outlook but the folks below might be able to decipher your code:

microsoft.public.office.developer.outlook.vba
microsoft.public.office.developer.vba
microsoft.public.excel.programming

If you wrote the VBA macro then you should know what it does. If you
got it from elsewhere then maybe it's author knows and may respond to a
request for clarification on its purpose and behaviors. Otherwise, ask
the folks in a VBA newsgroup for help on determining why your script is
"touching" Outlook (which isn't installed).

[Renny Bosch]

>> uninstalled Office Home& Student using Control Panel, Programs and

>> Installed Office H& S from my original media. All went well until I

>> tested Excel. (The exact sequence that had produced the problem
>> before: I opened the spreadsheet that has the control button that
>> invokes my VBA code, clicked View Code, set a breakpoint, came back to
>> the spreadsheet and clicked the button. When it hit the breakpoint, in
>> the Locals window I clicked the + next to Me.) Bingo! It asks for
>> Product Key. I entered the Key, it validated it, then reported

>> Configuration of Office Home& Student Complete. When I closed that

>> window, it reopened it and asked for the Key all over again. Patiently
>> I entered it. This time after reporting Configuration Complete and I
>> closed the window it did not re-ask for a Key.
>>
>> Is there a chance that if I removed Outlook the problem might go away?
> While you want Outlook to be at the same level as the other components
> of MS Office for integration features to work between them, it doesn't
> sound like you are trigging any integration features but then I don't
> know your VBA script does. For example, is your script accessing the
> contacts list from Outlook to use in populating some fields in records
> in your database, or doing the opposite to shove a list of e-mail
> addresses in Excel into Outlook for doing something like a mail merge?
> If your script doesn't need anything from Outlook that I don't see that
> the presence or absence of Outlook will have any effect.
>
> Apparently the only time you are getting hit for inputting the Office
> product key is when you run your script. You haven't mentioned that the
> prompt shows up otherwise. It is unclear if "periodically it asks me
> for the product key all over again" is due to you reexecuting your
> script. I suspect your script is the culprit.

Yes that seems to be it. I removed Outlook. Restarted. Retested my
Excel code and it worked without any requests for a Key.

Thank you for your help. This was a tough one. Merry Christmas!

Renny