How to Manually Uninstall Microsoft Office

Uninstalling Microsoft Office can often be a tricky process. It is important to know how to properly uninstall the program in order to prevent any damage being done to your computer or other programs.

This article will provide a step-by-step guide on how to manually uninstall Microsoft Office from Windows 10 and other operating systems.

Warning: Before you start, you need to know removing Office manually is a long, complex process and might require that you reinstall the operating system if certain steps are done incorrectly.

Step 1 – Determine your installation type

Before you begin the manual steps, determine your Office installation type so you can choose the correct way to uninstall it:

• Click-to-Run is a new way to install and update Office over the Internet and it works similarly to streaming video. By default, the latest version of Office which is included in Microsoft 365, and most one-time purchases of Office 2019 and Office 2016 products (such as Office Home & Business are installed by using Click-to-Run.
• MSI, (also known as the Microsoft Windows Installer), is the traditional way of installing Office via a local installation resource.
• Microsoft Store app is an installation of Office from the Microsoft Store on some Windows 10 computers.

To determine your installation type do the following

1. Create or open an existing file and select File > Account (or it might say Office Account).
2. Under Product information, find the About button and check for the following:

Click to Run

MSI

Microsoft Store

Select your installation type and then follow those steps to uninstall Office.

Step 2 – Select the installation type you want to uninstall

Before you begin, make sure that you log on to Windows with an administrator account. If you’re not sure if you have an administrator account, see how to determine your user account type in Windows.

Step 1: Remove the Windows Installer packages

1. Find the Office 16 installation folder, typically located in C:\Program Files\.
2. Right-click the Microsoft Office 16 folder and select Delete.

Step 2: Remove the Office scheduled tasks

1. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.
2. At the command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each one:schtasks.exe /delete /tn “\Microsoft\Office\Office Automatic Updates”schtasks.exe /delete /tn “\Microsoft\Office\Office Subscription Maintenance”schtasks.exe /delete /tn “\Microsoft\Office\Office ClickToRun Service Monitor”schtasks.exe /delete /tn “\Microsoft\Office\OfficeTelemetryAgentLogOn2016″schtasks.exe /delete /tn “\Microsoft\Office\OfficeTelemetryAgentFallBack2016”

Step 3: Use Task Manager to end the Click-to-Run tasks

1. Open Task Manager.
   • Windows 10: Right-click Start, and click Task Manager. (The keyboard shortcut Windows logo key + X also works to open the access menu.)
   • Windows 8 or 8.1: Point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search. Type Task Manager in the search box, and then click Task Manager in the results.
   • Windows 7: Right-click an empty area of the taskbar, and then click Start Task Manager.
2. Click the Process tab.
3. If the following processes are running, right-click each one, and then click End task in Windows 10, End Task in Windows 8 or 8.1, or End Process in Windows 7 after you select each process.
   • OfficeClickToRun.exe
   • OfficeC2RClient.exe
   • AppVShNotify.exe
   • setup*.exe

Step 4: Delete the Office service

1. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator, type the following command, and then press Enter:
   • sc delete ClickToRunSvc

Step 5: Delete the Office files

1. Press Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. In the Open box, type %ProgramFiles%, and then click OK.
3. Delete the “Microsoft Office 16” folder.
4. Delete the “Microsoft Office” folder.
5. Open the Run dialog box, type %ProgramFiles(x86)%, and then click OK.
6. Delete the “Microsoft Office” folder.
7. Open the Run dialog box, type %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared and then click OK.
8. Delete the “ClickToRun” folder.
9. Open the Run dialog box, type %ProgramData%\Microsoft, and then click OK.
10. Delete the ClickToRun folder. If the folder does not exist, go to the next step.
11. Open the Run dialog box, type %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Office, and then click OK.
12. Delete the ClickToRunPackagerLocker file.Note: If you can’t delete a folder or a file that’s open or that’s being used by another program, restart the computer, and then try again. If you still can’t remove the folder, go to the next step.

Step 6: Delete the Office registry subkeys

Important: Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems may occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you start, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

1. Open Registry Editor.
   • Windows 10: Right-click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
   • Windows 8 or 8.1: Right-click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
   • Windows 7: Click Start, type Run in the Start Search box, and then click Run in the results.
2. Delete the following registry subkeys:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppVISV
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Microsoft Office <Edition> – en-us
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
   • Then Delete the Office key.Note: In the subkey in the third bullet item, “Microsoft Office <Edition>- en-us” represents the actual program name. This name depends on the Office 2016 edition and language version that you installed.

Step 7: Delete the Start menu shortcuts

1. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.
2. Type %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, and then press Enter.
3. Delete the “Microsoft Office 2016 Tools” folder.
4. Delete each of the “<application> 2016” shortcuts for each of the Office 2016 applications. For example, “Word 2016”, “Excel 2016”, “PowerPoint 2016”.

Step 8: Uninstall the Office 16 Click-To-Run Licensing Component, Extensibility Component and Localization Component

1. Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.
2. At the command prompt, type the command that is appropriate for your operating system, and then press Enter:
   • If you’re running an x86 version of Office 2016 on an x64 operating system, run the following commands:MsiExec.exe /X{90160000-008F-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}MsiExec.exe /X{90160000-008C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}MsiExec.exe /X{90160000-008C-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE}
   • If you’re running an x64 version of Office 2016 on an x64 operating system, run the following command:MsiExec.exe /X{90160000-007E-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}MsiExec.exe /X{90160000-008C-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}MsiExec.exe /X{90160000-008C-0409-1000-0000000FF1CE}

Use these steps to uninstall Office if you have a Microsoft Store type of installation.

Option 1 – Uninstall Office from Windows Settings

1. Select Start  > Settings  > Apps.
2. Under Apps & Features select the version of Office you want to uninstall.
   Note: If you installed an Office suite, such as Office Home and Student, or if you have an Office subscription, type the suite’s name into the search box. If you purchased a single Office application, such as Word or Visio, enter the application’s name in the search box.
3. Select Uninstall.

Option 2 – Uninstall Office manually using PowerShell

Remove Office

1. Right-click Start  and select Run.
2. In the Run dialogue box, type PowerShell, and select OK.
3. In the Windows PowerShell window, type the following:Get-AppxPackage -name “Microsoft.Office.Desktop” | Remove-AppxPackage
4. Press Enter.This takes a few minutes. Once it’s done, a new command prompt appears.

Verify Office was removed

In the Windows PowerShell window, type the following:Get-AppxPackage -name “Microsoft.Office.Desktop”

Press Enter.

If only a command prompt appears and no additional information, it means you successfully removed Office.