When you uninstall any version of Office your personal document files are not affected.
Starter does not have a time limit on it. It is your "for ever". I already posted the re-install instructions, but here they are again:
HP instructions on Office Starter Repair, Program Manager, Uninstall Starter and Re-install Starter via Program Manager in Pictures
Starter is not actually installed on your computer. It runs inside of a “virtual computer” located in the “Q:\” drive and the program code is downloaded over the internet every time the program is started. Therefore there
are limited things we as users can do to "fix" starter:
- Run an Office Repair on Starter
- Confirm that you have the KB 2553141 update (in theory it should be there ‘automatically’ … )
- Use "MS Office Manager" to re-install Starter from the Windows program Manager
- Re-install WINDOWS from the recovery partition, wiping all installed programs and personal data files!
- Phone the OEM who supposed to support Starter. They will tell you to do steps 1-4 and then lie to you and tell you to call MS!
The best instructions I've seen for "fixing" starter are this HP page:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c02981221#N272
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2553141 – CTR Feb 14 update, kb 2553141
Repair Starter – “Starter 2010 cannot be opened. Try again or repair the product in the control panel"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2465140
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officeinstall/thread/1ae40c57-100e-4dbe-ad6d-0d9df26a5b0f