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When I opened up my laptop this morning (8/16/14) there was a pop-up on the screen telling me there was an update available for Microsoft Word Starter 2010 and asking me if I wanted to download it. It did not look like the typical Windows or Office update notification. I closed the pop-up and opened Windows update and ran it. There were some updates available, but none that said they were for Word Starter. IS there a new Update for Word Starter or is this someone trying to get me to download a virus?
***Office Product moved to Office 2010 by the Moderator.***
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Microsoft has posted a Knowledge Base article describing and explaining this popup and providing a solution. Find it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3016799.
Hi everyone,
We heard back from the product group. The dialog is expected for a legitimate Office 2010 starter update. It appears for click to run scenarios where the path is missing a piece of information between the build that the user is running on and the latest available build.
The august update that was pulled is a Windows update, not an Office update.
Thanks!
DK - MSFT support
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sorry to hear about your troubles, Peter. Going back to factory settings restored my pc (though it took about 4 days to re-install software and updates) and it was worth it -- no cost to me but time. I still get the pop-up when first booting up but once I click on the X I am free of the annoyance until next time.
Microsoft did issue a statement about the popup -- they claim it is genuine. Soooo ... the techie you spoke to gave you incorrect advice. It is not a virus.
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3016799/en-us?wa=wsignin1.0
This being said, I choose not to believe Microsoft -- just stay away from this update. My opinion -- based on my personal experience -- and those of so many others, which date back as far as August 2010.
I finally clicked the pop-up just before Christmas and microsoft office starter was henceforth all messed up. Called microsoft support. They told me that the pop-up was NOT from Microsoft, that it was someone pretending to be Microsoft and that I got a virus. She also said that the pop-up is caused by something that was already on my computer. Also, they said that they'd be happy to fix my computer for a one time charge of $99 or I could subscribe annually for even more. I decided not to give out credit card info over my INFECTED computer.
Went to Geek Squad and had hard drive wiped clean for $130 and Windows 7 reinstalled. Today, Jan 6 , 2015 pop-up reappeared.
If this is Microsofts fault I want my money back. If it is not Microsofts fault I want a clear explanation from Microsoft and what they are doing to fix this mess.
Peter
Update jan 6, 2015
tried to do the repair as per link in either Suzanne's or Doug's post. Don't remember which exactly. Computer now does exactly the same as before the hard drive was cleaned. Word starter will not open documents when offline. Will open online. Has program "downloading in background". program will not respond when trying to close window.
I finally removed office starter 2010 from computer. am using wordpad for my typing. We'll see if the pop-up comes back. Whatever this is, it is not good.