Office 2016 uninstalls my Visio 2013

Sorry, I'm all out of ideas. When the MS licensing system refuses to work, there is nothing we can do other than call MS Support.

MS has worked real hard to "improve" Office licensing, by improve they mean make more money from it.

In theory, the MyAccount page is a step forward for users, allowing them to manage their licenses better, "easier".  But the sad truth is in practice reality does not match theory for everyone. That "For some reason ... " message is popping up for lots of people. But no one is identifying specific fixes for it.  Like many other new error messages it is uselessly vague, and it actually appears to cover many different underlying problems.  And MS Support appears to be clueless on how to fix it, mainly because the message is too generic! No unique error code.

Hi Rohn007,

Thanks for the great post & suggestions.

I have the same issue with Office Home & Business 2016 not allowing Publisher 2013 to install.

I spoke to MS Account & Billing & eventually they emailed a link to the free Publisher 2016.

I follow the wizard, select Country & Language but it then says "For some reason, we can't activate your subscription".

They have spent hours trying to resolve this (including remote connection to my computer) but still don't have an answer.

I think the issue might be that Publisher 2013 doesn't show up in my account.

If I go through https://setup.office.com/ that you mention it accepts my 2013 product key but wants me to download & activate (which of course it wont do).

I tried installing Publisher onto a different computer through this link so I could activate but it still doesn't show up in my account.

After spending many hours on the phone getting passed around to dozens of people (who keep just trying the same thing!) & I'm hoping you can help me or offer some suggestions.

Thanks, Gary.

Can you please tell me how to get this to work? I have Visio 13 and office 16 (Apparently).. I just reloaded my laptop to Windows 10. 

Thanks

Steven

Multiple versions cannot, or will not, be installed on the same computer?

MS has always operated under the assumption / wish that everyone would instantly jump on new versions as soon as they are released. Up to 2013 (actually, up to and including the trial of 2016 also) Office was designed to assume that what ever version was running was the only one and the "default". So if you happened to have 2 (or more versions) installed and switched between them you would see the "configuring ... " message, setting defaults to point to that version.  That configuring message could be defeated by using the "secret" developer hack of adding "NoReReg" keys.

But that was too much for MS, so starting with the general release of 2016 they added a final, secret,  'improvement'.  The installer now does a check for any older "Office" applications and forces you to choose to let it uninstall them or cancel the 2016 install. 

I have not seen any proof that there is any technical reason that there CANNOT still be more than one version on the same computer. As far as I'm concerned it is just another example of MS bullying the little guy. Just like now they are doing everything they can to "trick" people into taking the "free upgrade" to WIn 10. It is now a recommended update, meaning if you are not careful, it gets applied as a "surprise".