Office 365 subscription

Anonymous
2022-01-30T01:02:30+00:00

My computer died. Dead, finito, nada mas. I bought a new computer (16 MB RAM!). I thought I could just download office from the web, enter my subscription key and all would be good to go. Well, that ain't happenin'.

What I ended up with is a copy of office from the official Microsoft website which with each document or spreadsheet I open displays the bar across the top begging me to buy office 365, which I already own. It also errors a lot and will not work with my Dragon VR (which, with my disabled left hand making it impossible to type well, is a true bummer when writing my business letters in Word).

Is it true that you only have to buy office once in a lifetime? I got the first one from a friend who was a Microsoft affiliate as a birthday present so never had to worry about money at all. I currently have five tabs open with instructions on how to correct my situation. They all say I need to disable office on my old computer but that one is, as mentioned, a memory in the biosphere by now. So my question is…

How do I get office 365 on my new machine without having to purchase it for $99 a year?

Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, OS build 19043.1466, Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0. Processor – Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 16.0 GB RAM.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T18:42:18+00:00

    Not going to lie - this is not something I've encountered before where there is no option to <unpin> something from the Start menu along with no <uninstall> option and don't know where these are coming from. Am going to ask an associate who is a Windows/Edge expert to see if he can shed some light on this which is probably going to be an obvious simple answer so we'll both be learning something (hopefully).

    Don't know how fast I'll be able to get a response given we are in different parts of the world - might be a while but rest assured, I'll come back to this when I hear back from him. Will be sending off my question as soon as I hit submit on this post

    Just to confirm something, you don't see any entries in the <Settings> --> <Apps & Features> for these individual Office apps - correct? (am assuming the answer is "there are no entries for those") so no need to respond if that's the case.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T18:10:12+00:00

    Okay, I deleted everything from Settings. What I now show in the Start menu are icons for Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. Clicking these each brings up a new window of Microsoft Edge. Right clicking reveals nothing but "Pinned to Start" and "More". The "More" option reveals the following…

    Note that there is no uninstall here. I really want to get rid of these before I purchase 365. Opening the file location would allow me to "delete".

    My biggest problem with all this is that it's just not right. To show a PowerPoint icon that opens an Edge window means some wire is cross somewhere.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T13:48:31+00:00

    Office application Start menu tiles that start Edge is unexpected.

    .

    Unfortunately MS (dis)"improved" the Win 10 start menu making it almost impossible to find the underlying shortcuts for tiles in start menu

    .

    "Ask first" is a good policy when going into unknown territory on your computer

    .

    You are having problems with your computer.

    Lets define your starting situation to make sure we are on the same page.

    .

    Assumptions:

    You have a Windows 10 Desktop (or laptop) computer.

    You have an Office 365 Family/Personal subscription

    You have installed 365 on the computer

    The Office tiles in Win10 Start menu don't work

    A lot of computer problems are the result of mistaken assumptions. You think one thing, the computer "knows" something else.

    Or in other words, the "map" you have in your mind does not match the reality of what the computer "knows".

    Please confirm my "assumptions" are correct.

    .

    So, even though some of the steps may be redundant or "obvious" please work through them.

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    #00 Start by confirming you have a MS 365 subscription associated with your email account. Sign in to the MyAccount site and find confirmation you have 365. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manage-your-microsoft-365-subscription-959ac957-8d37-4ae4-b1b6-d6e4874e013f

    #0 Restart your computer (a "voodoo" fix that often kills "gremlins". It often "just works", so do it!)

    #1 Try doing an Office Repair:

    go to Start menu > Settings > Apps

    Scroll through the list of installed apps to find "Microsoft 365"

    Right click on it, click on "Repair

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/repair-an-office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b
    .

    .

    Test to try to recreate your problem

    #0 Restart your computer (a "voodoo" fix that often kills "gremlins". It often "just works", so do it!)

    #2 If Repair didn't fix, have to uninstall and re-install Office

    Go to same place, right click, select Uninstall

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8 

    The re-install 365

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/download-and-install-or-reinstall-microsoft-365-or-office-2021-on-a-pc-or-mac-4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658

    Test Start menu

    #0 Restart your computer (a "voodoo" fix that often kills "gremlins". It often "just works", so do it!)

    #3 If re-install didn't work have to do a more aggressive uninstall

    Use the tool you can download "method 2" in the Uninstall link. This is supposed to nuke everything associated with Office. In theory that should nuke the broken tiles.

    .

    Test again.

    .

    Let us know how things go.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T08:12:46+00:00

    >>

    I learned back in the 70s that with computers, if you don't know what you're doing, DON'T DO IT! ASK!

    <<

    You learned well <g>

    >>

    Also, they show up in settings – Apps & features. That's where I uninstalled Excel before I stopped and said "well this is weird, these should be gone".

    <<

    Would start with uninstalling everything that you can from <Settings> --> <Apps> --> <Apps & Features>

    Losing track of what you have showing there but should only be <Office 2016 Pro> and <Microsoft 365> at most. If you have individual apps showing, it means that individual apps were installed

    Once everything is gone from <Settings> --> <Apps & Features> can deal with the <Start> menu icons if those are still there after the uninstalls.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-02-02T07:56:38+00:00

    What do I see when I right-click on them?

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