Why is my computer still using Microsoft Office 2021 after installing Office 2024?

Anonymous
2024-10-03T23:45:42+00:00

I just bought and installed the stand-alone Microsoft Office 2024 (Home & Business edition, 64-bit) after using Microsoft Office 2021 since it came out several years ago. I was expecting my Office files I open in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint to open in Office 2024 tonight, but they're still opening in the Office 2021 apps (and it's not just a matter of 2024 still carrying 2021 logos because none of the features new to 2024 are there; it's just the same layout as always).

I can't even find any .exe files in my Program Files → Microsoft Office → Office16 folder. Everything is still intact in the Microsoft Office 15 folder, but that "Office16" folder has hardly anything in it, and definitely nothing that looks like it could launch an app. I am reasonably sure that my computer isn't the issue: I'm running Windows 11 Pro on an MSI Titan with three SSD cards and 64 Gb of RAM. I've rebooted my computer twice, just in case it was one of those Microsoft things about installations not completing until the reboot, but that didn't help. So what's going on? Did I just pay $250 plus tax for vaporware?

***Moved from Microsoft 365 and Office / Other / For business / Other***

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | Other | Windows

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-03-02T02:31:35+00:00

    You've hit just about every hot button on my dance card with Microsoft, clear to their decision not to include Access in this latest iteration of the non-subscription product line. I have flogged my computer to the point where it's rebelling on this upgrade issue. Knowing Microsoft's obsession with deploying a myriad of registry keys for its product, and its maddening lack of cleaning up legacy keys, I've suspected all along that those dead keys come back to life at their discretion, eerily like "junk DNA" from our ancestral species are still in our cells waiting for the chance to turn us back into monkeys or bananas if the environment changes on us. Anyway, on we trod. My functioning and quite functional Office Pro 2021 is good enough, especially because it actually works.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-02-25T18:10:22+00:00

    Thanks for the suggestion!! Tried the Modify and it worked!

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-02-12T18:20:44+00:00

    I have been having the same issue, I have installed Microsoft Office 2024, on my original Microsoft office 2019 license. Whenever I try to open any of the Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is shows, Microsoft 2019, and then goes back to Microsoft 2024, I don't know what the issue is.

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