Unable to find product to unistall

Barbara Graham 20 Reputation points
2026-09-15T18:44:32.0233333+00:00

I was to unistall a previous Office Professtional 2018 before I would be able to view and activate the Home 2024 I purchased. However, Office Pro 2018 does not show on my installed applications. It only shows on my microsoft account as the best one for me to activate under change or update license. What do I do

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows
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  1. EmilyS726 267.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-09-15T19:17:29.59+00:00

    Hello,

    Can you please type cmd in the search on the taskbar, and press enter to launch Command Prompt, then run these commands one at a time. 

    cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

    cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

    cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus 

    cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OSPP.VBS" /dstatus

    Then please share a screenshot. Thanks!

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  2. Zahid Barrera Ramirez 355 Reputation points
    2026-09-15T18:57:18.5666667+00:00

    Hi @Barbara Graham

    If “Office Professional 2018” dos not appear under Settings → Apps → Installed apps or Control Panel → Programs and Features, then it may no longer be installed as a separate Office suite.

    What you are seeing under Change or Update License may simply be an older Office license associated with the Microsoft account or leftover licensing information on the computer.

    I would first check:

    Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features

    Search for anything named Microsoft Office, Microsoft 365, Office Professional, Office 2019, Office 2021, etc.

    If no older Office installation appears there, I would not try to delete files manually.

    Instead, use Microsoft’s official Office uninstall troubleshooter to remove any remaining Office 2016/2019-era installation components and licensing remnants. Microsoft specifically provides this tool for cases where Office cannot be cleanly removed through Windows.

    After the cleanup:

    Restart the computer.

    Sign in to the Microsoft account that owns Office Home 2024.

    Install Office Home 2024 from the Services & subscriptions section of that Microsoft account.

    Open Word or Excel and sign in with the same account to activate it.

    One important note: the uninstall troubleshooter can remove older Office versions, but Microsoft currently states that it cannot uninstall Office 2024 itself. That is fine in your case if the goal is only to clean up the previous Office installation.

    Also, do not remove the old product from your Microsoft account just because it appears under licensing. An account can legitimately contain more than one Office license.

    If Office Home 2024 is already installed but keeps selecting the older license, let us know what appears under:

    Word → File → Account → Product Information

    and we can troubleshoot the activation state directly.

    If this answer was helpful, please consider marking it as helpful or accepting it as the answer.

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