"Phantom" installation of Outlook.

[Bob Taylor]

Greetings All,

Windows XP SP2. I have completed installing on a new computer and
have everything running pretty well but have one lingering problem.

All the software I am using was used on my old computer. I use
Thunderbird and do not use OE or Outlook. I installed Word and Excel
from office 97, which I have been using for years. Somehow something
from Outlook get installed and is causing problems. It will not let
me send e-mail from word or from other programs, such as Lacerte 2008
(this is actually a much more serious problem), because it wants to
set up "exchange server" which I can't do of course because Outlook
has not actually been installed. I have no idea how it happened, but
I assume that in the installation process there is a hidden option -
Allow Outlook to Screw Up Your System - which got set.

The obvious solution is to uninstall Office and reinstall, but before
I do that I want to make sure it doesn't happen again. Also after I
uninstall I want to make sure everything is gone before I reinstall
again. So I am looking for suggestions on that.

It would be even nicer if someone could suggest how I can rid my
system of this "phantom" installation of Outlook w/o the trouble of
installing and reinstalling.

If you can suggest something, I will be suitably grateful.

Regards, Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

 

[BillW50]

In Bob Taylor typed on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:53:36 -0400:

Greetings All,

Windows XP SP2. I have completed installing on a new computer and
have everything running pretty well but have one lingering problem.

All the software I am using was used on my old computer. I use
Thunderbird and do not use OE or Outlook. I installed Word and Excel
from office 97, which I have been using for years. Somehow something
from Outlook get installed and is causing problems. It will not let
me send e-mail from word or from other programs, such as Lacerte 2008
(this is actually a much more serious problem), because it wants to
set up "exchange server" which I can't do of course because Outlook
has not actually been installed. I have no idea how it happened, but
I assume that in the installation process there is a hidden option -
Allow Outlook to Screw Up Your System - which got set.

The obvious solution is to uninstall Office and reinstall, but before
I do that I want to make sure it doesn't happen again. Also after I
uninstall I want to make sure everything is gone before I reinstall
again. So I am looking for suggestions on that.

It would be even nicer if someone could suggest how I can rid my
system of this "phantom" installation of Outlook w/o the trouble of
installing and reinstalling.

If you can suggest something, I will be suitably grateful.

Regards, Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

I haven't used Office97 in many years. So I could be wrong. But doesn't
setup allow you to install or uninstall parts of Office at any time you
want too? Or is this only found in Office2000 and higher? Also maybe
this newsgroup might be more helpful.

microsoft.public.office.setup

 

[Ron Badour]

Bob

You might find someone in these XP newsgroups who can answer your question
but you would be better off posting in an Outlook newsgroup where an oddity
such as this might be known:

microsoft.public.outlook.general
microsoft.public.outlook.installation

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Bob Taylor]

I haven't used Office97 in many years. So I could be wrong. But doesn't
setup allow you to install or uninstall parts of Office at any time you
want too? Or is this only found in Office2000 and higher? Also maybe
this newsgroup might be more helpful.

microsoft.public.office.setup

Thank you for your incredibly prompt response, which appeared the same
time as my message!

Outlook has never been installed, so it can't be selectively
uninstalled. I thought about installing it and then uninstalling, but
afraid that will just screw things up more.

Regards, Bob Taylor

 

[DL]

Have you tried the simple expedient of search, to include hidden, for
outlook.exe?
Judging by your other post in the Vista forum, it appears you have an
configured somewhere an Exchange Connection.

 

[Bob Taylor]

Thanks to all for suggestions.

Outlook has never been installed, so it can't be selectively
uninstalled. I thought about installing it and then uninstalling, but
afraid that will just screw things up more.

However there are pieces of Outlook which have been installed. I
don't remember any problem, but am guessing that I started to install
but didn't select custom installation and then cancelled to start
over. I really don't remember and it was quite some time (and a lot
of other installations) before I saw any problem. The main problem is
that it wants "exchange server" which isn't there. (I assume that is
part of Outlook.)

The odd thing is that Internet Explorer recognizes Thunderbird (as
does Firefox) but Word does not. Plus Windows explorer recognizes
both. I assume that is because different programs are picking up
information in different places in the registry. The critical thing
is that Lacerte 2008 (tax software) is looking for microsoft exchange
and refuses to continue.

My plan is to completely uninstall office and custom install Word
only, which is what I should have done to begin with. After I
uninstall I want to make sure everything is gone before I install
again. I am not sure what to do to assure of that. My experience
with even well behaved programs is that when you uninstall they leave
stuff laying around, and Outlook is most definitely not a well behaved
program.

I am wondering also if I should first install Outlook before
completely uninstalling. I am only afraid this will increase the
stuff to be left over. All it takes is one left-over entry in the
registry to screw everything up, and since I have never used Outlook,
I am not familiar with all the places it puts stuff.


Regards, Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

 

[Bob Taylor]

Now I am really stumped. No wonder I couldn't remove Outlook. There
appears to be no way of removing any component of office. In Windows
Add or Remove Programs I click on remove and I get the same office set
up I get from the cd and there is no Remove All button, nor any other
apparent way to remove anything.

I found an article which describes how to clean up After doing a
Remove All, but not indication how to actually do that.

OFF97: How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office 97 on Windows XP,
Windows Me, and Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254250

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Now I am really stumped. No wonder I couldn't remove Outlook. There
appears to be no way of removing any component of office. In Windows Add
or Remove Programs I click on remove and I get the same office set up I
get from the cd and there is no Remove All button, nor any other apparent
way to remove anything.

I found an article which describes how to clean up After doing a Remove
All, but not indication how to actually do that.

OFF97: How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office 97 on Windows XP, Windows
Me, and Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254250

How about following the advice given by other respondents and asking the
experts in an Outlook or MS Office newsgroup? There are lots of them, e.g.
these:
News://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.general
News://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.configuration
News://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.contacts
News://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.outlook.installation

 

[Bob Taylor]

Greetings All,

It appears that I have a bad installation of office 97 on windows xp
and I need to remove it. Windows Add or Remove Programs
Change/Remove brings up the Office 97 Professional set up screen - the
same you get from the cd. This gives no option for removing anything
at all.

I found an article which seems relivant -

OFF97: How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office 97 on Windows XP,
Windows Me, and Windows 2000 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254250

The article describes how to clean up After doing a Remove All, but
not indication how to do the Remove All.

I am stumped and will be grateful for any help.

Bob Taylor

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Do you still have the installation disk? Then you can run setup from there
and choose to remove it.

Otherwise, the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility might help you out as well;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

 

[R. McCarty]

Try re-installing ( overlay to same destination ). Then afterwards you
should be able to run Setup.Exe and choose either Add/Remove Office
components or remove entirely.

 

[ANONYMOUS]

It all depends on why you would want to uninstall Office97. If you want
to install a later version like Office 2003 or Office 2007, then these
programs will allow you to uninstall the old versions. Have you tried
using trial version of Office 2007 to do the job for you? Once you have
uninstalled office 97, you can then uninstall Office 2007 as well.

Hope this proves useful.

 

[Bob Taylor]

Do you still have the installation disk? Then you can run setup from
there and choose to remove it.

I have run the installation disk and it gives no option for uninstall.

It first allows to change the folder for C:

Then searches for installed components, then gives three buttons:
Typical, Custom, and Run from CD Rom

It then gives a list of components with check boxes, some checked,
some grey, some unchecked and two buttons
Select All does just that and Change Options which opens a list of
subcomponents

Nowhere is there any hint of how to uninstall or remove anything.

I have been using word 97 for years and I guess I never needed to
uninstall it, although I have had to reinstall it often enough.

Let me repeat - I really only need to uninstall outlook which is
causing the problems.

I will have a look at the Installer CleanUp Utility

Thanks for the suggestion.

Regards, Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

 

[Bill in Co.]

You might consider trying RevoUninstaller, but you need to be careful with
what specific keys and files you choose to remove with it of course.

 

[Bob Taylor]

It all depends on why you would want to uninstall Office97. If you want
to install a later version like Office 2003 or Office 2007, then these
programs will allow you to uninstall the old versions. Have you tried
using trial version of Office 2007 to do the job for you? Once you have
uninstalled office 97, you can then uninstall Office 2007 as well.

Hope this proves useful.

Actually I hope it doesn't prove useful - I mean I hope it doesn't get
to that, but that would sure be better than rebuilding my system.

I actually only need to get rid of Outlook which is causing problems.

What is the trial version of Office 2007?

Thanks,
Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Are you sure? It should remove the outlook.exe and other support files but
not your data files or profile from the registry.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

 

[Bob Taylor]

Are you sure? It should remove the outlook.exe and other support files
but not your data files or profile from the registry.

Sure? At this point I am not sure of my name. I ran the office setup
custom with only Word checked. It reset all the options in Word so I
am sure that reinstalled, but it did not fix the problem with Outlook,
which is that programs (in particular Lacerte 2008) are not
recognizing Thunderbird as the default mail handler but wants me to
set up exchange server. Ironically, IE recognizes Thunderbird. The
people at Intuit were unable to explain why Lacerte 2008 is doing
this. I removed and reinstalled Lacerte to see if it would straighten
out but it didn't.

Microsoft word also does not recognize Thunderbird as the default.

You mention " profile from the registry.". I think that is what the
problem is, somewhere in the registry there is an entry which needs to
be removed.

Thanks for the thought,
Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

 

[Bob Taylor]

Do you still have the installation disk? Then you can run setup from
there and choose to remove it.

Otherwise, the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility might help you out as
well;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

I looked at this program and it is for cleaning up after the Windows
Installer program. It is not valid for anything before 2000. I
downloaded and will keep it handy though.

The web page :

OFF97: How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office 97 on Windows XP,
Windows Me, and Windows 2000 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254250

offers a "utility that automates this process is also available. This
utility is designed to be run only after you run the Setup program for
Office 97 and click Remove All to remove Office." It says further:
"In the Microsoft Office 97 Setup dialog box, click Remove All."

So I don't understand why microsoft wrote this article if there is no
Remove All button either in Windows Add or Remove programs or in the
setup program on the cd?


Regards,
Bob Taylor
philologos at mindspring dot com

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

So your purpose is to set T-bird as default so you can use it with this
program? In xp, go to Add and Remove Programs, Set Program Access and
Defaults. Click on the "Set program access and computer defaults" (last
option) then expand Custom - go to the email client section and choose
t-bird.

Note that its possible that t-bird won't work with this program - many apps
only work with ExMAPI.

 

[Eshwar]

Easy way remove office 97 is to download and install Office 2003 Resource
Kit(ORC) from the
link below

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...10-a6e5-4334-8925-3bcf308cfbaf&displaylang=en

Once ORC is installed got START->ALL PROGRAMS->MICROSOFT OFFICE->OFFICE
TOOLS->MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003 RESOURCE->REMOVAL WIZARD.

This Wizard would help you clean up all previouse installataion of Office
i.e 97.