Removing Office 2004 Test Drive

[GreatGrandDaughter]

Hi,

I have searched this group, and found advice to the effect that the
Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive folder can be removed from HD/
Applications once the Remove Office utility has run and not found any
Office products. Could someone please verify this for me, or tell me
how I can get verification of it?

I am brand new to Macs, and stupidly clicked on an Excel file I copied
over from my old laptop onto my new Mac running Leopard. I was logged
in under my regular account, as I've read that it's safer to use the
machine as a regular user, rather than as an administrator. Evidently
that is not the case in this instance.

Clicking on the Excel file brought up the Office 2004 installer, and
there was no opportunity to cancel the installation, else I would have
done so. Then it generated an error message telling me that some of
the Office 2004 components didn't install because I wasn't logged in
as an administrator. (I would have expected to be asked to
authenticate if that was the case, but that didn't happen.) The Excel
file didn't open.

I don't want Office; I've already bought i-Works, so I immediately ran
Remove Office, and got an error message saying that it couldn't remove
Office 2004 because I had to be logged in as the same user who
installed it to begin with. I *was*, however, still logged in as that
user. I had not logged out or authenticated as an administrator at
all.

So then I decided that I'd try to remove it as an administrator, and
logged out and back in under my admin account. Ran Remove Office, and
it didn't find any Office products to remove. However, the Test Drive
folder and all the applications inside it still appeared in the HD/
applications folder.

So I logged back in under my regular account and ran Remove Office
again. Got the same message; nothing to remove. But the folder's still
in HD/applications.

I have looked in /library/preferences, and there are no com.microsoft
files or and Microsoft folders in there. So is it safe to trash the HD/
applications/Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive folder?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hi,

I have searched this group, and found advice to the effect that the
Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive folder can be removed from HD/
Applications once the Remove Office utility has run and not found any
Office products. Could someone please verify this for me, or tell me
how I can get verification of it?

The remove office tool should delete the Office test drive folder itself

I am brand new to Macs, and stupidly clicked on an Excel file I copied
over from my old laptop onto my new Mac running Leopard. I was logged
in under my regular account, as I've read that it's safer to use the
machine as a regular user, rather than as an administrator. Evidently
that is not the case in this instance. No you are right.

Clicking on the Excel file brought up the Office 2004 installer, and
there was no opportunity to cancel the installation, else I would have
done so. Then it generated an error message telling me that some of
the Office 2004 components didn't install because I wasn't logged in
as an administrator. (I would have expected to be asked to
authenticate if that was the case, but that didn't happen.) The Excel
file didn't open.

You should have been. That Test Drive is a disaster.

I don't want Office; I've already bought i-Works, so I immediately ran
Remove Office, and got an error message saying that it couldn't remove
Office 2004 because I had to be logged in as the same user who
installed it to begin with. I *was*, however, still logged in as that
user. I had not logged out or authenticated as an administrator at
all.

Since you don't want Office, it does not matter that there might be
bits of the test drive all over the place. Except the feeling of
violation that the Borg leaves in its wake.

So then I decided that I'd try to remove it as an administrator, and
logged out and back in under my admin account. Ran Remove Office, and
it didn't find any Office products to remove. However, the Test Drive
folder and all the applications inside it still appeared in the HD/
applications folder.

Something called FirstRun executes the first time you start up an
Office Application. It should have done so when you opened that Excel
file. Maybe you killed it halfway through in your momentary panic?

If FirstRun does not complete, the files that it scatters all over your
machine may not have been written, which might explain why Remove
Office does nothing.

So I logged back in under my regular account and ran Remove Office
again. Got the same message; nothing to remove. But the folder's still
in HD/applications.

I have looked in /library/preferences, and there are no com.microsoft
files or and Microsoft folders in there. So is it safe to trash the HD/
applications/Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive folder?

Yes, I think you will be fine.
You might find a folder called Microsoft User Data in your Documents
folder. You can safely trash that.

I think you made a wise choice with iWork and Pages. You will find it
does a good job, not perfect, but damn good, of reading and writing
Word docs that those from the dark side can deal with. Pages is a
thousand times better than Word for laying out brochures and invites
and stuff.

If you ever had to deal with Powerpoint, you will love how fresh
Keynote is. Dunno about Numbers yet. It looks a bit v1.0 to me ;-)

If you want to be fanatically anal about losing all the Microsoft mess,
try following the recipe here:-
(damn! I can't find the list)
ask again if you want more detail and I'll go on a Google search. I'm
sure someone posted a list of lurking files here once, and I thought
I'd squirrelled it away.

 

[Diane Ross]

If you want to be fanatically anal about losing all the Microsoft mess,
try following the recipe here:-

Removing Office Test Drive

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/demo.html>

 

[Elliott Roper]

Removing Office Test Drive

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/install/demo.html>

Ooh er! That is not the one I remembered, but it *is* good.
Thanks!