Microsoft gets more aggressive with Office 2016.

I wish office 2010 was still supported as it did everything we needed. Such is life.
Office 2016 suffers from a number of annoyances.

Each application has a set title bar color. There doesn't seem to be any way to change it.
I don't use mobile computing in any form, nor do I store anything in the cloud. But MSOSYNC and MSOUC just can't be disabled without causing the applications to perform an installation process every time you run them.

I tried renaming and deleting the files. Office just recreates them.
I tried changing permissions (Setting deny perms and even removing perms).
Either of these cause the applications to go through an install process every time you run them.

I did manage to stop them running by using group policy. Under Window settings, Security Settings, Software Restriction Policies I added a path rule for both the programs under additional rules. This stops them from running, but causes the office applications to launch an install process. It doesn't remove the rules though.

Microsoft wants the Microsoft Office Tools folder at the root of the start menu. I moved it to the Microsoft Office folder. Every time I run an application, it goes through an install process and recreates it where Microsoft wants it.

I tried renaming the registry value at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders

From C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office 2016 Tools\
To C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office\Microsoft Office 2016 Tools\

But that doesn't affect where Microsoft wants the folder. It still recreates it at the root of the start menu.

If anyone knows of any methods of fixing this, other than "just don't mess with Office" I'd sure appreciate some guidance, otherwise this is just information about Office 2016's behavior.

I can't help with your problem, but what aspect of 'out of support' Office 2010 concerned you? I am still using it happily. If you mean it no longer gets updates, well that can only be a good thing in my view, as they often failed to install. I carried on using Office 2000 way past its 'out of support' date with no ill-effects - just careful Macro control (I think). I may be taking chances, but I can't see anyone putting much effort into developing 2010 malware, when there is a whole world of social media out there waiting to be pillaged. I promise to 'fess up if I get caught out.

Fair point. Yes, it's only because of the lack of security updates.

I might have found a way to stop office pestering me about the start menu. I made the folder super hidden. Now I only see the one I want in the location I want and hopefully the programs won't unhide the one I don't.

I posted mainly because these issues appear all over the place on searches. Lot's of frustrated people. I was hoping it might be useful to document what I have been able to mitigate. Nothing worse than spending ages searching and not finding answers :)

@sygnus21 thanks for those links. I'd actually read those previously on my searches :)

They are not actually related to the issues I'm having. I think I was trying to get the title bar color consistent across each program at the time I came across those. I couldn't do it so I ended up trying LibreOffice and OpenOffce but neither of them can handle my multitude of complex excel spreadsheets without major overhauls (some of the spreadsheets I'd been working on for 9 years).

My issues are related to the fact that I don't use cloud. I dont sync and I don't upload, so the related "features" in Office are just a PITA and annoying. I was able to turn off the MSOUC icon, but that doesn't stop it running and chatting with M$ servers.

Adding path rules in gpedit.msc stops them running but causes each program to do an update install process when they start. Swapped one PITA for another :)

No, that's ok, I appreciate you trying to help.

MSOUC.exe is the Office Upload Center program. When its running it's chatting over the internet incessantly, at least here.

I don't and will never trust my data to the cloud. My email is downloaded to my PC and deleted from the cloud. Apart from that, I use no program or service that is cloud based for my data storage.

Msosync.exe is the default Microsoft Office Document [Cloud] Cache (ODC) synchronizer and cache management program for Microsoft Office. When running it takes up considerable resources and bricks processes such as file copies. I find I have to continually kill the process to resolve such issues. Hence why I'm wanting to prevent it running.

Did that, but at the cost of having to wait every time for office products to go through their install process before I can use them.

I have no use for now, nor will I ever, of cloud computing. I am a disabled person so mobility is useless to me.

This link provides some insight into what's going on. Except that it's no longer started at system start - it's started when an Office application is opened;

What is Msosync.exe and Should I Remove it? - Appuals.com

@mngerhold I feel your pain. I too was in the technical preview program but quit about build 9926 I think. It was a long time ago. The keylogger, start menu and a few other things really grated on me and I made a post on the feedback that W10 was (at that stage), and unmitigated disaster and quit at that point. I didn't revisit W10 until 1803. At that point I installed classic shell as the start menu was still a mess IMHO.

The start menu gets its contents from %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\ Programs for current user and %PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft Windows\Start menu\Programs for the all users items.

When Office installs it creates the Microsoft Office 2016 Tools start menu entry in %PROGRAMDATA%. And all Office applications at the root of the start menu. If I let all programs do that my start menu would be extremely long.

I prefer to keep my start menu tidy so all office applications are grouped in a %PROGRAMDATA% start menu called "Microsoft Office". Office doesn't seem to mind the application start menu items being moved to a sub folder, but it absolutely will not allow the tools folder to be anywhere but the root of the start menu. I had to create a super hidden folder at the root so I didn't see it, but the down side is each application still does an install each start, though it doesn't un-hide the the folder. Go figure!?

I do the same thing with everything. So like 7-zip, WinRAR, WinZIP etc are on a start menu entry called Archivers. You get the idea.

Classic Shell is now open shell and it's not bad. Certainly better than the default "start menu".

I've traded one PITA for another. Either I just suck it up and have the tools folder at the root of the start menu, or I put up with each application going through an install when run.

Having said that, I've seen several implementations of what you describe, but never actually tried it for myself. One of my sons uses something similar. I will have a play with it and see how it goes.

Taken individually these things are probably not that big a deal. When I get to 4 or 5 issues it gets on my nerves and I get driven to actually do something about them.