I subscribed to Microsoft 365. How to continue using desktop Office?

"I want my computer to default to the installed version of Office"

But, from what you've written, you have already installed Office365 so you have two installed versions of Office - Office2007 & Office365.

So there is no "the" installed version.

Installing Office2022 will only make this more complicated.

You will need to decide which version of Office to associate your docx, xlsx, etc files with and will have to accept that opening them in the other version will always be awkward. But it will always be possible to use whichever versions you want at any time.

If you decide what you want to do then suitable guidance can be given.
- Decide which will be your main Office version.
- Then decide which other versions you want on your computer. And make sure you have identified real benefits from having others.

Just as an example, I keep Office 2007 on all my computers.
- I also have Office 2021 on one computer just so I can understand comments people make in threads about later versions.
- I have to accept awkwardness in opening Office files on that experimental setup and will only improve the situation if I remove 2007 or 2021 from it.

If you want comments on those opening screens that look like re-installations when you open Office 2007 then you'll need to post screenshots.
- I have not seen any equivalents on my mixed Office 2007-2021 computer so I do not know what they are.


All the best,
Denis

Judy,

I think the most straightforward way to make sure your Office files open in Office 2007 applications is to use the Open with sub-menus for each of your major Office file extensions:
.docx, .docm
.xlsx, xlsm
.accdb
.potx, .potm
{and consider .png, .jpg, .bmp ***}

In File explorer,

1 Find an example of one of your Office file types, right-click on it, choose Open with then choose Choose another app.


2 Then set the checkbox for Always use this app to open ... {you need to do this now even though you have not yet made any selection}.


3.1 If Word 2007 appears in the dialog already then select it & click on the OK button.

3.2 Otherwise, Click on More apps and scroll down the list to see if Word 2007 is there in which case select it & click on the OK button.

3.3 If you reach the end of the list without any joy then click on Look for another app on this PC


Browse to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12

where you can select WinWord.exe / Excel.exe / PowerPnt.exe / MSAccess.exe / OIS.exe*** as required then click on the Open button to both complete the required setup & open the example file you used [which you can then close straightaway, you do not need to do anything in it].

*** OIS is the MSOffice 2007 Picture manager. I use it to quickly & easily crop pictures so I set it for .png, .jpg, .bmp file extensions.

There you go. That should be all you need to do.

But if you catch one of those dialogs you referred to as re-installing something or other then [in any Office 2007 application] select Office repair e.g.
Word 2007, Office button in the top-left corner, Word options button, Resources, Diagnostics button.

If it suggests going online at the end just ignore that.
If that doesn't fix the problem then post a screenshot so I can see what you see. You can crop it to remove uninteresting parts of the screenshot using MSOffice Picture manager.


Best of luck,
Denis

Judy in Texas said:

I also felt that I should pay for Hotmail, because I use Office and Windows without paying for them after purchase, even though Microsoft maintains them. Since the no-ads came with Office 365 I decided to try it without thinking that through.

Judy,

You allow MS to earn money from Hotmail by showing you ads that they get paid for.
MS does not maintain MSOffice 2007. It dropped out of support six years ago. You paid an awful lot of money for it; I know things are much cheaper in your country but it was still a lot.

{My first copy was an upgrade version that cost me £234 in 2007. Another copy cost me £156 in 2014. My last copy cost me £50 in 2017.}

Yes, you only paid for Windows within the purchase price of your computer even though MS continue to develop updates.


Denis

I am rather puzzled why you would want to use a 16 year old piece of software like 2007. It is only going to get more obsolescent as time moves on.

It is no longer supported and represents a security risk accordingly.


It all comes down to what you intend to do with it.

If you intend to use it for business, then it is a no brainer as it is not fully compatible with later versions (macros, graphics features etc.).

In the end, it is just a bad plan to stick with 2007 when you can install a much more recent and supported version.

I suggest the sequence of actions should be

1 Check your Office 2007 Enterprise product key.
2 Make a new system image
3 Uninstall Office365
4 Repair Office 2007

1 I assume you have your Office 2007 Enterprise product key.
I am a bit worried that that configuring action needs to be allowed to run its course before you can try retrieving the product key.
I cannot remember the name of the free utility we all used to use to retrieve Office product keys. So I'm hoping that you know the product key already. Otherwise I'll have to dig around to see if I named it in any of my old notes.
Your MSOffice Enterprise 2007 Product key will only work with MSOffice Enterprise 2007.


2 See my ditty - File backup vs imaging, imaging utilities, backing up drivers [post #3] - TenForums


3 Since you don't want Office365 then uninstall it and cancel the direct debit payments from your bank [you might also check in your Outlook.com account for the Office365 entry to look at any action you need to take there].
Uninstall Office from a PC - Office Support


4 Please tell me what .exe files are in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12 then.
- I have never heard that the Enterprise version puts them anywhere else; it's a fairly standard Office location.
- It makes me wonder if there isn't a fault in your Office 2007 installation and that configuration screenshot you posted is just Office's best attempt at interpreting the situation.
- Your search results look, to me, like temporary files made during installation.
- In your posted diagram, behind the search results I can see OIS.exe [The MSOffice 2007 Picture manager]. That file is kept in the same folder as WinWord.exe and all the others [as is shown in my previous diagram]. But I cannot see which folder is being shown because your search results diagram is blocking that out.
- Has Office 2007 ever been running correctly on your computer?
- I think you need to let that configuration screen run its course. And then run a Repair

---

5 I also use Office 2007. It has been out of support since 2017. Newly discovered security vulnerabilities in it do not get patched.
The only functional problems I have encountered are
- Outlook 2007 cannot correctly read email from WesternDesign Customer Support [I have to edit the received email, select all its text, set text colour to black in order to read it].
- Access 2007 cannot read 'Forms' containing graphical elements [i.e. practically every Form] created or edited in Access 2016 onwards. I imagine that the same might apply to graphical elements for the other Office applications.


6 You could look in Amazon etc for a copy of an Office 2007 Enterprise CD. But they have became very expensive over here in the last few years.
I do not know of any other reliable way of getting the installation files. This site {of unknown reliability} claims to allow you to download it and, since you already have the product key, that should be enough for you - Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 Download
Your MSOffice Enterprise 2007 Product key will only work with MSOffice Enterprise 2007.
That shop who installed it for you should have given you a copy of the installation CD at the time [along with your MSOffice Enterprise 2007 Product key].



All the best,
Denis

Judy in Texas said:

Denis, thank you so much for your help. I have the product key. I got it using Keyfinder by Magical Jelly Bean. I have seen good reviews of that product and have used it to obtain and save the product keys when I bought my (used) Surface. I did not receive the Office CD with the computer. The files may very well have been on the computer from its original life. I expect the shop (now closed) got the product keys and reinstalled the software on the new internal drive. At that time Office 2007 was still downloadable.

I will proceed as you recommend. I will uninstall 365 and cancel payments. Thanks for the reminder about that! I see that MS says uninstalling will not remove the files from my computer. I am not at risk of running out of storage, but I may look into removing these dregs at a later point. (After I have a functional suite of Office software running on this computer.)

There are a few scattered .exe files in the Office 12 directory, but my search results snip shows all of the winword.exe files on c:\. The leftover files appear to be MS Publisher and such. There are a large number of folders in the Office 12 directory, so I hope one of them will let me fix the 2007.

If not, I can either buy an Office 2007 Pro that I can (pretty much) trust or I can install one of my Office Pro 2022s. I won't face that question until I see if I can install the 2007. As with you, the 2007 is working fine for me.

Thanks again. I will report in a few days.

- - - Updated - - -

cerebrus, You make an excellent point and I may well move on. I don't use macros, which I think may protect me to some extent. I don't download files without scanning them for malware. I just don't look forward to learning a new version. Any version has its tricks, and I have learned to work around some of the ones in 2007.

It is not that different and zillions of online guides. The gui has changed a bit and things are in a different place but no worse than gui changes each time new version of Windows comes out. If you get stck, lots of experts here to help.