Office 2013 BUG report: undesirable components (and various hijacks) are installed against user's will and cannot be removed

Installing Office 2013 Pro Plus RTM x64 on a fresh Windows 8 Pro WMC system.

Used Custom setup procedure to install only the desired software, i.e. unchecking most of the checkboxes.

After setup, a lot of undesirable software got nevertheless installed although it was specifically UNCHECKED at setup time, e.g. "Office Themes", "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation support", "Compare Diagnostics blahblah" + a bunch of outdated truetype fonts.

No matter how many times we run again the "Change" setup from Windows' "Programs and Features" and uncheck these components, the setup routine does NOT uninstall them, with or without reboot etc. Basically, the Add/Remove function of the setup has NO EFFECT.

The setup also installs (offering no choice or notice to the users) a lot of undesirable bloatware e.g. some "Office Upload Center", "Spreadsheet Compare" etc. and several tasks (Office 2013 Sync-something stuff) & services & explorer hijacks (a greyed-out "Skydrive Pro", what the...) AGAINST the user's will or consent.

These unwanted apps and hijacks seemingly cannot be uninstalled, not even kept from running and reenabling itself - except if killing the tasks using the Task Manager, then deleting (!) the files from their respective folders, in addition to editing the registry to get rid of all this stuff. Of course the crap gets reinstalled/reenabled with any further launch of the office setup...

Reminds me a lot of bad practices by malicious software. :|

Office techs and engineers, PLEASE don't promise a customized setup option if it's for it to be snake oil... And don't offer a post-setup "Add/remove" or "Change" routine that has absolutely no effect whatsoever... And don't install unneeded/undesirable useless features as tasks and hijacks that cannot be killed or get rid of...
Or at least please mention explicitely that you know better than users themselves, what they want and need and decide... :)

As a sidenote, the same issues were present with Office 2010 Pro Plus SP1 - Sharepoint stuff and office themes and all that jazz was already installed even when deliberately left unchecked, and could never be uninstalled afterwards.

November 4th, 2012 3:53am

Hi,

First, I want to confirm with you that whether you install Office via MSI or Click to Run.

Only volume-licensed versions of Click-to-Run installations can be customized using the Click-to-Run Admin Tool. Retail versions of Click-to-Run, however, do not support the use of the Admin Tool or provide any user interface based customizations to the product. These versions, for example, do not allow the user to choose what applications or features to not install or even the location of the installation files. 

If you used MSI installation, then check to see the steps in the link below:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/install-or-remove-individual-office-programs-and-components-HA010354261.aspx

Note: We cant remove Office programs individually after the suite has been installed. You must uninstall Office completely, and then reinstall it using a custom installation.

Also, heres a link about Office Customization Tool changes in Office 2010, the Office Customization Tool is part of the Setup program and is the primary tool that administrators use to customize an Office 2010 client installation:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_resource_kit/archive/2010/01/05/office-customization-tool-changes-in-office-2010.aspx

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 6th, 2012 5:02am

(Office 2013 Pro Plus x64 ran from disc setup.exe, I guess this is what you call the "MSI" method.)

--

Did you read my post, or are you some automatic responder ? ;) I specifically mentioned that I used the Add/Remove function, and that it DOES NOT WORK.

The BUG affects some components, which:

- get installed against the user's will (although they are left unchecked during initial setup)

- are not removed even if here again unchecked with post-install "remove" method.

Components affected by this bug include:

  • Microsoft SkyDrive Pro
  • Compare, Diagnostics and Inventory Management
  • Microsoft Office Themes
  • Microsoft Sharepoint Foundation Support

If you know of a better way than Technet to report bugs and flaws in Office 2013, please let me know. :)

Screenshots:

1. Installing Office 2013 for the first time, on a fresh system:

Note how I unselected/unchecked all the so-called "Office Tools"

2. Once installed, I notice unwanted bloatware got nevertheless installed. Going to the Add/Remove for Office 2013, I now see this:

Due to a BUG in Office 2013 setup routines, unwanted software got installed against my will.

Now, let's try to remove the bloat: I unselect it again, click Continue, the setup Add/Remove routine takes some seconds/minutes to do its job... or so it pretends.


  • Edited by HotShot __ Wednesday, November 07, 2012 3:52 PM
November 7th, 2012 6:19pm

(continued from previous post)

3. Now, back once again to the Add/Remove features to see if it got really removed:

Well, the "remove features" does NOT work for these components. Impossible to get rid of the bloat. WTF Microsoft Office developers...

(To help you guys try to understand the issue, I posted screenshots in chronological order, see the time and date displayed by the Clock...)

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 7th, 2012 6:53pm

As an injury that is added to the insult; When all of this is said and done, and you've verified that the MS Malware/Bloatware has infected your computer and cannot be removed, you have to deal with the frustrating and debilitating truth that you have installed Office 2013 onto your computer.
March 24th, 2014 10:58pm

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