Uninstall or disable Office 365 nagware?

I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
handle.

This occurs even if an alternative such as LibreOffice, or even an
older version of Microsoft Office, is installed. Unless one manually
associates the file type, a dialog box pops up asking how to open the
file with Office 365 as the default *EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT INSTALLED*.

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com
Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roger Blake wrote:
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
handle.

This occurs even if an alternative such as LibreOffice, or even an
older version of Microsoft Office, is installed. Unless one manually
associates the file type, a dialog box pops up asking how to open the
file with Office 365 as the default *EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT INSTALLED*.

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?


Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.

There are a few key sliders you will find in there,
that when set to the "OFF" position, the "noise level"
will drop.

Microsoft only tries **** like this, to test how
"persistent and thorough" you are.

There really aren't a lot of sliders you need to leave on.
I need to actuate a couple of them, so my webcam would work
with the built-in App (both audio and video must be
allowed, before the App will work). The camera still doesn't
work properly (the [top] native resolution of the webcam is
unavailable), but at least it presents a *random*
list of resolutions now. Which is better than no
resolution choices at all. At one time (10240, 14393),
the camera actually worked back then (fully).

*******

It's also possible you're using a different SKU than we are,
and these behaviors go with that SKU. I don't know if
Microsoft goes out of its way to antagonize the paying
Enterprise users like this or not.

And if you're thinking "I will rip the nuts off the
Office Hub folder from Linux", forget it. The folder
is booby trapped. Good luck with that. I've watched
that Office Hub folder flash by when listing Junction Points
or something. And I think that is one of the folders, that
if it is moved to Windows.old on an OS upgrade, that's almost
impossible to remove from *any* OS. You need to use
CleanMgr.exe . You might have to take a hex editor and
destroy it, and if you to that, the signing will "fail",
and the Store will download a fresh copy. You would expect
the usual level of resistance.

Note that, many things from the Linux side will
report "I/O Error", when what they really mean is
"a Reparse Point we don't recognize is applied to this item".
And then you can't do anything to the item. It's no accident
it works this way. You will find a pattern to what
things are protected this way. There are no "accidents"
in Redmond, merely hairbrained plans (the "what have
they been smoking" kind).

*******

If you need to override the hash protection on file associations,
this gentleman has reverse engineered the crypto on that.
Programs like this only work, until MS changes the method.
He is constrained by the potential for charges under DMCA,
from releasing too many details. I'm always amazed by the
people with the skill to sight-recognize a crypto and figure
it out. They must be taking one hell of a university
course.

http://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setu...ions-per-user/

Paul

On 2019-05-01, Paul wrote:
Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.

Thanks for the detailed response. I have all of the privacy sliders set
to "off" but the Office 365 nagging persists. It sounds like Microsoft
has essentially hard-baked this "feature" into the OS and sufficiently
booby-trapped that it is more trouble to remove it than to just go
in and manually set file associations as needed. The SetUserFTA utility
looks interesting, I'll check that out.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com
Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 01/05/2019 03:28, Roger Blake wrote:

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?

If you are not using Microsoft Office or you hate everything Microsoft
is doing why don't you stop using a Windows machine? There should be no
confusion for non-technical people like you in making a change to
something which most hobbyists, trolls and enthusiasts are using.
Windows 10 requires intelligence but above all requires some common
sense from the users part. You have shown non of these characteristics
so you'll be better off using something else.




--
With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Roger Blake wrote:
On 2019-05-01, Paul wrote:
Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.

Thanks for the detailed response. I have all of the privacy sliders set
to "off" but the Office 365 nagging persists. It sounds like Microsoft
has essentially hard-baked this "feature" into the OS and sufficiently
booby-trapped that it is more trouble to remove it than to just go
in and manually set file associations as needed. The SetUserFTA utility
looks interesting, I'll check that out.


So what SKU is this ?

Is it a desktop SKU (Pro or Home) people would be
using here, or is it some Enterprise or Education version ?

Paul

On 2019-05-01, Paul wrote:
Is it a desktop SKU (Pro or Home) people would be
using here, or is it some Enterprise or Education version ?

Windows 10 Pro OEM (Dell), version 1809, on a Server 2012R2 domain.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com
Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 2-May-2019 3:19 AM, Roger Blake wrote:
On 2019-05-01, Paul wrote:
Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.
Thanks for the detailed response. I have all of the privacy sliders set
to "off" but the Office 365 nagging persists. It sounds like Microsoft
has essentially hard-baked this "feature" into the OS and sufficiently
booby-trapped that it is more trouble to remove it than to just go
in and manually set file associations as needed. The SetUserFTA utility
looks interesting, I'll check that out.


I find this an irritant as well. Despite putting all the privacy
settings to off. What I've done to prevent it is to arrange my power
settings so that my computer shuts down when I press the (physical)
power off switch. Then when my computer reboots the the nasty Office
screen does not appear. However, whenever I shut down the computer by
going into the power button at the far left bottom of the desktop and
clicking shut down or restart the Office nag screen always reappears on
reboot.

I don't understand why

Roger Blake wrote:
On 2019-05-01, Paul wrote:
Is it a desktop SKU (Pro or Home) people would be
using here, or is it some Enterprise or Education version ?

Windows 10 Pro OEM (Dell), version 1809, on a Server 2012R2 domain.


The thing about these settings, is there is a multitude of
them, and this is no accident. It's an "Abuse By Obscurity"
approach.

I got this link via a search on "ContentDeliveryManager".

https://blog.danic.net/stop-windows-...unwanted-apps/

I have no way of knowing whether that covers your problem/situation
or not. Maybe there's another half-dozen methods for all I know.

Imagine working at the Monkey Cage at Microsoft and
thinking these up.

I noticed while dumping "Get-appxpackage" that there is
a facebook app on my fricken machine. The nerve of some
people. This is *worse* than finding Disney content.

Paul

On 2019-05-01, Paul wrote:
The thing about these settings, is there is a multitude of
them, and this is no accident. It's an "Abuse By Obscurity"
approach.

It's terrible. I'm still trying to work out all the group policy settings
to turn off as much of the obnoxious Windows 10 crap as possible. But as
you say there are a multitude of settings. Some of them don't even seem
to work and I still have to turn some unwanted "features" off manually
on the individual PCs. Then every six months it's whack-a-mole time with
a fresh new hell unleashed from the bowels of Redmond.

I got this link via a search on "ContentDeliveryManager".

https://blog.danic.net/stop-windows-...unwanted-apps/

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Imagine working at the Monkey Cage at Microsoft and
thinking these up.

They truly are flinging feces at us.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com
Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Roger Blake" wrote

| I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
| comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
| does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
| in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
| time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
| handle.
|

Just a thought, but I'd check the Registry for the
extension. Under HKCR\.doc, etc, there might be
some kind of shell extension or handler being called,
which could be stopped by removing the key. I'm
not aware of any shell extension that might act that
way, but Windows has to find out somehow that you're
double-clicking a .doc file. I would expect that to be
either hard-wired (unlikely), a constantly running hook,
probably a shell extension, that watches activity, or
some other gizmo that gets called due to specific
Registry settings under the file extension. That could
work even though there's an asigned program.
HKCR\.doc might point to LibreOffice.Doc class, but
there can also be other subkeys.

Another way to look for lurking MS malware would
be to check Autoruns. That lists pretty much any
shell extension that loads.

On my XP box I have shell\open\command subkeys,
which is highly irregular for an extension key. It points
to MSO Winword, despite my never having had MS Word
installed. It has no effect. The default value points to LO.

On 01/05/2019 22:14, malone wrote:

I don't understand why

Hey Baloney,

i know why. It's because you are a person of low intelligence. We
don't have any of the problems you describe and only you and that
another idiot like you called Roger Blake has this problem. This is
expected because both of you have less than average intelligence.

Have you thought of hiring a technician who can fix your problem?
Perhaps you can contact Roger Blake privately and arrange for a
technician to sort both of you with just one charge.



--
With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 01/05/2019 05.28, Paul wrote:
Roger Blake wrote:
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
handle.

This occurs even if an alternative such as LibreOffice, or even an
older version of Microsoft Office, is installed.Â* Unless one manually
associates the file type, a dialog box pops up asking how to open the
file with Office 365 as the default *EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT INSTALLED*.

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?


Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.

There are a few key sliders you will find in there,
that when set to the "OFF" position, the "noise level"
will drop.

Microsoft only tries **** like this, to test how
"persistent and thorough" you are.

I see material here for suing MS in Europe. But I'm not a lawyer.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 02/05/2019 10:17, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 01/05/2019 05.28, Paul wrote:
Roger Blake wrote:
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
handle.

This occurs even if an alternative such as LibreOffice, or even an
older version of Microsoft Office, is installed.Â* Unless one manually
associates the file type, a dialog box pops up asking how to open the
file with Office 365 as the default *EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT INSTALLED*.

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?


Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.

There are a few key sliders you will find in there,
that when set to the "OFF" position, the "noise level"
will drop.

Microsoft only tries **** like this, to test how
"persistent and thorough" you are.

I see material here for suing MS in Europe. But I'm not a lawyer.

Please explain, Carlos.

Microsoft is an international corporation which can itself determine
whatever it wishes to charge for its products.

--
David B.
Devon, UK

Roger Blake wrote:
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
handle.

This occurs even if an alternative such as LibreOffice, or even an
older version of Microsoft Office, is installed. Unless one manually
associates the file type, a dialog box pops up asking how to open the
file with Office 365 as the default *EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT INSTALLED*.

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?

If I remember correctly, do a right click of the Office 365 line in the
programs menu and a uninstall menu comes up.

Jim

On 02/05/2019 12.04, David B. wrote:
On 02/05/2019 10:17, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 01/05/2019 05.28, Paul wrote:
Roger Blake wrote:
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it seems that Windows 10
comes with an Office 365 stub even if the user or manufacturer
does not install Office. Brand new PCs that list no Office software
in the installed program list spam the user to buy Office 365 any
time an attempt is made to open a file type that Office can potentially
handle.

This occurs even if an alternative such as LibreOffice, or even an
older version of Microsoft Office, is installed.Â* Unless one manually
associates the file type, a dialog box pops up asking how to open the
file with Office 365 as the default *EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT INSTALLED*.

This causes endless confusion for non-technical end users. Is there any
way to delete or at least disable this latent Office 365 nagware?


Visit the Settings panel and set sliders accordingly.

There are a few key sliders you will find in there,
that when set to the "OFF" position, the "noise level"
will drop.

Microsoft only tries **** like this, to test how
"persistent and thorough" you are.

I see material here for suing MS in Europe. But I'm not a lawyer.

Please explain, Carlos.

Microsoft is an international corporation which can itself determine
whatever it wishes to charge for its products.

Which has been fined in the past in Europe for similar practices.

They are free to charge, but not to ask every time you open a doc to
install Office, when LibreOffice is already installed, making it very
difficult if not impossible to block the nuisance advert. It is taking
advantage of their position as operating system vendors for pushing
under the nose products that compete with others.

They should be neutral and advise about the different alternatives to
open a doc.

In Europe at least.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.