[SOLVED] Microsoft Office reinstall and keep settings

[mutak94]

Hi,

I need to reinstall MS Office on my Windows 10 PC due to some licencing problems. However, I would like to keep all settings so that I don't have to set them again once the reinstallation is complete.

For example, you can modify the styles in Word, I wish to keep the settings that I have made. I also don't want to lose my email addresses and signatures in Outlook. How can I perform this?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Just run the installer and choose the "Repair" option. That should only reinstall the same parts of Office (Word, Excel) and optional features (Languages, filters, etc.) that you already have installed. Then, afterwards, if you are entering a new license you can do that by choosing the activation option.

Since I'm not really sure exactly what your situation is, it is hard to say exactly how to go about doing this or what explicitly will be required, but you can also do this to backup and then import your settings after installation.

Can you give me a little more information including WHY and HOW you need to do this, with the installation, and what version of MS office you are working with?

 

[mutak94]

Hey, thanks for the reply! The details are quite simple actually. I have bought a second-hand computer that had an illegally installed Office on it. I didn't have enough money to buy Office instantly since I have just bought the computer. When I gathered the money, I subscribed to Office 365 and went to install it on my computer.

However, after the installation is complete, Office 365's admin screen lists that Office 365 was installed by 0 out of 1 users, meaning that my installation did not register properly, so I probably currently still have an illegal version, even though I have paid for my Office. I want to have a legal version of Office installed, so I presume that the only way to do this is to uninstall the previous version and then to install the new version again. However, this will make me lose all my settings, which I am trying to avoid.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Seems the only way is to do this:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/back-up-your-contacts-9510e073-f36d-4cf5-b3f7-93af247fb070

And this:

https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/outlook/1453-outlook-import-export-signatures.html


And then uninstall all currently installed versions of Office, then restart the system, then reinstall the desired version of Office, and then do the opposite of what you did when exporting the contacts and signatures for backup by importing them back into Outlook. For the other Office applications, I'm just not seeing any options to export settings but your version of Office is newer than mine, which is Office 2013, so there may be differences there.