[SOLVED] How to uninstall ‘Office 15 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component’

Problem

When attempting to install Office 2013 you receive an error message which reads:

Setup Error
We can't install the 64-bit version of Office because we found the following 32-bit programs on your PC:
Office 15 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component
Please uninstall all 32-bit Office programs, then retry installing 64-bit Office. If you want to install 32-bit Office instead, please run the 32-bit setup.

Office2013-UninstallClickToRun1

However, Office 15 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component is not listed in the control panel and cannot be uninstalled.

Solution

There are two known solutions to this problem – you may need to do one or both.

Solution 1 : Remove registry keys

To work around this issue you need to manually remove the traces of the application from the computers registry.

The steps below detail how to open the registry, locate the responsible keys and delete them. You will need administrator access on the computer to complete these steps.

  1. Press the Windows button and R on the keyboard to open the run command.
  2. In the box enter regedit and click ‘OK’
  3. Office2013-UninstallClickToRun2
  4. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products
  5. Press Ctrl and F on your keyboard to open the find window and search for Office 15 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component
  6. Office2013-UninstallClickToRun3
  7. When a ProductName record is found, delete the key that contains it.
  8. In this example you would delete the highlighted key 00005109C80000000000000000F01FEC
  9. Office2013-UninstallClickToRun4
  10. Now close the registry editor and begin start the installation of Office 2013 again.

Solution 2 : Remove MSI installer

  1. Press the Windows button and R on the keyboard to open the run command.
  2. In the box enter installer and click ‘OK’
  3. Right-click on the top columns and choose ‘More’
  4. Tick ‘Subject’ and click ‘OK’
  5. Using the newly added ‘Subject’ column – locate the MSI installer and delete it

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37 comments on “[SOLVED] How to uninstall ‘Office 15 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component’

  1. Where did the Click-to-Run component come from, initially? Is it installed by the Windows operating system (mine is Win7 Pro) or was it installed by the Office 15 trial version that came with my PC?

    1. Thanks for the reply. So, if I have a Click-to-Run version of Office 15 (trial) on my new PC and I have “not” clicked to run it, how much of the Office software do you think is installed on the PC? 50%, 25%, 10%? How deep into the system and registry do you think a Click-to-Run trial version of Office is installed by the PC manufacturer? Thousands of entries? I want to remove it and all traces of it, and I’m trying to figure out how deep into the system I need to go to get rid of it. The Windows Uninstaller, typically, doesn’t remove everything. Or, my other option, for complete removal, is to do a fresh install of Windows.

    2. Just to be clear, the click-to-run software is a part of Office, it’s one of it’s components. Most pre-manfactured computers come with ‘bloatware’ like a trail copy of Office, if you have the trial version this means you have it fully installed – although after a certain number of days the trial expires. Your safest bet is to just uninstall it from the ‘Programs and Features’ screen. It’s not like it’s malicious software, it’s just annoying bloat. I’m not a fan of the third party uninstall tools, they’re just making educated guesses and run the risk of breaking things. If you’re really frustrated by the bloat perhaps it will be best to just blow it all away and start with a fresh install of Windows? If you haven’t already got an SSD hard drive, do that at the same time.

  2. Wow, thanks a lot. I was having problem with installing Skype for business and had this problem. Using your solution it was fixed easily. Thanks for posting!

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