Solved Remove invalid listing in Start and/or Control Panel

Winver 22H2 22621.2428
Word appears in Start and I do not have this or any MS Office program that I'm aware of my actually installed. (I'm certainly not paying for any!) When I attempt to uninstall the entry in Start I'm redirected to Control Panel where I find three entries for Microsoft 365 along with two for Microsoft OneNote, all with the installation date of October 3, 2023. I know the invalid listings probably do no harm, but would uninstalling the entries in Control Panel cause any problem and also rid Start of the Word listing? No big deal, I'm also interested in knowing why/how they appear. Thank you for anything you can share!
Gini

@Gini


WHY they appear... who knows. It may be another example of MS trying to suck you into using their software.
As for whether uninstalling them would cause harm... you would know better than us.
Do you have a subscription to Microsoft 365? If you don't... uninstall them.

Also, it would help to know what version/build of Windows 11, you are running.
You can type: winver in the Taskbar search box to find out.

This is the important info...



There are some items on the Start Menu, that can not be removed.
The two most common ones are: Get Started and Windows Backup.






A very useful program these days... with MS tossing tons of junk our way, is REVO Uninstaller (free).
You highlight a program or App, click on the "Uninstall" tab, then do the "Scan for leftovers" and remove them.

The "Scan for leftovers" tool is great. After uninstalling a program or App, it searches and finds all the associated leftovers everywhere on your computer (including the registry).




All installed software (that's removable), will appear under one of the two tabs (shown in the RED boxes).
The left-most tab is like Programs & Features, and the Windows Apps tab is for... Windows Apps.





Note: Under Options > Uninstaller ...these are the settings I use...





Under Options > General ...I uncheck everything.






I leave all the rest of the Options at their defaults.

Microsoft has been doing a lot of weird things.
Putting Ads on our computers. Updating Apps without asking.
Trying to force us to use their software, rather than 3rd party software.
Just generally not caring what we think or want.

Most of us use 3rd party backup software, for a number of reasons. The main ones being...

1. To be able to restore to a backup when Windows breaks.
2. To be able to undo cute little things we don't want, that MS puts on our comps when we're sleeping.
3. To be able to undo things WE have done to our computers, like remove bad hard to remove software we installed.
4. To remove infections, ransom ware, or other nasty things.












OK... I'm done editing posts 2 and 3.

Thanks, Ghot! I appreciate the great information! I know MS is a little like a hungry octopus, and I guess we generally live with it or go to Linux. I do image my computer every week with Macrium, and I've used Revo, but didn't think of that utility for this. Bottom line is that what I reported is merely an annoyance, and I'm not sure how much time and effort I'll put into the issue for now, but thanks for your attention and helpful response!

Gini said:

Thanks, Ghot! I appreciate the great information! I know MS is a little like a hungry octopus, and I guess we generally live with it or go to Linux. I do image my computer every week with Macrium, and I've used Revo, but didn't think of that utility for this. Bottom line is that what I reported is merely an annoyance, and I'm not sure how much time and effort I'll put into the issue for now, but thanks for your attention and helpful response!

Click to expand...

That's the kind of situation where I use REVO. It's a lot easier than figuring out MS's convoluted methods.
And I always "scan for leftovers", which has never "broken" anything on any Windows version.

I went kind of... "commando" in the Windows Apps section of REVO, on both Win 10 and 11.






This, of course, cleaned up the Start Menu and Programs & Features... a lot!

Hello @Gini,

I just posted a new tutorial below to help remove uninstall entries for apps.

Another helpful tutorial, Brink! Thanks for pointing me to it.

Gini said:

Another helpful tutorial, Brink! Thanks for pointing me to it.

Click to expand...

@Brink is an alien. He lives on Tutorial planet.
He comes to Earth every now and then to deliver a few tutorials.