Unable to uninstall Microsoft 365

Kashegan · Feb 28, 2026

I have some issues with my Office applications and want to uninstall them and start again. I have tried reinstalling followed by the normal Manual uninstall from Settings and the Microsoft troubleshooters, but all I get each time are error messages that something went wrong and (on the 3 times I've tried) the following Error Codes: 30015-13(2), 300038-49 and 30038-25. Any suggestions how to proceed, please?

Ghot · Feb 28, 2026

Kashegan said:
I have some issues with my Office applications and want to uninstall them and start again. I have tried reinstalling followed by the normal Manual uninstall from Settings and the Microsoft troubleshooters, but all I get each time are error messages that something went wrong and (on the 3 times I've tried) the following Error Codes: 30015-13(2), 300038-49 and 30038-25. Any suggestions how to proceed, please?

MS has a toll to help... the Uninstall Support Tool...

Uninstall Microsoft 365 or Office from a PC | Microsoft Support

Learn how to uninstall Office from a PC using the Control Panel or with the uninstall support tool.

support.microsoft.com

And on a side note... everyone should have REVO Uninstaller (free)...
Not only does it uninstall, it also "scans" for leftovers and allows you to remove them too.

Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download

Free fully functional download of Revo Uninstaller Pro, Pro Portable and Revo Uninstaller Freeware. Quick and fast download here.

www.revouninstaller.com

Kashegan · Feb 28, 2026

Ghot said:
MS has a toll to help... the Uninstall Support Tool...

Uninstall Microsoft 365 or Office from a PC | Microsoft Support

Learn how to uninstall Office from a PC using the Control Panel or with the uninstall support tool.

support.microsoft.com

And on a side note... everyone should have REVO Uninstaller (free)...
Not only does it uninstall, it also "scans" for leftovers and allows you to remove them too.

Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download

Free fully functional download of Revo Uninstaller Pro, Pro Portable and Revo Uninstaller Freeware. Quick and fast download here.

www.revouninstaller.com

Nice promo for REVO, unfortunatly it's no better than the Microsoft uninstall function.

cheaterslick · Feb 28, 2026

Kashegan said:
Nice promo for REVO, unfortunatly it's no better than the Microsoft uninstall function.

Oh it's much better than Microsoft's since it can remove any leftover traces that Microsoft can't remove. Leftover registry entries, .dlls, folders and the like.

I've been using Revo's free version for the last few years now.

allan · Feb 28, 2026

Kashegan said:
Nice promo for REVO, unfortunatly it's no better than the Microsoft uninstall function.

He's not "promoting" Revo, he's giving you good advice. I guarantee that most experienced users have either the free or paid version installed and use it. It most certainly is better than Windows built-in function.

Ghot · Feb 28, 2026

Kashegan said:
Nice promo for REVO, unfortunatly it's no better than the Microsoft uninstall function.

That's why I first linked the "Uninstall support tool" from MS.

Edwin · Feb 28, 2026

I've never had any problem uninstalling any version of Office, with Revo Free or Pro, from any device.

hader · Feb 28, 2026

Kashegan said:
Nice promo for REVO, unfortunatly it's no better than the Microsoft uninstall function.

Have to disagree there. Microsoft keeps no track on things. When uninstalling products it gives the uninstaller of the product the order to remove the product. (uses the uninstaller of the product itself made by the company who's product it is) It will then remove that entry from the Windows Installed programs list and that's it. One notorious company that swamps you registry full with leftovers is Adobe for example. (more than 100 are not surprising)

MS has no product that's removes all the leftovers. They are laying the responsibility at the creator of the products. If they are messy? MS don't care. It's not their product. I have used a program like Yamicsoft Windows Manager 11 on a regular basis to search for orphaned keys in the registry. I will always find them!! Makes a backup of those keys before deleting them. It does it so on a safe basis. That has it drawbacks also. I noticed that it skips certain parts of the registry. So even this cleanup is not for the 100%.

REVO uninstaller does what the uninstall function of MS does not. It also calls the uninstaller of the firm whose product it is (so far no difference) but it then hunts down orphaned registry using the name of the uninstalled product itself. That is a functionality that lacking using the MS method. (It just don't cares)

I also use REVO registry cleaner. That will find some additional keys but just as Windows Manager stays away from certain parts of the registry also.
Then for the final registry sweep; Windows Manager 11; Cleanup registry. It then will find certain keys that can be deleted. Never came across a messages saying "congratulations your registry is clean".... MS is writing into it during the day.

Looking at both products; REVO registry cleaner and Yamicsoft Windows Manager. The one cleanup stuff where the other product don't like to go and visa versa. This is one issue that MS never has addressed before, and never will I am afraid. With DISM and SFC they check the Windows engine and repairs when it's faulty etc. But the registry? That's for other to maintain that. There is no MS product that goes through the whole registry and check thing if files, GUID, links etc. aren't there anymore. Keep in mind; When Windows boots it ploughs through your whole registry to see what it must load, which programs there are, which settings it must adopt... etc. When left unattended and during time more and more garbage it accumulates; The slower your Windows at startup will be.

My Windows boots now arround 30 seconds. (Fast boot &Secure Boot=off) I have a dual boot system; Windows and Linux. When I had Windows only that time was lower; 20 secs. (Fast boot &Secure Boot=on) Can shave some seconds off that by setting the boot-delay at 0 secs. (now 3 secs for pressing DEL or F8. Otherwise you have to press those keys before that moment flies by... When to late? Reboot for attempt 2....)

This maintenance gap must be maintained on a regular basis. Not on a daily basis! But once a month (heavy use) or once 3 months (quarter) is advisable. Once every half year if you don't do much then using the same programs, e-mail, browse stuff etc.

There are other area's to maintain also; which services, programs are started when Windows Boots. You don't need them all. Just and only the crucial ones. But that is an other subject....

allan · Feb 28, 2026

Not an argument - just an alternate opinion. As highly regarded as Revo software is, I strongly recommend against the use of ANY registry cleaner. Bottom line, no registry cleaner does anything useful, and some can render your system unusable

cheaterslick · Feb 28, 2026

allan said:
Not an argument - just an alternate opinion. As highly regarded as Revo software is, I strongly recommend against the use of ANY registry cleaner. Bottom line, no registry cleaner does anything useful, and some can render your system unusable

Cleaning general registry entries in general, that's true.

Cleaning registry entries that are specific to that program you just uninstalled, definitely not.

~

For example, by not cleaning those specific registry entries, you may run into legacy issues later on trying to install a newer version of a program that won't fully overwrite the previous version of the program you had installed on there.

I've had that happen, before. Not fun.

allan · Feb 28, 2026

Agreed - but that would be the function within Revo uninstaller. I'm saying 3rd party stand alone registry cleaners should be avoided.

cheaterslick · Feb 28, 2026

allan said:
Agreed - but that would be the function within Revo uninstaller. I'm saying 3rd party stand alone registry cleaners should be avoided.

With the free version of Revo, make sure you only tick the bold entries (that are associated with that uninstalled program) when it comes to registry clean-up.

A few years ago, I had a situation where I accidentally deleted an unbolded folder right above a bolded registry entry and I created a new problem. I learned the hard way about that one.

Anytime I buy a new machine or re-image an old one, the first thing I install is Revo. That's how lousy Microsoft's built-in uninstaller is.

hader · Mar 1, 2026

allan said:
Not an argument - just an alternate opinion. As highly regarded as Revo software is, I strongly recommend against the use of ANY registry cleaner. Bottom line, no registry cleaner does anything useful, and some can render your system unusable

Yes sure don't use a cleaner if it doesn't know what it is doing is true. (don't do it yourselves also!!) But those 3rd party DO KNOW what they are doing and if you have enough knowledge you can do it too. If you have uninstalled a certain product from a certain location you can search by the name of that product and the path where it was located also and delete every reference to it without any harm. (You may clean for complex programs maybe 2/4 of all garbage and leaving 2/4 of garbage behind) But these products are more sophisticated then you trust them for.

They do not release their products into the market without testing their effects very extensively and for a long time. MS is certainly doing nothing about this slow decay of performance. Untreated it will during time collecting more and more garbage. You are treating the registry as a black box and saying; DO NOT TOUCH. Yes. If you have no clue what it's contains and where it is meant for; I agree. Don't touch it. Deleting keys at will can cause a crippled and damaged Windows system. But despite your belief; those firms know a lot more about the innerworkings then a customer does. I already said it before; Both REVO and Yamicsoft don't touch areas that they are not certain if it is wise to delete things there. Beter safe then sorry. They are not out to cripple our machines if they are not 100% sure they can delete keys. If in doubt? They don't touched it!!! MS is the one who's it's innerworkings of Windows better then any 3rd party can. Do they care and release their version cleanup registry product? No.....

But if you find it's a lot of trouble and don't want to take action? Go ahead! Your choice. Bottom line; It's not a alternate opinion! You have a trust issue. You heard unconfirmed rumors about horrorstory's about using these products. If you give them an order to delete things and don't make any backup before deleting (you gave also a forceful order to delete stuff where the product itself is saying; don't do this! That part they forgot to mention also...) and go ahead as a nono then yes it can damage Windows. If you leave them alone; searching for left behinds. Finds them, make a backup before they are deleted. When things goes wrong afterwards? Doubleclick on that backup .reg file to inject those keys back into the registry again and reboot windows and everything will work just as fine as before. No harm done. Time to review. Was this caused by the product or by the person responsible for making the wrong decisions by ignoring the warnings behind the PC/laptop? I bet in 99% off all cases it is the last one!.....

Other people wanting a more cleanup machine. Blame the developers of those products when during an uninstall they leave all kind of garbage behind. You bought there product and used it. They already have their money. There they stop. When uninstalled and they leave a lot of garbage? They don't care. They don't have a aftersales track that will help you. Only Adobe, NVIDIA and ?? listen to the complains of there customers that when uninstalling the product it is leaving (Adobe) 300+ or less orphaned keys behind that they made a special program that will delete those left behinds. Only less than 1% off all firms do this because of reputation damage or will hamper the future installment of newer versions. MS is also doing nothing about it.... So your are left out to dry....

Scannerman · Mar 1, 2026

I've used many different sorts of uninstaller apps. My finding is that Revo is among the most reliable of all. There are others and there is a point at which user preference is a factor that exists apart from practicality. Like any tool it should be used with discretion as it has some very formidable features. (At least the paid version does.) As the saying goes, if you have a brain you have a bias. My leaning is toward Revo because for me it is tried, tested, and proven.

Kashegan · Mar 1, 2026

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. However, even after trying REVO, I am still unable to uninstall Microsoft Office and still get the error messages.

allan · Mar 1, 2026

hader said:
Yes sure don't use a cleaner if it doesn't know what it is doing is true. (don't do it yourselves also!!) But those 3rd party DO KNOW what they are doing and if you have enough knowledge you can do it too. If you have uninstalled a certain product from a certain location you can search by the name of that product and the path where it was located also and delete every reference to it without any harm. (You may clean for complex programs maybe 2/4 of all garbage and leaving 2/4 of garbage behind) But these products are more sophisticated then you trust them for.

They do not release their products into the market without testing their effects very extensively and for a long time. MS is certainly doing nothing about this slow decay of performance. Untreated it will during time collecting more and more garbage. You are treating the registry as a black box and saying; DO NOT TOUCH. Yes. If you have no clue what it's contains and where it is meant for; I agree. Don't touch it. Deleting keys at will can cause a crippled and damaged Windows system. But despite your belief; those firms know a lot more about the innerworkings then a customer does. I already said it before; Both REVO and Yamicsoft don't touch areas that they are not certain if it is wise to delete things there. Beter safe then sorry. They are not out to cripple our machines if they are not 100% sure they can delete keys. If in doubt? They don't touched it!!! MS is the one who's it's innerworkings of Windows better then any 3rd party can. Do they care and release their version cleanup registry product? No.....

But if you find it's a lot of trouble and don't want to take action? Go ahead! Your choice. Bottom line; It's not a alternate opinion! You have a trust issue. You heard unconfirmed rumors about horrorstory's about using these products. If you give them an order to delete things and don't make any backup before deleting (you gave also a forceful order to delete stuff where the product itself is saying; don't do this! That part they forgot to mention also...) and go ahead as a nono then yes it can damage Windows. If you leave them alone; searching for left behinds. Finds them, make a backup before they are deleted. When things goes wrong afterwards? Doubleclick on that backup .reg file to inject those keys back into the registry again and reboot windows and everything will work just as fine as before. No harm done. Time to review. Was this caused by the product or by the person responsible for making the wrong decisions by ignoring the warnings behind the PC/laptop? I bet in 99% off all cases it is the last one!.....

Other people wanting a more cleanup machine. Blame the developers of those products when during an uninstall they leave all kind of garbage behind. You bought there product and used it. They already have their money. There they stop. When uninstalled and they leave a lot of garbage? They don't care. They don't have a aftersales track that will help you. Only Adobe, NVIDIA and ?? listen to the complains of there customers that when uninstalling the product it is leaving (Adobe) 300+ or less orphaned keys behind that they made a special program that will delete those left behinds. Only less than 1% off all firms do this because of reputation damage or will hamper the future installment of newer versions. MS is also doing nothing about it.... So your are left out to dry....

sigh

hader · Mar 1, 2026

allan said:
sigh

Yes that's reality for you.... Facts.

cheaterslick · Mar 1, 2026

allan said:
sigh

Some people are mentally hard-coded into doing things a certain way. I try to be flexible if there's a reason to.

Me personally, I avoid dedicated registry cleaners like IObit or Wise. I do use CCleaner but for other things and not registry cleaning.

I do follow certain registry tweaks suggested by this elevenforum.com if they apply to me and I want a certain specific thing changed. But to go hog-wild and clean out a bunch of old general entries that exist in my registry? --No way. :nope:

-- That leads to problems.

And of course there's Revo for thorough program removal, and that includes related registry entries that I run in Advanced mode making sure I get all of them removed. It targets specific things, not just a bunch of registry entries in general. I see nothing wrong with that. I follow a lot (but certainly not all) of advice here.

Yeah, I risk repeating myself, here. I know that. Oh well.

allan · Mar 1, 2026

cheaterslick said:
Some people are mentally hard-coded into doing things a certain way. I try to be flexible if there a reason to.

Me personally, I avoid dedicated registry cleaners like IObit or Wise. I do use CCleaner but for other things and not registry cleaning.

I do follow certain registry tweaks suggested by this elevenforum.com if they apply to me and I want a certain specific thing changed. But to go hog-wild and clean out a bunch of old general entries that exist in my registry? --No way. -- That leads to problems.

And of course there's Revo for thorough program removal, and that includes related registry entries that I run in Advanced mode making sure I get all of them removed. It targets specific things, not just a bunch of registry entries in general. I see nothing wrong with that. I follow a lot (but certainly not all) of advice here.

Yeah, I risk repeating myself, here. I know that. Oh well.

I agree with everything in your post. All I said was dedicated registry cleaners should be avoided at all costs. The "best of them" do absolutely nothing useful. The worst of them can leave your system completely unusable. The last two sentences are not an opinion, they are well documented facts.

Okay, I think I've made my position clear and used up enough air in this thread

DJNelson · Mar 1, 2026

The registry falls under the category of "don't change something you don't fully understand." The only way to fully remove an application that unnecessarily embeds itself into the root of your system is to never install it in the first place.

Unable to uninstall Microsoft 365

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