The Click to Run software manages the streaming of the installation of some Office products and a virtualised environment to enable different versions to run side by side on a Windows computer. If this software gets its ‘knickers in a knot’ (technical term), you might come across some issues with your next Office software installation. Don’t remove this component if you think you’ll only ever use msi based retail CD installations.
In one scenario, Click to Run was removed from a Windows computer and Microsoft Office 2013 Business was installed from a retail CD. The customer later tried to install Microsoft Project, which they purchased online. The installation failed, appearing to run but not actually doing anything. The installation was a Click to run ‘ProjectStdRetail.img’ file.
To get around this, you have to:
- Remove Office & all of its components completely
- Install Microsoft Project.
- Reinstall Office 2013 from the CD.
Don’t be surprised if the uninstallation of Office fails too.
In that case, check out https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Fix-Office-365-or-Office-2013-install-errors-54554BB8-AA94-43C7-A685-408DD9868C0B?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
And in particular this for ‘how to manually uninstall Office 2013’ if the automated process or Fix It doesn’t work https://support.office.com/en-us/article/manually-uninstall-Office-2013-or-Office-365-1d1110d5-75a4-4154-969e-4260ff29b232
Remember to reboot if the uninstallation process doesn’t, before you run the Project Click to run installation.
And when Project (or the product of your choosing) is happily installed, do one more reboot then your MSI CD install (Office 2013 Business in this case).
All will be happy once more in Click to Run land!
-SCuffy
P.S. Sound like a lot of reboots? I know we’ve moved on from rebooting after successful software installations, but from experience, I prefer a clean startup when I’m dealing with issues like this.