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How to remove the annoying OFFICE ASSISTANT on Word 97 - Windows 7 x64

Anonymous
2017-07-09T14:18:23+00:00

The really annoying Office Assistant (Clippy) has reappeared after reinstalling Word 97 - despite not ticking this with selective install.

Unfortunately is still there, despite have tried to get rid of it, including unticking all the options (see screen prints).

I would appreciate Microsoft advise on how to remove this annoying popup.

Thanks.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-08-28T22:02:51+00:00

    This worked for me in Excel 97

    https://kb.iu.edu/d/aels

    While you cannot uninstall the Office Assistant from Office 97, you can eliminate it by moving all the Actorfiles (*.act) in the Actorsfolder to a backup directory. The default installation directory for the Actor files is: 

    \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Actors

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  2. Stefan Blom 340.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-07-09T16:10:06+00:00

    Once you have unticked all the boxes you should be able to close the Office Assistant and it wouldn't reappear the next time you start Office.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-10T08:57:52+00:00

    Up until recently: reinstalling Word 97 and Downloading the Help file, that I think maybe reintroduced Clippy, I don't recall seeing this annoying popup for a very long time, perhaps even on my last computer with Windows XP. Also, I don't recall ever trying to turn it off in the past, until this issue arose recently.

    Yes, I have had Windows 7 x64 on this latest HP Desktop computer for over 4 years.

    Judging by comments on the Internet, getting rid of Clippy seems to be problematical, which has opened up opportunities for proprietary companies to use a warning that uninstalling Clippy leaves files that could cause other problems . . .  to  offer suspicious download solutions.

    I hope Microsoft can resolve this. Thanks.

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  4. Stefan Blom 340.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-07-09T22:37:37+00:00

    This is going to be difficult to troubleshoot, since Office 97 is no longer officially supported by Microsoft.

    Before the reinstallation, when the Office Assistant could be turned off, were you then running the same version of Windows?

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-07-09T18:20:54+00:00

    Thanks Stefan.  I had already tried that with Office Assistant and it doesn't work. However, I tried it again and noticed there was one tick that had returned (Move when in the way) in my note above, that I then unticked, but it still doesn't work..

    Something I forgot to mention: About the time I reinstalled Word 97, I was looking for Help on something else and was directed to a Microsoft website to download a Help file, which installed. However, I don't know the file name and can't find a recent file in Downloads..

    Would the Office Assistant be part of this Help file? If so, how might I remove the file? On clicking Help in Excel, the Office assistant pops up, though I haven't yet had it launch at other times, as with Word.

    I see from the web that other folk want to dispense with the Office Assistant, resulting in various proprietary solutions to download a fix, which I always ignore, as I prefer to try via Microsoft for security.

    .

    .

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