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Office File Validation Add-In

Anonymous
2014-06-09T17:40:10+00:00

I am using MS Office 2007.  Yesterday my system automatically updated and loaded Microsoft Office File Validation Add-In.  Now every time I open a Word or Excel document a "windows installer" screen pops up asking me to install the "MS OFV Add-In Disk".  It is very annoying.  In fact it was so annoying, that I had my computer tech take my machine for a few days and he did a complete system recovery as this same thing happened about 2-3 months back.  Everything was working great until today when it showed up again.  Sure enough it updated again last night and installed itself on my computer.  It will not let me uninstall.  Is there a way to get rid of this?  I use Word and Excel a lot and it is very annoying to message with this message for every file I open up.  Thanks.

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2014-06-09T19:07:04+00:00

    There are three steps to solving this problem. You can probably do them yourself, or you may want to have your tech do it.

    1. Use the Windows System Restore process to roll back to the system state from before the update occurred.
    2. Open the Windows Update program and click Change Settings on the left side. On the next page, change the first dropdown from "Install updates automatically" to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". Of course, Microsoft wants you to let all updates be installed automatically, but there are enough dumb mistakes like this failure to install the Validation Add-In correctly to make that bad policy.
    3. You can immediately run a new check for updates, or just wait until you're notified that some are available. Look at the list of proposed updates. If you see the Validation Add-In there, right-click it and click Hide Update. That will prevent the update from being installed, now and in the future. Be aware, though, that Microsoft could release an update with a different number that would also try to install the add-in, and you'd have to hide that one too.

    The Office File Validation Add-In is not a critical or necessary part of Office. It's intended to keep you safe from malicious binary-format files (more info here), but such files are rare and becoming rarer. Just be suspicious of .doc and .xls files that arrive from outside your company, if any do.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-07-03T16:17:06+00:00

    I am using MS Office 2007.  Yesterday my system automatically updated and loaded Microsoft Office File Validation Add-In.  Now every time I open a Word or Excel document a "windows installer" screen pops up asking me to install the "MS OFV Add-In Disk".  It is very annoying.  In fact it was so annoying, that I had my computer tech take my machine for a few days and he did a complete system recovery as this same thing happened about 2-3 months back.  Everything was working great until today when it showed up again.  Sure enough it updated again last night and installed itself on my computer.  It will not let me uninstall.  Is there a way to get rid of this?  I use Word and Excel a lot and it is very annoying to message with this message for every file I open up.  Thanks.

    I'm just curious if anyone has tried inserting the Microsoft disk for that version owned and pressing install.  This happened to me years ago but I don't recall which file it was looking for, and our Microsoft version was saved to a network share drive so I directed the browse to that location and it then found the file it was searching for.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-09T20:35:38+00:00

    Thanks so much this worked.  I'm hanging on to your notes.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-03T16:29:16+00:00

    Another solution is as listed on this webpage, remove the update (and probably ask your IT department to mark it as an update to not install):  http://windowssecrets.com/patch-watch/office-file-validation-patch-leads-to-problems/

    Uninstalling the OFV update is confusing; normally we look for KB numbers to uninstall updates, but this time we have to look for the update’s name. OFV is not listed as KB 2501584 in the Windows Add or Remove Programs tool but as Microsoft Office File Validation Add-In.

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