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Keep MS Updates out of my Office 365

Anonymous
2024-09-02T02:26:15+00:00

For the last six months or so, every month when the updates are loaded, all my settings in office change. File explorer has become unrecognizable and I've spent hours trying to fix it. Now it's Word they're messing with. "Always create a backup copy" is suddenly switched on, and filling my hard drive with useless wbk files, without warning me that it's doing it. Sure I switched it off when I happened upon it. I am supposed to check that every day?

Now when I print a document that used to work perfectly, suddenly each page is compressed to about half the size and it's in the centre of the paper with a border line around it. For this one, I can't find the setting that's doing it.

I've become accustomed to wasting hours and days of time trying to get my office files and setup back to where they were when I created/edited them. Is it asking too much for Microsoft to stop playing with my office apps and data?

This is just some of the latest examples of Microsoft messing with my Windows and Office setup. It's obvious you're trying to drive me to Windows 11. I don't need it, don't want it, and my computer doesn't support it. I've been using each new flavour of Windows and Office since the 90's and I know how they're supposed to work, and how my hundreds of gigabytes of data are supposed to look. Just stop messing in my PC and leave my data and settings alone.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-09-02T16:43:52+00:00

    If you go to File > Account (or File > Office Account in Outlook), you can click Update Options > Disable Updates.

    I don't know whether Microsoft honors this option, as I've never tried it, but it may work.

    I get Microsoft 365 updates at least monthly, but I haven't seen either of the problems that were mentioned. "Always create backup copy" remains turned off, and pages print as they should and not reduced (the latter may be caused by having tracked changes and/or comments in the document, although that would push the page's text to the left rather than to the center and doesn't add a border).

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-09-03T23:25:05+00:00

    My File Manager continues to behave strangely over the last few months, as though I'd never used it or changed any settings. Is File Manager updated along with these Office 365 updates?

    No, File Manager is part of Windows, not part of Office or Microsoft 365. If there are updates to that program, they will be in the monthly Cumulative Updates for Windows. The details of which programs are included and a (very terse) description can be found in the release notes:

    Windows 10 Version 22H2

    Windows 11 Version 23H2

    Click the month listing in the left column to see what's in that month's update.

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  3. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2024-09-03T21:17:19+00:00

    For more on Office updates, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/install-office-updates-2ab296f3-7f03-43a2-8e50-46de917611c5.

    Could you show us an example of what is happening to your printouts, perhaps with a screen shot of the preview at File > Print?

    Printing is primarily controlled by the operating system and by the printer driver which is installed on your system.

    I have the most recent Windows and Office updates, and I am not seeing anything strange with regards to printing from Word.

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  4. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2024-09-02T10:24:56+00:00

    Which version of Office are you running? Recent versions update internally, with no connection to Windows Update.

    I shut down my PC every night, and I find that I must usually start the Office update manually via File > Account > Update Options > Update Now. It is not a very intrusive type of update mechanism, in my experience.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-09-03T20:29:55+00:00

    Thanks for alerting me to this. I've had Office 365 for more than 10 years, and I've never been aware of this automatic updating. You'd think that users would be notified of all this activity. Apparently I've been updated 60 times in the last two years, without knowing. I always assumed that it was only the monthly Microsoft update that was affecting my apps. I've turned off Office updates following your instructions, and now I'll see what happens. Or doesn't happen, hopefully.

    I still can't figure out what happened to the Print function. It's interfering with my work. Is there a way to reset that component back to its original settings?

    My File Manager continues to behave strangely over the last few months, as though I'd never used it or changed any settings. Is File Manager updated along with these Office 365 updates?

    Thanks again for your help.

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