Background:
Accu-Gold Excel and Accu-Gold Excel for Templates require Excel 32-bit to operate properly. Windows 11 installation of Office 365 defaults to the installation of 64-bit Office so to use any Accu-Gold Excel software, MS Office installations must be 32-bit applications. (Note: this assumes you have 64-bit hardware which is a different requirement)
Introduction:
This article will show you all the steps you need to perform to change a 64-bit installation of Microsoft Office 365 to a 32-bit installation without losing any data. (The process is pretty much exactly the same if you need to swap a 32-bit installation to a 64-bit install.)
Pre-requisites:
- A copy of Windows 10 - Home / Pro or Education Edition
- A record of your email account passwords in case you need them
- Make a backup of all of your Outlook data to a PST file, especially if using IMAP. While it's unlikely you'll need to use the backup, better to make one and be safe than sorry.
- Finally, ensure all Office programs are closed before starting this process.
Step 1 - Uninstall your current version of Microsoft Office 365
1. Open Control Panel on your computer (Press the Windows Key, type Control Panel, and hit the Enter key).
2. Click the Programs and Features icon.
3. Click the entry titled Microsoft 365 - en-us, and then click the Uninstall button.
4. Click Yes on the User Account Control prompt to confirm you want to uninstall.
5. Click the next Uninstall button again on the Ready to uninstall? prompt.
6. Microsoft Office 365 will now begin to uninstall itself, as shown below. Wait until it has finished uninstalling.
7. When the following window appears, click the Close button and restart your Windows 10 computer before continuing. Once done, log back into Windows as usual.
8. Now that you have restarted your computer, it's time to reinstall Office 365, only this time; we're going to make sure the 32-bit version of the software is installed.
Step 2 - Reinstall Office 365
1. Open your web browser and navigate to: https://www.office.com/
2. Click the Sign in button to log into office.com
3. Enter your Office 365 account email address and click the Next button. Continue with the login process until you have successfully logged into your Microsoft Office account.
4. Once logged in, click the Install Office button.
5. On the next screen, click the Install Office > button once again. ! << IMPORTANT >> On the next screen, do not click the Install button yet.
6. First, click Other options as shown below.
7. Click the Drop arrow box that is titled Office - default version (default) under "Choose a version"
8. Here, you need to select "Office - 32-bit" to be installed on your computer or device. Select the 32-bit version to replace the 64-bit version that was installed before.
9. Now click the Install button. You will be prompted to save an OfficeSetup.exe file to your computer. Save it to your Download folder or any other location where you will remember it's been saved.
10. Now minimize your web browser (don't close it), and open Windows File Explorer. Navigate to where you saved the above OfficeSetup.exe file. Run OfficeSetup.exe by double-clicking it.
11. Click Yes on the User Account Control prompt.
12. Microsoft Office 365 will begin to install - Wait until it completely finishes installing. You will see the following windows as it's installing.
13. Once you see the above window, click the Close button, then click your Windows Start button to click on the Outlook icon to fire it up.
Note: You will need to recreate any shortcuts you may have made for opening Outlook (and any other Office 365 apps) that you may have had before, such as on your Desktop, Taskbar,etc.
Outlook "should" retain all of your Email account settings and passwords. If it doesn't, that's where you may need to re-enter your email accounts and passwords.