Microsoft has been readying its latest update to Office for Mac, and recently released its first preview. We decided to give it a whirl and wanted uninstall Office 2011 to avoid any conflicts. Much to our surprise, uninstalling Office 2011 for Mac is a terribly complicated affair.

One of the issues I worked on this week was building a new Office 2011 installer after Microsoft released the Office 2011 14.5.0 update. I have an existing process to using, which I’ve used successfully for a while. This time though, I hit a problem. When I installed the combined Office 2011 installer with DeployStudio, then logged in, I was asked to enter a product key. Since my work has a volume license, this isn’t a screen I should ever see. This is a problem that and usually involves the license file not being applied when it should be. This behavior is seen on Macs in the following cases: • Office 2011 is installed and then updated to 14.5.0 while nobody is logged in • Office 2011 is installed and then updated to 14.5.0 without any Office applications being launched between the initial installation and the update.

These two scenarios will likely apply if you’re building a new machine using an automated deployment tool, but likely will not if you’re a home user. The easiest fix I’ve found in my testing is to get the necessary volume license file from a machine that has Office 14.4.x installed on it and put it back on an as-needed basis. The needed file is /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist. If you have a volume-licensed version of Office 2011 installed on your Mac, you should have this file. To address this issue, you can use ability to add resources to a Packages-built package.

See below the jump for an an example using an Office 2011 SP 4 installer package, the Office 2011 14.5.0 Update, and the com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist license file to build a unified Office 2011 14.5.0 installer package that does not prompt for a product key. Update – 5-27-2015: The has the same license-removing issue as 14.5.0. The solution is the same for both 14.5.0 and 14.5.1: put the volume license back on an as-needed basis. Set up a new Packages project and select Raw Package.

About Internet Explorer's Mac Version As old Mac loyalists will remember, Internet Explorer's Mac version was specially developed by Microsoft for its rival operating system platform. As part of the deal made between Microsoft and Apple Computers in 1997, Internet Explorer (IE) was released as the default browser for Mac OS and Mac OS X, from 1998 till 2003, when it was supplanted by Apple's own web browser, named Safari, which Mac users must already be familiar with. One of those rare occasions was the development of Internet Explorer for use on Mac OS X based computers.

In this case, I’m naming the project Microsoft Office 2011 14.5.0 4. Once the Packages project opens, click on the Project tab.

You’ll want to make sure that the your information is correctly set here (if you don’t know what to put in, check the Help menu for the Packages User Guide. The information you need is in Chapter 4 – Configuring a project.) In this example, I’m not changing any of the options from what is set by default. Next, click on the Settings tab. In the case of my project, I want to install with root privileges and not require a logout, restart or shutdown. To accomplish this, I’m choosing the following options in the Settings section: • In the Post-Installation Behavior section, set On Success: to Do Nothing • In the Options section, check the box for Require admin password for installation 6.

Click on the Scripts tab in your Packages project. Select your installers and drag them into the Additional Resources section of your Packages project. In the case of my example, I’m selecting the following installers: • Office 2011 14.4.2 with Service Pack 4 Installer.pkg • Office 2011 14.5.0 Update.pkg 8. Select the com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist file and drag it into the Additional Resources section of your Packages project. The last piece is telling the installers to run and for the com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist file to be fixed as needed.