Stop the Microsoft Office Agreement (EULA) from popping up every time you start Outlook, or Word or Excel

If you are using Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows Vista, you might run into a situation where the End User License Agreement pops up every time you start Outlook, Word, Excel or other Office programs. No matter how many times you click “I agree”, the license keeps appearing. To stop the EULA from appearing, follow these steps:

1. Close ALL Microsoft Office related programs (Outlook, Publisher, Powerpoint, Excel, or Word)
2. Click Start –> Computer
3. Double-click the C drive (your primary hard drive)
4. Double-Click the Program Files folder
   
5. Double-Click the Microsoft Office folder
   
6. Double-Click  the Office 11 folder
7. RIGHT Click on any of the Office applications (Winword, Outlook, Excel)
8. Click Run as Administrator
9. The program will start and ask you to agree to the EULA (agreement) again and click I agree or Yes
10. Close the program
11. Close all open windows

Now you can use your Office 2003 programs normally.

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111 Responses to “Stop the Microsoft Office Agreement (EULA) from popping up every time you start Outlook, or Word or Excel”

1. Frank P says:

   July 17, 2011 at 8:14 am

   Thank you for solving this annoying pop up!

   Reply
   • Daithi says:

     September 4, 2011 at 9:07 am

     Excellent – brilliantly explained.
     Posted by Rick on Feb 11, 2009 in Application Tips, Riding Shotgun with Rick

     Reply
2. Ken says:

   July 25, 2011 at 5:29 am

   Thanks – still works after 2 years – if only MS would realise how annoying this is !

   Reply
3. Gerry says:

   August 12, 2011 at 2:44 pm

   You ROCK! I have been fighting and researching this problem for over 3 years. My computer club and everyone I ask said “call microsoft”. Well, they want $49.00 just to talk to a tech which I refused. Your fix worked perfectly.

   Thanks!

   Reply
4. Martha says:

   August 28, 2011 at 3:24 pm

   Thanks, for the easy to follow steps 1, 2,..11. The annoying pop ups are gone. Your directions took only a few minutes to use. What a relief after hours of searching trouble-shooting sites for a solution.

   Martha

   Reply
5. JOakim says:

   September 2, 2011 at 3:09 am

   Perfect!
   Thank you for this easy solution!

   Reply
6. allison says:

   September 6, 2011 at 6:26 pm

   Thanks a million. In windows 7 there is a different menu but I found the run as administraor and I clicked it on and off and it and it worked!!

   Reply
7. Derek says:

   September 7, 2011 at 4:43 am

   thank you so very much this has been doing my head in for ages and i have been getting tips from everyone but worked until now thank you soo much

   Reply
8. Philip Gould says:

   October 7, 2011 at 5:11 am

   Thanks!

   Reply
9. Denny says:

   October 9, 2011 at 11:18 am

   Thank you for the help. Thank you for making it easy. It does work.

   Reply
10. Shawn Zernik says:

    October 10, 2011 at 9:33 am

    Problem
    Each and every time Outlook, Word, or Excel is opened, you must agree to the End User License Agreement.
    Synopsys
    When agreeing to the EULA, the user does not have permissions to make the requested registry changes.
    Solution
    Open the program running as an administrator. This can be done by locating the executable (%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office{Version}) and running it as an Administrator.
    Windows XP:
    Click Start
    Then Run
    Type: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office
    Press Enter
    Double click the “Office##” folder and find the program needed (EXCEL, MSACCESS, OUTLOOK, WINWORD).
    Click the program once to highlight it, and then right click the program and choose “Run as..”
    Authenticate as an administrator.

    Windows Vista & Windows 7
    Click Start
    Type the following into the search box: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office
    Press Enter
    Double click the “Office##” folder and find the program needed (EXCEL, MSACCESS, OUTLOOK, WINWORD).
    Click the program once to highlight it, and then right click the program and choose “Run as administrator”

    Reply
11. Alberto says:

    October 10, 2011 at 10:52 am

    Many, many thanks for your help

    Reply
12. Geir says:

    October 21, 2011 at 3:42 am

    Thanks for a this easy solution, perfect!

    Reply
13. Neil Jones says:

    October 21, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    Knew it was very simple. Forget MS KB Article 884202, which is a total waste of time, this one @ helpmerick.com was far better. Thanks Rick

    Reply
14. Bob says:

    November 30, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    Perfect, easy to follow, nice job. Thank you.

    Reply
15. Greg says:

    December 26, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    Thank you for this tip. I think what happened to cause this is i didn’t click to accept the EULA when i re-installed office from my old PC. Thanks to you it is now fixed!

    Reply
16. mjfrombuffalo says:

    December 29, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    WHOOHOO thank you! It wasn’t taking my “I accept” even though I’m the computer administrator, but this right-click trick fixed it. Thanks so much!

    Reply
17. Vicky says:

    January 5, 2012 at 2:49 am

    It worked!!! Gosh has that been annoying, and the explanation and solution was very easy to follow. Thank you.

    Reply
18. Towwie says:

    January 23, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    The message above from Rick worked a treat for me. I installed office 2003 on a new Windows 7 64 bit machine. We followed his instructions which worked brilliant. Thanks very much. Rick rocks.

    Reply