The Microsoft Office Removal Tool: A Complete Guide to Uninstalling Office

What it is, when you actually need it, and how to use it without breaking a future reinstall.

Updated 2026 · Windows 10 & 11 · Microsoft 365, Office 2016–2024

Most of the time, removing Microsoft Office is as simple as opening Settings and clicking Uninstall. But Office has a habit of leaving things behind: stray registry keys, leftover Click-to-Run components, orphaned license tokens, or Start menu shortcuts that point to nothing. When that happens, a second install of Office — or of a different version — can fail, activate incorrectly, or refuse to install at all. That's the situation Microsoft's official removal tool is built for.

Quick answer: Try the normal uninstaller first. If Office won't fully go away, open the Get Help app and run the "Uninstall Office" troubleshooter. For scripted or multi-PC cleanup, use SaRAcmd.exe with the OfficeScrubScenario. Restart afterward either way.

What is the Microsoft Office Removal Tool?

There isn't a single program called "Office Removal Tool" anymore — that's really a catch-all name people use for Microsoft's Support and Recovery Assistant, known as SaRA. SaRA is Microsoft's official diagnostic and repair toolkit for Office, Outlook, and Teams problems, and one of its built-in scenarios is a deep, thorough Office uninstall that goes further than Control Panel does.

Unlike a standard uninstall, SaRA's scrub scenario is designed to clear out:

Both MSI-based and Click-to-Run (C2R) Office installations
Leftover registry entries and installation folders
Cached license and activation data
Start menu shortcuts and scheduled tasks Office created

That's why it's the go-to tool when a normal uninstall finishes but Office (or an old version of it) still shows up, or when you're switching from a retail install to a Microsoft 365 subscription and need a clean slate first.

An important change: the standalone SaRA app is gone

If you've used SaRA before, note that Microsoft retired the standalone SaRA desktop application on March 10, 2026. Its functionality didn't disappear — it was folded into the Get Help app, which ships with Windows 10 and 11. For everyday users, that's actually simpler: there's one less separate download to track down, and the same troubleshooter now lives inside an app already on your PC.

For IT admins managing many machines, the command-line half of SaRA — called SaRAcmd — is still published and updated separately as an enterprise tool, and it's the only supported path for scripted or unattended removal.

Method 1: Try the normal uninstaller first

Before reaching for any removal tool, rule out the simple path:

Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps (or Control Panel → Programs and Features on older builds).
Find your Office entry (it may be listed as "Microsoft 365," "Microsoft Office," or a specific year like "Office Professional Plus 2019").
Select it, choose Uninstall, and follow the prompts.
Restart your PC once it finishes.

This resolves the majority of cases. Only move on to a dedicated removal tool if Office reappears, if the uninstall fails partway through, or if a reinstall afterward runs into activation or setup errors.

Method 2: Get Help's "Uninstall Office" troubleshooter

This is the right choice for a single home or work PC and needs no downloads.

Open the Get Help app (search for it in the Start menu), or go directly to aka.ms/SaRA-officeUninstallFromPC.
When prompted whether you're having trouble uninstalling Office, choose Yes and select Next.
Pick the option to uninstall Microsoft 365 / Office, and follow the on-screen steps.
The tool detects your installed Office version automatically and removes it through a background PowerShell process. This typically takes 10–15 minutes.
Restart your PC once it reports success.

Because it runs the same scrub logic as SaRAcmd behind a simple wizard, this is the option most people should use.

Method 3: SaRAcmd (command line, for admins and scripted cleanup)

SaRAcmd is the enterprise-grade version of the tool: a console utility that can be scripted, deployed remotely, or targeted at a specific Office version rather than everything installed. It's also currently the only officially supported removal path for Office 2024, so admins working with that release need it even on a single machine.

SaRAcmd supports removing Microsoft 365, and Office 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007, across both MSI and Click-to-Run installations, on any supported version of Windows.

Steps

Close every Office application (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, etc.).
Download the latest SaRACmd package (alternative link) and extract it to a local folder, e.g. C:\Tools\SaRACmd.
Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
Change to the tool's directory:
```
CD C:\Tools\SaRACmd
```
Run the scrub scenario. To remove every Office version found on the machine:
```
SaRAcmd.exe -S OfficeScrubScenario -AcceptEula -OfficeVersion All
```

Targeting a specific version

If you only want one version removed — useful when multiple Office installs coexist on the same PC — swap the -OfficeVersion value:

Value	Removes
`All`	Every detected Office installation
`M365`	Microsoft 365 Apps (subscription)
`2021` / `2019` / `2016` / `2013` / `2010` / `2007`	Only that specific perpetual-license version

A successful run returns exit code 00. Restart the PC afterward regardless of which command you used, since some cleanup steps only finish on the next boot.

Method 4: The legacy SetupProd_OffScrub.exe download

Older tutorials often point to a standalone file called SetupProd_OffScrub.exe. It's not really a separate tool — running it installs SaRA in the background and then triggers the same Office scrub scenario described above. Microsoft has deprecated it in favor of Get Help and SaRAcmd, but as of this writing the download link is still active, so it remains a working fallback if you specifically need the older packaging.

Method 5: Using OfficeRemoveTool.diagcab Tool

You can download this OfficeRemoveTool.diagcab tool (also known as o15-ctrremove.diagcab) to remove Office from your PC.

Tool uploaded by Hardware Ocean · Virus Total Scan

Before you run any removal tool

Back up custom settings. Custom dictionaries, Outlook signatures, and Quick Access Toolbar tweaks aren't always preserved.
Close all Office apps, including anything running quietly in the background (like Outlook's notification icon or a OneDrive-synced Office add-in).
Note your product key or Microsoft account tied to the subscription, so reactivating afterward is painless.
Save your work. A scrub removes shared components some other programs may briefly depend on, so it's worth a clean restart before and after.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Microsoft Office removal tool free?

Yes. SaRA, the Get Help troubleshooter, and SaRAcmd are all free tools published directly by Microsoft.

Will it delete my documents?

No. The removal tool uninstalls the Office applications and their installation data; it does not touch files stored in your Documents folder, OneDrive, or elsewhere.

Do I need it if Control Panel's uninstall already worked?

No. Only use a dedicated removal tool if the standard uninstall fails, if a reinstall runs into errors afterward, or if remnants of Office are still visible once the normal uninstall reports success.

Can it remove just one Office app, like only Outlook?

No. The scrub scenario is built to remove complete Office installations, not individual apps within a suite. To remove a single app while keeping the rest of Office, use the "Modify" option in Office's own installer instead.

Is it safe to run on a work computer?

If the PC is managed by an IT department, check with them first — a full scrub also clears activation state, and organization-managed devices sometimes reactivate Office automatically through a different licensing system than a personal Microsoft account.

This guide reflects Microsoft's Office removal tooling as of 2026. Tool names, download links, and supported Office versions are controlled by Microsoft and may change; if a link above doesn't resolve, search "Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant" for the current official page.