Office automatically changing paths

[Bluejay07]

Hello,

I have come across a situation and I don't know if this is an Office issue or a Windows issue.

On several machines, Office 365/2016 is installed in a Windows 10 environment.
The installed path is the default path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16.

On several occasions, the office files are moved to another location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Updates\Download\PackageFiles\...\root\Office16\.
When this happens, all folders are deleted in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office.
Only the updates folder remains.

An earlier error message lead me to:

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...computer-3e8e09b6-5500-41df-9497-e0fc3e3d781c

So far, running the online repair option has worked and restored the paths as they should be.
After the paths are restored, Office requires activation once again.

A few weeks later and this process seems to repeat itself.

I'm assuming this is a known issue or the online repair option wouldn't correct the paths.

What is causing this to happen and how can it be stopped or prevented?

Thanks.

If at first you don't succeed, then sky diving wasn't meant for you!

 

[xwb]

Isn't the default path C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16?

 

[Bluejay07]

Hi xwb,

Yes that is the default path as I described.
Something or an update process is changing the paths to the Updates path.

I'm trying to find out why the paths are changing and how to stop it from happening.

The reason this is a problem is that it is affecting the existing Word mail merge process.
When the paths change, the mail merge fails (which is initialized from a batch file).


If at first you don't succeed, then sky diving wasn't meant for you!