Get Rid of These MS Office Annoyances Before You Shoot Your Computer

We’ve all uses MS Office since forever for all our digital documentation needs regardless of whether you’re using a PC or Mac. However, with each new version of Windows platform, things have started to become a little annoying for users. Although Microsoft have continued to improve their Office suite since its first version, there are several changes that the users never asked for. These changes could’ve been easily accepted by the progressive computer users across the globe, only if these weren’t so annoying. If you agree with us that the new versions of Office Suite have been loaded with interferences, here are some tips to get rid of them.

1. Lock Screen Ads

While these aren’t as annoying as others in the list, these full screen advertisements are certainly Microsoft’s shameless jaywalk into your privacy. Thankfully, you can disable this from the settings menu. Simply navigate to Settings>Personalization>Lock Screen. Here change background settings from Windows Spotlight to Pictures or Slideshow. You can then switch off Cortana notifications and ‘Fun Facts, tips and More’ from the options right below.

2. Get Office Notifications

Even if you do not have MS Office installed, doesn’t mean Microsoft will ignore you. You will be bombarded by continuous notifications about Office 365 and it’s 1-month trial subscription. You can disable this by turning off the ‘Get Office’ app. Go to Settings>System>Notifications and Actions and turn off ‘Get Office’. This will permanently get rid of this problem. You could also turn of ‘Tips, Tricks and Suggestions as you use Windows’ option from here as well.

3. One Drive Notifications

Don’t you hate it when you’re interrupted by the OneDrive login notification whenever you save a document in Office? Strangely, even if you’re using a different cloud service, you’d still be notified making it extremely maddening. Windows 10 users can disable this totally by making some small setting tweaks. Go to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>One Drive, and enable ‘Prevent The Usage of OneDrive for File Storage’.

4. Cortana Shenanigans

Remember the days when Windows had a simple search bar in the Start Menu? Well those days are long gone thanks to the newly integrated Cortana. While the new feature is extremely helpful, older users might find the constant notifications a little annoying. You can say goodbye to this attention seeking behavior and disable these notifications. Right click anywhere on Cortana search bar and go to Settings. Use the slider button to switch off ‘Taskbar Tidbits’. This option won’t be available if you have the anniversary update installed. In that case type regedit in the search bar and press enter. Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search (create Windows Search folder if not present)

Right click the folder in left pane and choose New>DWORD (32-bit). Change the entry name to ‘AllowCortana’, double-click and set value to 0.

5. Office Start Screen

Another minor annoyance that can make your work a little slow. Office Start Screen might look helpful, but frustration starts when you want to work on multiple documents. You can disable this option by making some changes to your registry. Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\General.

Go to or create new key named ‘DisableBootToOfficeStart’, double click and set value to 1.

We’re certainly not trying to shun the technology giants. Nevertheless, we cannot simply deny the fact that their recent products have been loaded with some pesky features and popups that can hamper productivity and work. Hopefully these simple tweaks can help you stay more focused on your work, without meddling with your productivity.