Windows 7: Unwanted Microsoft Office phantom drive (or partition)

To whom this may concern:

Not very important topic, but bothering all the same.

When I bought my computer a short while ago, it came loaded with quite an array of programs apart from Windows 7. Some were useful, others less so. Some I discarded, others I kept. Among the latter, a 'starter' set of Microsoft Office 2010 - in fact a somewhat reduced version of Word, which is more than sufficient for me.

The set also came with an offer from Microsoft to buy the full Office 2010 package "online". The user could either use the offer (to buy) or activate the package (after buying it) by opening a small program - in fact a launcher - called "Microsoft Click To Run 2010", which displayed both options.

Since I am not at all interested in acquiring this software, I wanted at least to get rid of the launcher. The properties of the shortcut triggering the launcher pointed to nothing and trying to go to the target folder only pointed to... another shortcut. Finally, I discovered a possible location, bearing the same name.

It was a whole drive partition, which carried the "Microsoft Click-to-Run" name and had been given the drive letter "Q" (which is indeed missing from the list of available drive letters). However, except under "My Computer" and Windows Explorer, that partition as such is nowhere to be found in order to get rid of it if only to recuperate the drive letter. It's not to be found under "Disk Management" in "Computer Management" and not in MiniTools Partition Wizard (far better than what comes with the OS!).



And when you click in Windows Explorer on that "partition", you get an error message saying: "Q not accessible (protected) / Access denied", while the green search bar on top of the window seems to be looking for something.

Now, my question.

How can I get rid of the unwanted and unasked for thing or at least empty it? It's not that it takes much space (the "partition" properties say 0 bytes - but I doubt it). And it's not a big deal as such. But it's just something that's in the way and it bothers me to know that an item has been installed on my computer which I don't want and that I can't discard.

And if you can give me a succinct explanation why this "partition" appears is there and then not there, so much the better.

Attached some screenshots to prove my point.

Can someone help? Thanks.

haku7

This thread should help:
Unable to uninstall click-to-run

Thanks Irene!

I certainly works - in a rough and ready way. Indeed, neither the site your link refers to, nor the links contained in that site, mention an important fact. Which is: by uninstalling "Click-to-Run" and getting rid indeed of the Q phantom drive, the user also uninstalls both 'reduced' versions of Word and Excel, called MS Office Starter, that come as teasers for the full package (and that one can keep gratis).

No panic, however: by initiating Office Starter again, which is still present after the uninstall, the user can reinstall both applications. But, what do you know? With that you get the annoying Q drive again!

So, the problem remains but is compounded by the question: how to get rid of the Q drive, without losing those two applications? There is nothing like a free lunch, I know, but still...

haku7

This might help to explain how it operates:
What is Click-to-Run? - Products - Office.com