Microsoft Office continues to add new features with each edition, with Office 2016 offering plenty of reasons to upgrade 13+ Reasons Why You Should Upgrade To Microsoft Office 2016 13+ Reasons Why You Should Upgrade To Microsoft Office 2016 Microsoft Office 2016 is here and it is time for you to make a decision. The productivity question is:should I upgrade? We give you the freshest new features and reasons to help you... Read More However, some people see these new features as bloated and therefore stick with earlier versions, even going so far as to still use Office 2003 today. You can still buy Microsoft Office 2003 online and We'll show you where you can buy Microsoft Office 2003 online and We'll show you where While Office 2016 is rolling out, some people are still wanting Office 2003 instead. Here's how to get your 2003 fix. Read More .
One feature that might confuse you is the Microsoft Office Upload Center, introduced in Office 2010 and lasting through 2013 and 2016. Let's take a look at what this feature actually does, and see how you can turn it off if you find it annoying.
Earlier versions of Office were designed to save documents, spreadsheets, and other Office files only to your local hard drive. With OneDrive integration How to keep your files in sync with SkyDrive in Windows 8.1 How to keep your files in sync with SkyDrive in Windows 8.1 Storing data remotely and syncing it between devices has never been easier, especially if you're using Windows 8.1. SkyDrive received a significant update, improving its integration with Windows and adding exciting new features. Read More Its purpose is to help you upload documents to “web servers,” as they put it (in effect, uploading to OneDrive).
With the default settings, every time you click Save in a document, a local copy is saved to your system, while Office also tries to upload it to your OneDrive. If all goes well, you never notice anything, but there may be a problem if you have a slow connection or a strange sync error occurs.
The Upload Center is not useless, however. Microsoft's help article explains a few situations where it's useful:primarily when you're working on a remote file in OneDrive and you lose connection. You can save the document at any time and have a local copy, and the Upload Center will take care of updating the server copy when you come back online. As mentioned, it also lets you know about sync errors sooner rather than later.
If you upload dozens of documents at once to OneDrive or frequently deal with poor wireless connections, MS Upload Center is useful for you and you probably shouldn't disable it. For those who only work on the occasional file in Office or don't even use OneDrive How to disable Microsoft OneDrive in Windows 8.1 How to disable Microsoft OneDrive in Windows 8.1 You should be free to choose where your data will be stored. While having an automatic cloud sync solution is a great idea, you might not like OneDrive. Here is how to disable it. Read More
If you don't mind Upload Center doing its job behind the scenes, but don't want the icon to appear in the system tray. Manage and tidy the Windows 7 system tray Manage and tidy the Windows 7 system tray Every Windows user has seen Windows The system tray (also known as the notification area) gets cluttered over time. We've covered turning off distracting desktop notifications in the past, but what if the icons themselves are...?
When Upload Center is running, right-click its icon in the system tray and choose Settings to open the Upload Center window. You can also open it by browsing your All Programs list in Start Menu:
Once there, you will (hopefully) see a blank table of your pending uploads. Click Settings above this box to open the options menu.
In this menu, simply uncheck the box for Screen icon in notification area and it will no longer appear in the system tray. Note that the program is still running and can be accessed through the Start menu. A guide to the Windows 10 Start menu. A guide to the Windows 10 Start menu. Windows 10 fixes the Start Menu problem! Getting familiar with the new start menu will supercharge your Windows 10 experience. With this handy guide, you'll be an expert in no time. Read more as above.
Want to go beyond turning off the notification and closing Upload Center altogether? The process varies depending on the version of Windows and Office you are using, as Microsoft has complicated the feature to disable it.
Note that I use Office 2013 on Windows 7, so I haven't been able to test each of these methods. Your results may vary, so try all the methods and see what works for you.
First, if you're using Office 2010, try killing the process from startup Make Windows Start Faster:10 Non-Essential Startup Items You Can Safely Remove Make Windows Start Faster:10 Non-Essential Startup Items You Can Remove safely been booting slowly lately? You probably have too many programs and services trying to start everything at the same time. Are you wondering how they got there and how to remove them? Read more by typing MSConfig in the search bar. About the Start-up tab, check the MSOSYNC Go inside and disable it, if you find it there. You can also disable any instance of Microsoft Office 2010 Here, since it doesn't need to be run at startup, either.
Another method that is reported to only work for Office 2010 on Windows 7 is to edit the Registry. As always, be careful if you do this to avoid damaging your computer. How not to accidentally mess up the Windows registry How not to accidentally mess up the Windows registry Work with the Windows registry? Take note of these tips and you'll be much less likely to cause lasting damage to your PC. Read more . Look for this location in the registry:
Here, delete the OfficeSyncProcess value and after reboot, Upload Center should be gone.
If you're using Office 2013, you can try stopping Upload Center from running via Task Scheduler 7 Nerd Things You Can Automate With Windows Task Scheduler 7 Nerd Things You Can Automate With Windows Task Scheduler The Scheduler Windows Task Manager can automate just about anything. If you can do it on a command line or in a Windows script, you can schedule it with Task Scheduler. Let's show. Read more . Type Task Scheduler in the Start menu to open it, then click Library Task Scheduler in the left panel. Examine the resulting menu for the task Microsoft Office 15 Sync Maintenance for USERNAME and right click to Disable that.
If none of the above ways worked to disable Upload Center for you, here are a few more you can try.
Office 2016 users on Windows 10, which offers deeper OneDrive integration How to disable and replace OneDrive in Windows 10 How to disable and replace OneDrive in Windows 10 OneDrive is deeply integrated into Windows 10, and Microsoft might tell you that you can't remove it. Well, not unless you're willing to dig deeper. Here's how to extract OneDrive from Windows... Read More . The first tab has an option titled Use Office to work on files with other people at the same time - disabling this should turn off Load Center.
Keep in mind that if you really use the collaboration features of Office 9 New Office Online features to manage documents and collaboration 9 New Office Online features to manage documents and collaboration Office Online is Microsoft's free web-based Office suite. Recent updates introduced new features to Office 2016 and improved OneDrive, Dropbox, and Skype integration. Let's explore the new options. Read More
The last possible way is the guerrilla solution:make your computer believe that the executable file for Upload Center does not exist. This could cause errors, as Windows will get confused, but if nothing else has worked up to this point, you can consider those errors less annoying than Upload Center. For Office 2013, browse to the file location at:
Here, rename the file msosync.exe so Windows won't recognize it and therefore won't load it. If you don't want to do this, a somewhat tedious but effective solution is to open Task Manager Windows 8 Task Manager:A hidden gem in plain sight Windows 8 Task Manager:A hidden gem in plain sight Although many parts of Windows 8 is debatable (perhaps Modern is the future; perhaps it's not), one element of Windows 8 that has undergone a massive overhaul and done so more amazingly is the... Read More start your computer and shut down the msosync.exe process:This should disable Upload Center until you reboot.
Again, none of these methods are guaranteed to work, so you may get lucky with the first one or have to try all of them. Fortunately, Upload Center isn't too invasive, so you shouldn't have a hard time learning to live with it if you can't remove it. Just hide the icon and pretend it's not there.
The Upload Center is useful to some and a nuisance to others. Hopefully, you had good luck disabling it, but it's not the end of the world if you can't. Keeping your Office documents stored in the cloud Introduction to Office 365:Should you buy the new Office business model? An introduction to Office 365:Should you buy the new Office business model? Office 365 is a subscription-based suite that offers access to the latest Office desktop suite, Office Online, cloud storage, and premium mobile apps. Does Office 365 provide enough value to be worth the money? Read More has its benefits, so consider giving it a try if you never knew what Upload Center actually did before!
Check out our Q&A on the most important Office 2016 upgrade questions 11 Office 2016 FAQ Answered questions 11 Office 2016 FAQ Office Answers 2016 is coming up and it raises a lot of questions. Do you have to buy a subscription, can you upgrade now, and can you go back to Office 2013? We collect the most frequently asked questions and provide the... Read More
Why do you want to disable Upload Center? Did any of the above methods work for you? I want to hear about what you tried, so let me know in the comments!
