Office 365 Personal and Skype for Business side-by-side

You have a home computer with your personal version of Office 365, but you want to install Skype for Business so that you can chat with your colleagues at work. When you try to install Skype for Business, you might have seen an error similar to this:

(or opposite: …can’t install the 32-bit version of Office because we found the following 64-bit programs on your PC…)

If you have installed the 64-bit version of office and are trying to install the 32-bit version of Skype for Business (or vise versa), you have to replace one of them. Both should have the same number of bits.

But I know that I installed the 32-bit version of Office, and I’m trying to install the 32-bit version of Skype for Business, and I still get the message. This is the second time it happened to me, and I spent some time figuring this out, so I thought I’ll blog about it.

My problem was that I had two versions of a program called:

Office 16 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component

One for 32-bit and one for 64-bit. I had to remove the one for 64-bit.

Removing the 64-bit version

Removing it is not be as easy as you think. You can’t find it in “Programs and Features”, so you google it, and find that the recommendation is to remove it by manipulating registry keys. You can do that, or you can do this:

• Press Win+R
• Enter: Installer
• Press return (or click OK)
• When the file explorer comes up, add the Subject field
  • Right-click the Name field -> More…
  • Find Subject and click the checkbox next to it -> click OK
• Sort on the Subject field and scroll until you find the two versions of Office 16 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component.
• Right-click on the version you don’t want, and choose Uninstall

Skype for Business should now install without a hitch.

There are several versions of Skype for Business. It’s the Basic version you want.