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How to Fix Microsoft 365 Installation Error: “We Can’t Install”

I once encountered an issue while trying to install Microsoft 365 after uninstalling Office 2019. I received the error message stating:

We can't install. This product can't be installed on the selected update channel. Please contact your system administrator and try again.

As a casual user, I didn’t fully understand the concept of update channels in Microsoft Office, which added to my confusion, but then I found a simple solution to resolve this issue: Modify the Registry (disclaimer: Editing the Windows Registry can cause serious issues if not done correctly. Proceed with caution and at your own risk. It’s recommended to back up the registry before making any changes).

  1. Open the Registry Editor: Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog, type regedit and hit Enter.
  2. Go through this path in the Registry Editor:
    Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\OfficeUpdate
  3. Delete the OfficeUpdate Key: Locate the OfficeUpdate key in the right pane, Right-click on it and select Delete.
  4. Restart Your Computer (it’s recommended to restart the computer to apply the changes).
  5. After the computer restarts, try installing Microsoft 365 again.

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Excel: Printing is Missing Pages, What to Do?

Imagine having 30 worksheets to print either as PDFs or using an actual printer. After selecting all the sheets and going to the print menu, you choose a printer, such as “Microsoft Print to PDF.” However, not all the worksheets can be printed with a single click; instead, you have to repeatedly provide a file name, resulting in multiple separate PDF files, each containing only part of the Excel document.

So, what’s the solution? This issue occurs because the print quality settings for each worksheet are different. To resolve this:

Option 1: Use the export menu and choose “Create PDF/XPS Document” if you intend to print to PDF.

Option 2: Do the following: Select All Sheets, go to Page Setup. Under the “Page” tab, select a consistent print quality, such as 600 dpi (this will apply the same resolution to all worksheets). Once done, you can print it to PDF or any other printer in a single click, resulting in a single PDF file.

The environment where this issue occurs: OS: Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, but it’s likely to happen in other Windows OS and Office versions as well.


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Excel: How to Rank Uniquely

Normally rank function in Excel gives you the same rank for duplicate values in a selected range. So if a value appears twice and the first value takes the rank of 1, the next value will also take the rank of 1 and the next rank which is the rank of 2 will be skipped. Then how to rank these values uniquely?

=RANK(A2;$A$2:$A$16;0)+COUNTIF($A$2:A2;A2)-1

Edit: There is another option, though. Even more, the bulletproof one:

=COUNTIF($A$2:$A$16;">"&A2)+COUNTIF($A$2:A2;A2)

(to sort ascending, switch the “>” with “<“).

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Excel: Return The Last Value of a Column

I googled the excel function to get the value of the last cell in a column. Some results came up. It seemed like a simple thing but to my surprise many of them were so confusing that I failed to understand the logics. There was only one of them made sense to me. It was using INDEX and COUNTA functions.

Supposing you need to get the value of the last cell in column B:

=INDEX(B:B;COUNTA(B:B);1)

Last Row Value

But remember that there must be no blank cell between the first and the last cell of the column because COUNTA function doesn’t count empty cells.

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Excel: How to Specify Language for TEXT Function

When you use TEXT Function — as part of a larger formula — to format dates in Excel, then you can use this:

=TEXT(A1,"[$-0421]dd mmmm yyyy")

The bracketed code followed by a dollar sign and a dash is a hexadecimal LCID (Language Code Identifier). The example above (0421) shows result in Indonesian (list of locale ID values can be found here).

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Win10: How to Speed Up Internet Using Command Prompt

speed

I noticed that when I used my Android phone as a wifi hotspot to get my Windows 10 laptop connected with the internet, I got very poor connectivity on the laptop while it was just fine on the phone. I guessed it got something to do with the Window Auto-Tuning feature, so I tried to disable it by using these commands in an elevated Command Prompt in a hope that it would improve speed performance.

netsh int tcp set heuristics disabled
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

It worked.

However Microsoft has published a statement noting that disabling it will otherwise limit the internet speed! Well, the choice is yours.

 

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Excel: Center Alignment for Numbers Formatted as “Accounting”

Untitled

If you select one of your cells formatted in Accounting and go Format –> Cells –> Number tab and then click on the Custom category, you will see how your format is built up.

It will be something like the following:

_($* #,##0.00_);_($* (#,##0.00);_($* “-“??_);_(@_)

It is the “* ” (asterisk followed by a space – ignore the quotes) in the number format that prevents you from centering.

However, if you customize by removing the asterisk then your currency symbol won’t remain left-aligned in the cell. If you can live without the currency symbol then something like:

0.00;-0.00;”-”

will suffice, and you can easily center this in the cell yourself.

https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/296470-alignment-numbers-formatted-accounting.html

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That Annoying Printer Problem

This works for Epson L-210.

When ink indicator light is blinking:

Press and hold paper/ink button for 5 seconds then release the button, quickly press and hold again for about 3 seconds then release the button and finally press again once. Restart the printer.

When ink indicator light is on:

Turn off the printer. Wait 10 seconds. Press and hold paper/ink button, then press and release Power button. The printer will turn ON and Power Green light will start to blink. Release paper/ink button. Press and hold the button again for 10 seconds, then release. Press and hold for 1-2 seconds again and release.