[Solved] How to Remove Extensions with a "padlock icon"?

[r2008m]

I opened up my OO Extension Manager
There were 3 items which I never updated, and they were each not in English.
I would like to "Remove" them, but the Remove button is Gray
and there is a small "padlock icon"
How can I remove these Extensions?
Thank you
rm

[Hagar Delest]

I guess that you're using 3.3 (you should update your forum signature to show your OS and OOo versions).

See I want to remove all these extra dictionaries I don't need in the tutorial about spell check configuration.

Please add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[GowerMick]

I have same problem, and unfortunately, despite removing the unwanted directories as suggested in the above link, they are still there. (I even re-booted PC just to be sure.)

Are there perhaps registry entries that needs changing?

[Bill]

Installation of the dictionaries is optional. During OOo 3.3 installation, select "custom installation" and deselect the dictionaries you don't want to use.

[GowerMick]

Fine, if you know beforehand, but I now have them. How do I get rid of them?

[Bill]

Modify the installation or reinstall.

[Hagar Delest]

Can you give the names of the extensions? Are they the French and Spanish dictionaries?

[GowerMick]

Yes. French and Spanish. To add insult to injury, I keep getting prompted to update the French didtionary.

[Hagar Delest]

Try to reset your OOo user profile but don't transfer your personal data during the welcome process (if you had 2.x before), configuration files from the former version might corrupt the new profile.

[GowerMick]

I have re-created my profile in attempt to cure another problem, and as far as I'm aware, did not transfer my personal data during the welcome process. However I was updating from OOo 3.x, not 2.x.

When it didn't work either, I reverted to my original profile.

[GowerMick]

Following a post to another question, I ran OOo3.3 setup, chose Modify installation and Unchecked both Spanish an French dictionaries as suggested - This had no affect.
Question is, why were they ever installed by default in the first place - very baddddd practice, rather naughty actually, and not something I would have expected from OOo.
All their magnificent work, put at risk by a lack of judgement by someone who ought to know better.

[Hagar Delest]

I agree. I think that each localized version should install its language dictionary and that's all. Note that it was much worse with 2.x: you got all the packages (Swahili, ...).

I had asked about that on the mailing list and the reply (by Thomas Lange from Oracle IIRC) was that each localization team was responsible for the dics they wanted to bundle. So I suppose that there are enough French and Spanish users downloading the en-US version to package those dics within the installer.

If the folders related to the bundled extensions have been deleted, I can't see why the extensions should still be there. Have you modified the .ini file also?

[GowerMick]

I didn't mind the automatic bundling, just that they are locked, and not easy to remove.

As for .ini file, no-one mentioned that. Where can it be found?

[Hagar Delest]

To remove the dics depending on the user (and to keep the setting when upgrading):

• Close OOo completely (including Quickstarter), open your file browser, go to the user profile and then to the following folder:
  /OpenOffice.org/3/user/extensions/bundled/registry/com.sun.star.comp.deployment.configuration.PackageRegistryBackend
  You can see folders corresponding to the bundled dictionaries (called something like MuvB8P_). To find the language, open the dictionaries.xcu file inside each folder and check the locale.
  Once you've found which language has to be removed, open the configmgr.ini file and delete the line of the language. It looks like: $BUNDLED_EXTENSIONS_USER/registry/com.sun.star.comp.deployment.configuration.PackageRegistryBackend/MuvB8P_/dictionaries.xcu

Perhaps this change is also needed in first case (remove the dic for all users) but I think I've tested both cases on my Win 7 system and it worked.

[GowerMick]

I went to /OpenOffice.org/3/user/extensions/BUNDLED/registry/com.sun.star.comp.deployment.configuration.PackageRegistryBackend, as you suggested but no dic files there.

I did find them however in /OpenOffice.org/3/user/extensions/SHARED/registry/com.sun.star.comp.deployment.configuration.PackageRegistryBackend.

Found which folders related to French and Spanish dictionaries (Not 24D1-this is EN-GB), deleted them, modified configmgr.ini as above.
Restarted OOo and dictionaries STILL there, still locked!!!!!

I then ran setup, modified installation by deleting unwanted dictionaries, still there and locked.
Are you sure there is no registry settings involved, they are b*"£$%^y persistent, will they never go away!

[Hagar Delest]

Will make some tests this evening at home on my Win Seven system.

NB: I just tried on my W2k system and deleted the /dict-es folder in C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\extensions and then the Spanish dic disappeared from the installed dics in OOo.

NB: I noticed that the padlock means that it's a bundled extension and the buddy icon means that it's not a bundled extension but an extension installed by the user (for all users I guess). So you should be able to remove that extension if you've the same rights as the one who has installed the extension.

[GowerMick]

The only dics I have in C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\extensions is dict-en. There are no French or Spanish ones there, but the extensions still show in OOo.

What 'Buddy' icon? All I see are Padlocks, even on the English Dictionary.

[PGAGA]

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

First, the dictionaries files are locked because they were installed by the administrator. You must be running OOo as administrator to remove them.

Second, with OOo 3.3, the extensions installation has changed. The files to which you are referring are found in the shared/extension folder of the OOo installation, not in the profile. With OOo closed, as administrator you can delete the two dictionary folders to remove them from OOo.

Phil

[GowerMick]

Yes Phil, I did find them, and deleted them (see previous post) but they still persist.

I am only user of this PC and I am set as Administrator, but I still can't remove them - aaggh.

Penny just dropped, I ran OOo as administrator, and they have now gone - Yippee

I assumed (wrongly) that as an Administrator, OOo ran as Administrator - how wrong can one be.

Thanks everyone for your efforts - solution was quite simple in the end.

[Hagar Delest]

My fault
It worked the way I had described under W2k but that's not the case indeed with Windows Seven!
So I made some trials and found out what was missing:

• Close OOo completely (including Quickstarter), open your file browser and go to the installation folder of the application:
  \Program Files\OpenOffice.org3\share\extensions (Windows)
  /opt/openoffice.org3/share/extensions (GNU/Linux)
• Remove the folder of the language you want to remove (dict-xx where xx is the locale, like en, fr, es, de, ...).
• Under Windows Seven, you also have to go to the following folder:
  C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice.org 3\share\uno_packages\cache\uno_packages
• Remove the file and folder named 4098.tmp_ (number may change) related to the language to be removed (each folder contains the dic extension installed).
• At next OOo start, it should update the configuration accordingly.

I've updated the tutorial.

[Bill]

The problem is caused by having two sets of dictionaries installed, which can happen easily when upgrading from OOo 3.2.1 to OOo 3.3.0. OOo 3.2.1 installs the dictionaries in C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\uno_packages\cache\uno_packages. The installation of those dictionaries is not optional when installing OOo, but they can be uninstalled when running OOo "as administrator". OOo 3.3.0 installs the dictionaries in C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\share\extensions. The installation of those dictionaries during installation is optional, but they can't be uninstalled when running OOo "as administrator". Unfortunately, the OOo 3.2.1 dictionaries aren't removed automatically when upgrading to OOo 3.3.0.

[Hagar Delest]

The strange think is that it happens only with Win 7. I haven't experienced that under W2k nor Ubuntu.

[GowerMick]

You're making it more dificult than it finally was.
Simply run OOo as an Administrator, and you can delete them as per normal. No need to worry about padlocks etc or deleting directories etc.

In fact, when I did finally remove them, after I had deleted the directories, I was told it couldn't find the directories to delete them.

Remeber KISS, keep it simple stupid (me that is)

[Bill]

The strange think is that it happens only with Win 7. I haven't experienced that under W2k nor Ubuntu.

It happens in Vista. The dictionaries in OOo 3.2.1 and OOo 3.3.0 are installed in different places, and the dictionaries from OOo 3.2.1 are not removed automatically when uninstalling OOo 3.2.1. This is just one more reason for using Revo Uninstaller to uninstall OOo before upgrading. Revo Uninstaller will remove all of the leftover program files, including the dictionaries.

[Bill]

You're making it more dificult than it finally was.
Simply run OOo as an Administrator, and you can delete them as per normal. No need to worry about padlocks etc or deleting directories etc.

In fact, when I did finally remove them, after I had deleted the directories, I was told it couldn't find the directories to delete them.

Remeber KISS, keep it simple stupid (me that is)

"Run as administrator" only works for removing pre-OOo 3.3.0 dictionaries with the Extension Manager. The OOo 3.3.0 dictionaries can't be removed with the Extension Manager even when running OOo "as administrator".

[GowerMick]

Sorry, I think you are wrong. I've never had French or Spanish dictionaries prior to OOo3.3!
They were installed when I upgraded to OOo3.3 and I deleted them by running OOo as Administrator.

Prior to running as Administrator, they were padlocked and unmovable. When I ran as Administrator, the padlocks disappeared, and were changed to 'Buddies'?, and they were easily removed (i.e. remove icon became operative).

But whatever, they've finally gone.

[Bill]

Sorry, I think you are wrong. I've never had French or Spanish dictionaries prior to OOo3.3!
They were installed when I upgraded to OOo3.3 and I deleted them by running OOo as Administrator.

Prior to running as Administrator, they were padlocked and unmovable. When I ran as Administrator, the padlocks disappeared, and were changed to 'Buddies'?, and they were easily removed (i.e. remove icon became operative).

But whatever, they've finally gone.

If you had any en-US version of OOo 3.x, then you had English, French and Spanish dictionaries. Every en-US version of OOo 3.x installs English, French and Spanish dictionaries. Prior to OOo 3.3, installation of those dictionaries wasn't optional. They were always installed. They could be removed by running OOo "as administrator" and clicking the Remove button for the dictionary in the Extension Manager. That changed with OOo 3.3. Installation of the dictionaries became optional, but they could no longer be removed using the Extension Manager. There isn't even a Remove button in the Extension Manager for the dictionaries installed by OOo 3.3. If there is a Remove button, it means that an old dictionary is also installed. Using the Remove button in that case will remove the old dictionary, but not the OOo 3.3 dictionary. In your case, you removed the OOo 3.3 dictionary first by modifying the installation, then subsequently removed the old dictionary using the Remove button.

[GowerMick]

My apologies. I checked with my other PC running 3.0.0 and you're absolutely correct, the French and Spanish dictionaries were installed (and Padlocked), I just had never noticed them, AND I was easily able to remove them via Extension Manager.