restoring system

[68vetteracer]

I recently bought a computer from a friend of mine. Originally it had office pro on it because the icons are there and when i use certain programs it tries to install office pro.
I think that my friend deleted the program files off the harddrive instead of running the unistaller.
He lost the cds so i was wondering if i could just run system restore to get the programs back, or is there another way to get back these programs instead of buying new copies
Thanks
Ben

[minsonngo]

You could try the system restore if it is turned on. Otherwise, your probably going to have to grab a copy of Office.

[doctorgonzo]

Was it a store-bought computer? If so, then it might be possible to restore it using the factory restore CD. That will put it back to how it was when it was first delivered, though. You will lose everything.

[68vetteracer]

Normally I would use the original cds but they were lost.
as far as using the system restore i figured that i would give it a try but for some reason i can only acess restore points from the last month and nothing further back even though i know that there were restore points.

[jayb1234]

System restore pushes old restore points out the door when it reaches the size limit that it is set for. That is likely to be why they aren't there anymore.

[68vetteracer]

How do i change the size of the restore save file

[jayb1234]

Start system restore, hit "System Restore Settings" on the left side, hit settings on the popup window and move the slider to the right to increase it, left to decrease.

[Digitalic]

When your version of Office was installed it might not have had all the options installed. When installing there is the option to "run from CD", or "run from computer". If "run from computer" is chosen it will automatically install. Might be the problem.

Also if it was installed from a .msi file on a business server could also explain this.