Reset iMac to factory settings but keep Microsoft Office

Your question is not stupid by any means. the basic problem is resetting a computer to factory settings means erasing the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system. When that is done, all content is erased, you cannot selectively erase everything but MS Office. So, the problem at hand is having a backup of the hard drive so you can then erase and install Mac OS X and then restore just MS Office.

Do you have an external hard drive you can use to backup the internal hard drive? If not, that is always a good idea to have so you do not loose your content if the internal drive fails or has to be erased for some reason.

Is there a specific reason you want to restore to factory condition by keep Office on the drive? If this is to sell the iMac, you have to deal with transfer of the MS Office license. If there is a problem you want to clean up then there may be another way to address that issue.

By the way, a great source of external hard drives is the Mac specialist, OWC at http://www.macsales.com I have three of their drives, great experience dealing with them.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities

Unfortunately, if you reset a Mac to factory settings, you will lose all the installed applications, including Microsoft Office, and it's not possible to change this. After restoring the iMac to factory settings, you will have to reinstall Microsoft Office.

To reset the Mac to factory settings:

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install Disc that came with your iMac and hold the C key while your Mac is starting.

2. Choose your language, and go to the Utilities menu (on the menu bar) > Disk Utility.

3. Choose your hard drive on the sidebar, go to the Erase tab and erase the drive.

4. Close Disk Utility and reinstall Mac OS X.

5. When the installation finishes and you have set up the computer, install iLife applications from the Applications DVD and then, install Microsoft Office

This is something that you could do, but as you stated you are not a tech person it has a leaning curve. Why do you want to reinstall the OS are you having some type of problem?

If you would like to do a clean install of Mac OS X 10.6 take a look at this link, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3910

You would also need to have the Microsoft Office original DVD to reinstall office.

In that case, you may have problems with the product key. I think you should try deleting the applications instead of erasing the hard drive and reinstalling everything. Normally, most of the apps can be uninstalled just dragging them to the Trash and emptying the Trash, so try deleting the files you don't need

• I also have the Microsoft Office install disc, but I used up all of the product keys, and I am not sure if I can reuse them (I am currently googling that as well).

It can be done, but it's a bit of a pain. (I went through this recently.) You will have to call - not email - MS support and tell them what is going on. They will first ask for a credit card #, then say it cannot be done for free, then that it cannot be done at all. Be insistent, and you can get the product reinstalled without having to pay again.

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

In addition to what mende says, before dragging an application to the trash, open it and see if there is an uninstall option...some have that under the name of the app on the menu bar or in the preferences. If there is an uninstall option that will clean up files that may be stored in other locations than the main application's folder.

As a side note - avoid the "cleaning" programs, they are more trouble than they are worth and can create problems for you.

Good luck. You are welcome

You're welcome, and that is a good plan, get the Office key code so you have an option if you run into problems and have to do a clean install.