Windows 10: Office free trial expired now I can't use wordpad

I agreed to the Office free trial basically to get it to leave me alone and stop harassing me to try it. I never wanted it and figured I would just let it expire. It immediately started converting my wordpad documents into word, which was an aggravation, and I couldn't figure out how to stop it. Now that the free trial has expired it is STILL converting my wordpad docs to word, only now I can't edit them or do anything else with them because Office has expired. Office is no longer listed in programs so I can't uninstall it. I tried to download wordpad but can't because Microsoft says I already have it. If anyone could tell me what to do I would appreciate it.

:)

 

Wordpad

WordPad is free and it is included with Windows (that is, WordPad isn't part of Office). Click the Windows logo on the taskbar to open the Start menu, and then look under "Windows Accessories."

Most likely, what you are seeing is a trial version of Office, which may be preinstalled by the computer manufacturer or provided by Windows. See if the "Get Office" app is on the list of installed programs on the Start menu; if you find it, right-click
it and choose Uninstall. You may also/alternatively have to uninstall the trial version from Settings (or from Programs and Features in Control Panel).

 

Wordpad hyperlink

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us. This issue may have occurred due to a software conflict. For us to help you with this concern, kindly answer the following questions:

• What version of Office applications are you using?
• Are you also experiencing any issues on opening different Office files?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

Meanwhile, we suggest that you run an Office repair to check if there will be any changes on the Wordpad.
Kindly follow the steps given on the section that says Windows 10.

We'll be waiting for your reply.

 

The Office trial expired, what??

I've been running Office 2013 Professional for 4-5 years by now, the system started out as Windows 8.1. During this time the system had been restored from MR backup numerous times and had no issues with the Office licensing.

About a week ego, the system had been restored from MR image backup and had no issues with licensing until today. Started up the system and Outlook today, this is what popped up after couple of hours:





The picture is a combination of asking for and entering the product key.

After doing so and clicking on "Install" in the second image, Outlook locked up solid and had to be closed in Task Manager. Starting up Outlook again resulted in "not responding" error and subsequent force closing of the app.

Closed all programs, rebooted the system, started Outlook and it runs just fine. The "File\Office Account\Product Information" show this:





While I am glad that simply rebooting the system fixed this ailing...

What causes this sort of errors and how to prevent it to reappear in the future?

TIA...