Cannot run Office applications after 365 install

I came across this issue today after installing Office 365 (Office 2013) on two different laptops. Neither would run ANY office applications after a new install of Office 365! They just bombed out, tried a Repair of Office and that did not help.

I had uninstalled older versions of Office on both machines which had issues, so i thought this might be a clue but could not find anything to do with that.

Some searching turned up a possible conflict with the Abbyy FineReader which is an OCR Package often installed (I think with Epson printers).

I removed this package from both machines and Office applications ran fine, did not even need a reboot.

New one on me - but well worth knowing about as we do more of these installations!

Bill