LibreOffice refuses to install, saying that I first must exit LibreOffice 3.5. I don’t have LibreOffice already installed so this is an impossible request. Several weeks ago, while downloading LibreOffice I had an external hard drive connected to my computer. This interfered with the installation process. So I deleted everything and today I started again–downloading the software anew, and starting from scratch. But I’m stymied by the demand to exit LibreOffice, which as far as I know is not in any way on my computer. Please tell me how to proceed.
Alternative to poltergeist hunters:
You could search for LibreOffice in the Windows Registry (and you might remove possible entries).
Start → Run [Win+R] → type command: regedit → Edit → Find (Ctrl+F) → type: LibreOffice → Enter…
→ Find next (F3) — [according to WinXP / UI: de-DE]
If OpenOffice.org also has been installed:
→ LibreOffice 3.5.2 installation aborts
Well hopefully there isn’t some kind of LO poltergeist roaming about your system, making impossible requests of you… 
You mentioned that you tried to install LO, but had some issues and then “deleted everything”. It’s possible that there are some files that got missed. Did you delete your data profile files? If you’re on Windows, did you delete everything out of ‘Program Files’ ?
check task manager…make sure soffice is not running
Hi qubit, this is graviton, the original poster. Thank you for your suggestions and sorry for the delay in responding to them, but I thought I would be notified of any responses to my post–since I wasn’t notified, I assumed, wrongly, there were none, and only saw your suggestions a couple of minutes ago.
Though I had already checked those files–Program Files and Application Data–I rechecked: nope, there’s nothing for LibreOffice there. Then, as per your implied suggestion, I used my contacts in Amityville to bring in top-of-the-line poltergeist hunters, who also drew a blank.
So what the heck is going on? The program was never actually installed in the first place, my investigation reveals that no trace of the failed attempts linger in the system, and yet LibreOffice insists their program is up and running on my machine and that it therefore cannot install the current version.
qubit, perhaps we can circumvent the problem by arranging to have the new version and the ghostly version simultaneously operating in a quantum superposition?
I await your further suggestions–or those of anyone else who has an idea. I’m desperate to stop using OpenOffice!!!
Same problem. LibreOffice first time install refused to install because the installation program thinks it is allready started ?! of course not, and I also
never used Libre/Open- office before.