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wordproblem
Copper Contributor
Jul 01, 2026

Cant start microsoft word

Hello,

 

Sorry if this is not the right place for this but I dont know how to start a discussion anywhere else. This was the only place where I could find start discussion button. 

 

I am having problems with microsoft word. When I open the software then it says word couldnt start last time. Safe mode could help you troubleshoot the problem, but some features might not be available in this mode. Do you want to start in safe mode?

 

I tried to press both buttons but after that I only get the starting icon of word and then nothing happens. I tried to reinstall microsoft 365 and I tried to repair it but it did not help. I also tried the changing temple the normal.dotm file but it did not help. Now i deleted the file and I dont have it anymore. I also tried a few things on the registry side where you made changes to the word registy but like removing addins and options and adding the shellchanching thing to registery but it did not help. I tried to do some system scan on cmd and it did some repairs but in the end it did not help. Is there anything else that I can try. I feel like I have tried everything possible way that I have found on internet. Is my only option to just reinstall my windows and then start from beginning. Will reinstalling windows even work? I need word for my work and I cant realy wait for too long. I am using windows 11 and I am pretty sure my word version is 16. I also tried to use some other microsoft softwares and excel has the same problem. It first did open but after few seconds it closed and then I got the same message. Microsoft acces seems to work fine. 

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/how-to-troubleshoot-problems-that-occur-when-you-start-or-use-word

 

I did try these methods and it did not work.

 

Any help?

1 Reply

  • Hi, before reinstalling Windows, I’d try to separate whether this is an Office problem or a Windows profile problem. Since Word and Excel are both affected, I’d run the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant if you can, then try an Online Repair of Microsoft 365 from Apps > Installed apps. Also test Word from Run with winword /safe and Excel with excel /safe. If safe mode still hangs, create a temporary new Windows user profile and test Office there. If Office works in the new profile, the issue is probably user-profile or Office profile corruption rather than Windows itself.