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S-Mania's avatar
S-Mania
Copper Contributor
Apr 25, 2026

Word freezes or crashes when pressing the G key in the file search

When pressing the letter G in the file search on Word, it either just freezes and doesn't respond or crashes immediately. Regardless of whether Word is in Safe Mode or not. It also pops up a "Word co...
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Lisa_Wilke-Thissen's avatar
Lisa_Wilke-Thissen
MVP
Apr 26, 2026

Hi,

You start Word, you press Ctrl + F12, Word then navigates to the default open/save folder? When typing a "G" into the "File name" box, Word crashes? Not problem with other letters?

  • S-Mania's avatar
    S-Mania
    Copper Contributor
    May 03, 2026

    Hi Lisa. Sorry for the late reply. That shortcut only opens File Explorer to select a file from your PC, which isn't ideal compared to Word's built-in search box or Word displaying recent files. Especially with documents on OneDrive.

    I've attached 2 screenshots of what search box I meant in my original post. In Safe Mode, it doesn't respond before eventually crashing. Outside of Safe Mode (normally), it just crashes the app immediately. It does not crash with any other letters or putting G after other letters, only with G coming first (either spamming G or putting G first before other letters). It also does not happen with Excel or PowerPoint, and still happens after doing an Online Repair.

    Thanks.