Microsoft Word Won’t Open in Windows 10
Microsoft Word, a part of Microsoft Office, serves people much in daily work and life. However, Windows users often report they can’t open Microsoft Word files in Windows 10. How annoying it is! Have you ever met this problem?
Actually, Microsoft Word won’t open in Windows every now and then. It’s not something new. What’s more, it happens to most versions of Microsoft Word, including Word 2010, 2013 and 2016. It’s reported that the issue would mostly occur after upgrading system to Windows 10.
There are some common error messages of Microsoft Word not opening:
- Word met an error when trying to open the file.
- Word can’t read the document because it may be corrupt.
- We can’t open Normal.dotm because there is a problem with the content.
- Something was wrong. Word was unable to start.
- There is insufficient memory to run Word.
- We can’t open the existing document.
Why Your Microsoft Word Won’t Open in Windows
To be specific, there are many reasons causing Word not opening. According to the reports and feedbacks by users, we classify all reasons in following three categories:
- 1. Windows update. It’s said Word not opening would happen after users upgrading system to Windows 10, or updating Windows 10 to a later version.
- Word add-ins. Sometimes, Word add-ins are the main cause that prevents application from starting up.
- Installation Corruption. If there is something wrong with installation of Microsoft Office, the Word document is unable to be opened.
After knowing the information about error Microsoft Word not opening in Windows, you can get down to fixing it. As usual, please find solutions in the following section.
How to Solve Microsoft Word Won’t Open in Windows 10
Way 1. Open in Safe Mode
Try opening the Word file in Safe Mode to avoid add-ins prevention. You can do it as follow:
① In Windows Run dialog, type the product name, followed by /safe, for instance, winword /safe.
② Press Enter. You can open it in Safe Mode.
Way 2. Open Task Manager
If there is no response when you are trying to open a Microsoft Word file, you may go to Task Manager and do something to fix it.
① Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
② Check the Details list to look for WINWORD.EXE.
③ If you can find it, it means Microsoft is considered to opened. So, it will not respond any more.
④ To fix it, you can create a new document. Then, right click it and choose Edit.
Way 3. Disable Word Add-ins
① In a Word page, click File > Options.
② Select Trust Center on left pane, and then, click Trust Center Settings button.
③ In Trust Center window, shift to Add-ins.
④ Select the option Disable all Application Add-ins (may impair functionality).
⑤ Click OK to confirm.
Way 4. Open and Repair in Word
① Open a Word file. Click File > Open.
② Browse drives and documents to pick out the Word document that can’t open.
③ Click down arrow icon and select Open and Repair from the list.
Way 5. Update Microsoft Word
① Open a Word document. Click File > Account.
② On the right pane, click down arrow icon next to Update Options.
③ Click Update Now.
④ Just wait for a while until Microsoft informs you the update end.
Way 6. Install Windows Updates
Microsoft usually release updates with new features and improvements for Microsoft Office. So, if you have some trouble when using current version, updating it to a newer version is a method to fix it. Also, some installed programs may be interfering with Microsoft Office, which prevents Word from being accessed. So, updating Windows is necessary.
It’s very easy to do it:
Go to Settings > Update & Security. There is available updates, finish updating follow the instruction.
Way 7. Save Document as Another Format
① Open a Word file. Click File > Open.
② Browse the drives to pick out the Word document, which can’t open. Click Open.
③ Then, click File > Save as.
④ Click down arrow icon and select a file type.
⑤ Click Save. Then, you can close this page.
Way 8. Repair Microsoft Office Installation
① Press Windows + S. Then, type apps & features in search box. Press Enter.
② Under Related settings, click Programs and Features.
③ Select Microsoft Office from programs list.
④ Click Change > Repair. Then, follow intructions to complete the rest steps.
Of course, there are other ways, including extending free disk space, removing old printer drivers and deleting Microsoft Word Registry Keys. Choose a proper one to have a try.
How to Recover Lost Word Document
if your Word documents get lost, deleted or corrupted dut to some reasons, don’t worry since you can use a professional data recovery program for Windows to restore the lost documents. For instance, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, will enable you to recover data from nearly all kinds of storage devices, including hard drive, SD card, USB flash drive and external hard drive.
Conclusion
We have provided you with 8 different solutions when Microsoft Word won’t open on your Windows 10. Now, it’s your turn to choose some of them to have a try. We hope this post can help you out.
If you have any suggestions or thoughts about this issue, please let us know by leaving a comment in the section below. Thanks!