A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Use this order for Word closing with an error after a few minutes:
- Update Office
- Open any Office app.
- Go to File > Account.
- Under Product Information, select Update Options > Update Now.
- If Update Now is not shown, select Enable Updates first.
- Start Word in Safe Mode to check add-ins
- Press Windows + R.
- Type
winword /safeand press Enter. - If Word opens in Safe Mode, go to File > Options > Add-Ins.
- In Manage, select the add-in type and choose Go.
- Clear one add-in at a time, select OK, then restart Word normally.
- Older add-ins such as ABBYY FineReader and Dragon Naturally Speaking are known to cause problems.
- If Word does not start in Safe Mode, the issue is likely not an add-in.
- Run an Office repair
- Try a Quick Repair first.
- If that does not fix it, run Online Repair. This is more thorough.
- In Windows, open Settings > Apps.
- Find Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365.
- Select it, then choose Modify > Online Repair.
- Note: Online Repair is more thorough and may effectively reinstall Office.
- Install Windows updates and update device drivers
- Go to Settings > Windows Update and select Check for updates.
- Install available updates.
- If the issue continues, update drivers for the video card, printer, mouse, and keyboard.
- On laptops, also check the laptop manufacturer’s site for updated drivers.
- If Word still closes unexpectedly when working with cloud files
- There was a known issue in Office Version 2205 where Word, Excel, and PowerPoint could close unexpectedly when opening, saving, uploading, or downloading cloud documents.
- The fix was released in Version 2206 (Build 16.0.15330.20230).
- Install the latest Office updates using File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.
- If nothing helps, uninstall and reinstall Office
- Use the Office uninstall troubleshooter.
- Restart the PC after uninstalling.
- Reinstall Office.
If the problem is only in Word, an additional troubleshooting step is to start Word with winword /a. If Word works with that switch, the issue can be related to add-ins or Word settings.
Warning: Advanced Word-only fixes in the registry exist, but they reset Word settings and can cause serious problems if done incorrectly. Back up the registry first before using any registry method.
References:
- I get a "stopped working" error when I start Office applications on my PC | Microsoft Support
- How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word | Microsoft Support
- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint close unexpectedly when trying to open cloud documents in Office Version 2205 | Microsoft Support
- Word is not working. - Microsoft Q&A
- we are sorry, but word has run into an error that is preventing it from working correctly. Word will need to be closed as a result. Would you like us to repair now? - Microsoft Q&A
- Word not opening - Microsoft Q&A
- When I open an office document, I am getting an error message, I do select repair now and the document will open. But then closes on its own within 5 minutes. Document will save when it is open but it does not seem to be repairing as this is recurring - Microsoft Q&A