Word error on window

Run an Online Repair of Microsoft 365 or Office rather than repeatedly selecting Repair Now in Word’s error message.

1. Perform an Online Repair

Close all Office applications first.

• Windows 11: Right-click Start → Installed apps → locate Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office → select the three dots → Modify.
• Windows 10: Right-click Start → Apps and Features → select Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office → Modify.
• For a Click-to-Run installation, select Online Repair → Repair.
• For an MSI installation, select Repair → Continue.
• Complete the prompts, restart Windows if requested, and then open Word.

Online Repair checks the entire Office installation and is more thorough than Quick Repair. It repairs the whole suite even when only Word is failing. ^1^

2. If Word still fails, isolate add-ins and templates

1. Press Windows key + R.
2. Enter:

winword /a

3. Press Enter.

The /a switch starts Word without automatically loading add-ins or global templates. ^2^

If Word stays open in this mode:

1. Open Word normally if possible, or start it in Safe Mode with winword /safe.
2. Select File → Options → Add-ins.
3. At the bottom, select an add-in category under Manage, such as COM Add-ins, and select Go.
4. Clear one add-in, select OK, and restart Word normally.
5. Repeat until the faulty add-in is identified. Older integrations such as ABBYY FineReader or Dragon NaturallySpeaking can cause this behavior. ^3^

Also install available Office and Windows updates, then restart the computer. Microsoft’s Word troubleshooting guidance recommends completing updates before moving to more invasive startup repairs. ^2^

3. If Online Repair and startup isolation both fail

Uninstall and reinstall Office:

1. Verify that the Microsoft account used for Office has the expected Microsoft 365 subscription or Office licence.
2. Run Microsoft’s Office uninstall troubleshooter on the affected computer.
3. Follow its prompts and restart Windows when requested.
4. Reinstall the Office edition associated with that account.
5. Open Word and sign in to activate it.

The uninstall troubleshooter requires Windows 10 or later and currently cannot uninstall Office 2024; Office 2024 must use the applicable manual removal path. [^4^](https://support.microsoft.com/office/-something-went-wrong-error-when-you-try-to-start-a-microsoft-365-app-4b4471dd-cf86-4a37-910d-35a01a6c7d17#windows-10 ""Something went wrong" error when you try to start a Microsoft 365 app")

Avoid manually deleting Office registry keys as an initial fix. Registry changes can reset Word settings or damage the Office configuration if performed incorrectly; use them only after backing up the registry and after repair/reinstallation has failed. ^2^

References

1. Repair an Office application
2. How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word | Microsoft Support
3. Word is not working. - Microsoft Q&A
4. "Something went wrong" error when you try to start a Microsoft 365 app