Sorry, something went wrong and Word was unable to start. (24)

Anonymous
2013-02-21T21:37:42+00:00

I am running Windows 8 and am unable to repair Microsoft Word 2013 after getting this message.  I also get this message when trying to open all microsoft office documents.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2013-02-22T12:36:35+00:00

Hi Dan,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community. I will assist you in providing steps to determine the cause of the issue while working with Office 2013 on the computer.

This error may also occur if the Office installation is corrupted.

Do you have multiple version of Office installed in the computer?

Step 1:

You may run the fix it from the article below to remove corrupt Office 2013 keys from the computer:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501

Note: Try to save the fix it tool to the desktop and then run it to remove Office.

If fix it tool failed to run, you may try the manual removal of Office 2013 step from the above article.

Step 2:

Try the steps from the section ‘Start an In Private browser session’ in the article below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2811180

Once you complete the above mentioned steps, you may download Office 2013 using the link below and install it using the subscription license and verify the status

https://officesetup.getmicrosoftkey.com/

https://office.microsoft.com/MyAccount.aspx

I hope the above steps help. If you need further assistance on this particular issue or any other Office related issues let us know and we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-02-25T13:21:16+00:00

    Uninstalling and re installing does not help at all.  I have continuous issues with both word and excel.

    I am astounded that they will not stand behind their product.  I have been tossed around between there levels of support and even let them log onto my computer and make adjustments.  The last time I called they wanted to start charging me for support, when this issue has been going on since I first installed office 2013.  Very disappointed in how Microsoft is handling this issue for its customers.  They should be ashamed of themselves!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-25T13:01:03+00:00

    I find absurd that a Microsoft representative answers that the solution is to uninstall Office.

    I have the same problem and can't start any Office program anymore.

    I tried to repair, to run in safe mode, to reboot and nothing works.

    I don't want to uninstall and loose the Service Packs installed, it took hours to dowload.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-01-21T10:06:37+00:00

    I tried almost everything above, without success except for the "Run as administrator" solution, but I don't like it because I get a warning every time I download a .doc file from Internet.

    But I found a nice workaround : search for "FileTypesMan" application (a nice application that let you change the behavior of every file extension like you did on Windows XP), double click on .doc and choose "Exclude this file type...".

    No it works fine without any drawback.

    Edit : tried on another PC that has the problem but did not fix it.

    So I found an even better solution.

    Again use FileTypesMan, right click on .doc and choose "Replace File Type for Selected Extension".

    Replace "Word.Document.8" by "Word.Document.12".

    Make sure Word doesn't ask you to be the default program every time you run it (look at options in Word).

    Not sure if there's any compatibility issue doing so.

    So any feedback is welcome.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-12-09T23:21:13+00:00

    I also have this problem and it appears when I open documents or when I save them.. but basically they save and open like usual!!! And nothing appears to be wrong!! Overall, I've had the worst issues with Office... My OneNote wasn't syncing and was having troubles loading... and then word has constant problems saying it can't open (24) and then Excel and PPT apparently there's not enough memory to run them.. and then sometimes they do.. and then it's being a huge memory hog!! Like at least 300 MB...

    Honestly just very disappointing that I literally am just used to this **** now... 

    Oh also it says that when I click on a document in the document viewer that shows the preview pane.. can't even handle showing a preview!! But that is how I know it's quite messed up.. it's interacting with those program systems some how .. I don't know man..

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