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
    2014-07-13T17:01:11+00:00

    Raju :

      The Microsoft user community including myself have had this bug / error for all of our legally purchased licenses of office 2013 and office 2014 for months now.

    Why don't you ask Microsoft Office Development team to fix this bug rather than sending all of the users to this loop of unlimited removal and reinstalling.  Let me tell you, this instruction DOES NOT WORK. 

    I have purchased the entire Office 2014 at a very expensive rate and have removed all previous office using your fixit link and still have this bug. 

    Fix the software!

    We all have bought the product.

    Also, I am very unhappy that such an obvious bug was allowed to get into the Microsoft RTM version.  What happened to all the U.S. Based consumer testing?  This bug is very easy to reproduce. 

    Quality of Microsoft testing should be that such simple bug like this had to be uncovered long before release.

    Now that these products (Office 2013 and Office 2014) are in the market, I need Microsoft to step up and  fix their bug immediately.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-06-30T01:43:12+00:00

    See the Article “Why can’t I start my Office 2013 application at:

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/why-cant-i-start-my-office-2013-application-HA104011864.aspx

    If that does not help, then you might remove all traces of the Office installation by downloading the fixit from the following article:

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

    saving it to your computer and then running it.

    Then reinstall Office by logging into www.office.com/myaccountwith your registered email address and click Install Office.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-29T19:21:56+00:00

    That's great... but what if you've UNINSTALLED Office?

    I uninstalled it from my Windows 7 machine last night, and now I'm getting these stupid messages constantly... on an UNINSTALLED program. So I can't go in and change preferences, because the programs are not there to change. Supposedly. Except something is still triggering this in my system.

    How do I fully get rid of this cancer from my system?

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-29T18:51:19+00:00

    I have the same Problem,

    I have uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2013 and same issue I can open any word doc and I get the same error whether I am connected to internet or not .

    looking on line this is a problem that is happening with a lot of people seemed to have started with an update that Outlook ask for ?

    I am using win 7 64 bit , and Office 2013 tried both 32 and 64 bit versions makes no difference surely someone has a fix , it is obviously  a bug

    I am thinking this might be a registry issue as uninstalling and reinstalling didn't help

    I worked on this for 4 days and tried all the suggested fixes on this blog nothing worked .

    However today what I did and seems to have fixed the problem was to: Run the 015CTRRemove that I got from the suggestions on the MS web site .

    After running the Office remove

    Checked in the Add Remove Programs and verified that Office was indeed uninstalled .

    Then  went into Program Files and found the Office folder location

    C:/Program Files (x86) /Microsoft Office

    Deleted the folder

    Rebooted

    Then used a Restore Point to before the problem started and ran the restore .

    That has seemed to have fixed my issue after working on this for 4 days .

    Good Luck

    T Barnes

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