Cannot open some Office files after upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10

Anonymous
2015-08-06T07:01:10+00:00

Hi everyone,

This is Bryan from the Office team.  We are extremely sorry to learn that some of you are running into an issue with Office after upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 where some of your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents are failing to open with various error messages, such as:

  • Word: “Word experienced an error trying to open the file”
  • Excel: “This file is corrupt and cannot be opened”
  • PowerPoint:
    • “The application was unable to start correctly"
    • “PowerPoint found a problem with <filename>"
    • “Sorry, PowerPoint can’t read <filename>"

[UPDATE - 8/25/2015]

On Monday, a fix went out to all Office 2013 Click-to-Run users that fixed the Protected View issue that was preventing some files from opening.  For those users, the Office applications would launch and even creating new documents worked fine; however, opening some files resulted in various error messages like above.  If you haven't already been prompted to install the August update, you can manually trigger by going into an Office application like Word, then select File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.

There are other known issues that could also cause similar error messages, but those are not related to the specific Protected View issue.  Teams are working hard to determine the root cause and resolve those issues.  For instance, if you are running Windows 10 and Office is running in Windows compatibility mode for a prior version, you likely will also experience issues.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused due to this issue!

Sincerely,

Bryan

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-06T16:13:14+00:00

    No help at all, either here or at the link. Neither "workaround" makes any difference; Word 2013 still will not open. Have done full uninstall and reinstall of Office 365 (several hours of frustration), and have tried every "fix" and "solution" offered on the Web. Microsoft has a serious problem with Windows 10 and needs to get it fixed soon.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-06T18:54:24+00:00

    Benoit,

    You are kidding, right?  All the money and technology available to you at Microsoft and nobody thought about installing the software into a few computers who had been running various versions of Windows and let them increase the intensity of their use to test possible issues with compatibility.  For the first time, I am considering using a Mac.  I am so disappointed about my experience with Windows 8 to the point that my new computer had to use 7 and now this.   I think I should short your stock today.  I am beyond frustrated and the lack of urgency on your behalf seems totally inappropriate.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-31T16:45:43+00:00

    Where is this fix??

    1. repair office / that didn't work, had same version (2013) of Visio installed, so had to uninstall that first.
    2. repair office / COULDN'T - it was already uninstalled unbeknown and not requested.

    3)restart - then install Office 2013 - try to apply updates, already up to date.

    1. restart again - TRY to open file
    2. Doesn't work, doesn't work, doesn't work

    7 lather, rinse, repeat??????????

    *) Hey big a$$ company - try to get YOUR operating system to work with YOUR applications, is that tooo much to ask?

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-06T16:27:56+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    I'm sorry you are having issues starting Word 2013. The solution above is specific to upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10, to solve the problem that some files cannot be opened. It will not help any issue with Word itself not starting.

    Please start a new thread (ask a question) with as much detail as you can (what did you upgrade from, what exact version of Office do you have, what happen when you launch Word or Excel, ...)

    Thanks,

    Benoit.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-08-06T15:05:05+00:00

    See solution above

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