Cannot open downloaded Word documents after Windows 10

See Paul Seys response on the last page of

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/cannot-open-word-files-after-upgrading-to-windows/67f3e4ea-ad68-40d2-a86f-14e3d4b8518b

I am trying to get that response extracted from that thread and then locked and pinned to the top of the forum.

Stefan,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I had completely uninstalled it three times before my initial post. It had been fine up until then, i.e. for a year when I'd first downloaded a copy of Office 2013 (not using 365) via Amazon. So each time it has been fully uninstalled (via the methodology you note) I have reinstalled it from the link at Amazon (which actually takes me to my Microsoft account). After each uninstall my computer was restarted to clean up any remaining "clutter."

This is the first time that a new install had not worked with a quirky program bug. It was a surprise to me. I would even go back to Windows 7, but no other program is giving me trouble and in fact most things work more smoothly. The initial transition (a week ago) was without incident. It is conceivable that I'd have the problems even if I reverted to the old operating system (and other things might surface). Were I having other significant glitches I would have done that already. And it seems odd (maybe not so much) that the "repair" statement only occurs with opening Word, not with any of the other programs in Office 2013. I am not anxious to pay full retail for any other MS format given these circumstances.

I have seen all sorts of hypotheticals on the web regarding this sort of problem, but it does not make sense for me to keep chasing them. Since OpenOffice can save in an older Word format, that will have to do. Were I writing/editing a major manuscript, I'd have to work on my Macbook (OSX Yosemite) with that older Word version.

          Joel

Addendum: I have also been through Quick Repair and the full repair option (the latter just seems to uninstall and reinstall as I'd already tried).

Sometimes it is necessary to completely remove Office, with a Fix it or even manually (by deleting files); see https://support.office.com/en-au/article/Uninstall-Office-2016-Office-2013-or-Office-365-from-a-Windows-computer-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8?ui=en-US&rs=en-AU&ad=AU&fromAR=1 (Uninstall Office 2016, Office 2013, or Office 365 from a Windows computer). Then reinstall from your DVD or from your Office 365 account as discussed at https://products.office.com/en-us/download-back-up-restore-microsoft-office-products (Manage, download, back up, or restore Office products).

None of this works for me in terms of fixing my current inability to access Word 2013 on my PC. I had updated to Windows 10 a bit over a week ago. Yesterday I started getting a message that a repair needed to be done on opening, but none of the aforementioned repairs worked (nor did a few others). Nor did several uninstall and reinstall attempts. Other Office 2013functions--PPT, Excel, etc.--are fine. The only problem is in Word 2013. I have had to go to Apache OpenOffice (free) for my word processing on my PC (my usual method), unless I send everything to my macbook where I can use another version of word.

The issue dealt with in  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3086786 was fixed in the August Product Update, shipped on 8/19. If you haven’t been prompted to install the August Product Update, you can manually trigger it in Word 2013 by going to **File – Account – Update Options – Update Now.**In Word 2010, go to File>Help>Check for Updates. In Word 2007 go to Office Button>Word Options>Resources>get updates>Check for Updates.