Word 2016 crashing when clicking on the File menu

Anonymous
2017-04-26T15:33:52+00:00

We have noticed that since this month’s updates have installed Word 2016 is crashing when clicking on the File menu when certain (not all) documents are open. 

Our initial investigations have revealed that if we open a document that works (a fresh .docx or any .doc) and while Word is still open try and open a problematic .docx it works.  If we try and open a problematic .docx with Word closed first, accessing the File menu causes Word to crash.  What’s interesting is that it doesn’t seem to be all .docx files, only certain ones, but for the moment we haven’t identified any commonality between the problem files, in fact most are simple documents with no embedded pictures, macros etc.

Removing the Update for Word 2016 (KB3178720) resolves the issue.  However, if we install this update on its own on a VM, it does not cause the issue, so it appears to be caused by a combination of updates released this month rather than just this particular update, but removing this one update resolves the problem.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-21T01:59:09+00:00

    I just solved this problem on a Windows 7 box:

    Problem:  Any office 2016 program crashes on clicking of File Menu

    I disabled and uninstalled all addons and saw no improvement.

    Clearly the problem had to be something that was loading into office.  This either had to occur with an add on or at Windows startup.  Since removing addons saw no improvement I tried using MSCONFIG.

    1. Disabled all non-Microsoft services and all startup - Problem resolved
    2. Enabled disabled items in groups until problem returned

    Source of problem was Shoretel Communicator which I uninstalled and now all works well.

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