Multiple instances of Word 2016 opening on startup

Anonymous
2017-11-27T00:15:35+00:00

I currently run Windows 10 Home 64-bit, version 1709, OS build 16299.64.

Whenever I boot into Windows, Microsoft Word 2016 opens up 4 blank documents. I checked under the startup folder and Word is not there.

I have not tried uninstalling Word but I am trying to figure out what is making Word open up 4 blank documents.

Thank you in advance for the help.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Vijay A. Verma 104.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-11-27T02:16:25+00:00

The issue is caused by last Windows update which corrupted the current user profile.

The solution is to login through another Windows user profile.

Microsoft is in the process of getting this issue fixed. Though no timeline is committed but this should get fixed in next Windows update which will flow in.

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Anonymous
2018-04-21T12:01:29+00:00

This problem was resolved within a few weeks after the Fall Creators update was released.  If you have all of the updates after that fall release, you should not be experiencing the problem any more.  If your issue is similar and not the same, but you have all the updates, I suggest that you start a new thread for a new problem.  The original workaround for this problem was to use task manager to kill the background Word processes before rebooting.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-11-27T15:05:49+00:00

    Several users have reported that the issue is already fixed in the latest version. One (on Insiders Fast) said, "The issue was resolved when I installed build 17046. The problem occurred in build 17040 and 17036."

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-27T06:36:04+00:00

    Thanks for the response. I was wondering what was going on, but you seemed to have figure it out. When you say to log in under another account, does that mean log in to a different account and then the original account and the problem will be gone forever, or , just for one boot cycle?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-11-27T02:30:54+00:00

    Thank you for the feedback.

    It makes sense. It recently started after a large update Windows did.

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