How do I repair Office 2010 installation?

Microsoft Office applications at some time or another will break. If this happens to you, here’s a look at how to run the repair utility in Office 365.

Microsoft Office applications at some time or another will break. Examples include applications in the suite not opening, responding, or error messages. Fortunately, the suite includes tools you can use to fix these types of problems.

Recently, I had an issue with Outlook not launching at all; it just remained stuck on the splash screen. Disabling add-ons did not help either. So, I turned to the next best option which is to repair Office. Microsoft refined the repair options with the Office 365 release (Now referred to as Microsoft 365). Based on Click-to-Run technology that makes it easy to access repair files over the internet, no need to install media.

Repair Microsoft 365

Start by opening Programs and Features in the Control Panel. In Windows 10 you can get there by pulling up the hidden quick access menu.

Once you’re there, select Microsoft 365 in the program list and then Change/Repair on the command bar.

Now, wait while the repair wizard starts up.

Choose the type of repair you would like to perform. Depending on the severity or availability of your Internet connection, you could try the first option, Quick Repair, which is much faster and tries to fix the problem without a data connection.

If that doesn’t resolve the problem, then go back and try the Online Repair option. For my particular issue, I ultimately had to use the Online Repair option.

The repair process is straightforward following the wizard. Note that you’ll need to save your work and close all Office programs first, and then click Repair.

Then wait while the repair process runs.

You will notice the repair experience is similar to a fresh installation. The amount of time it takes will depend on your connection speed and what the issue is.

You will see your Office apps light up in their respective colors while the repair completes.

Once the installation is complete, restart your computer just to be sure and launch your apps and verify if the problem you were having is resolved.

23 Comments

watoo
Thanks Andre!!…very useful to repair my wife’s computer after God knows what key strokes and clics led to Outlook’s coma…
groovy post !
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t c
Does not work. Several times! This is thee worst and I have to pay for it too!? Gates Monopoly! Greed and useless software, capitalism at its best, but I still can’t use MS Word! Who do I go to for that?
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- Robert P
  Blame your computer then not the software. A faulty install or something is in fault here. Do a full uninstall, delete registry keys and do a reboot, then download and install from the website and try then. Allso do a sfc /scannow with cmd (admin rights aswell)
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Zoticus
Excellent – Worked a treat.
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boz
I am doing online repair and so far it has taken 3 days and not yet done. the progress bar is moving but 3 day??? Any ideas?
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- Steve Krause
  Uh.. no.
  Either you have a bad hard drive (eek) or it’s puked on itself.
  I would reboot and try again. Shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes (from my experience). I’ve ran it about… 5 or 6 times over the past few years.
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Stephen O'Mullane
I am at my wits end! I have done everything suggested here to stop this WORD IS NOT RESPONDING problem including ‘Open and Repair’ File and the MS Office 365 change/repair OPTION. I have also uninstalled and reloaded MS Office 365, but the problem persists.
But… only with certain file CONTENT. The common denominator between affected files is that the contain large Tables!
MS Office 365 online support and the Office Community all swear that large Tables in files has nothing to do with the problem. I beg to differ via hard gained experience. Trouble is, I cannot solve this problem, other than not using large tables!! But this is an occasional ‘must’ in my work so what the Hell to do. I am still a couple of years off pension age!!
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Skip Michael
Doesn’t work. Tells me I have to have Office 365 which I have.
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Juan Carlos
Microsoft Word 365 2019 is not working, i keep getting this message:
Word couldn’t start last time. Safe mode could help you troubleshoot the problem, but some features might not be available in this mode.
Do you want to start in safe mode?
I have done everything possible with no success.
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Hugo Carvalho
Can we automatise Online repair as we can for Quick repair?
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX64\OfficeClickToRun.exe” scenario=Repair platform=x86 culture=en-us RepairType=QuickRepair DisplayLevel=False
I try with RepairType=OnlineRepair, but doesn’t work :-(
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Skip Nicholson
Thank you! You saved me hours of stress and failure. Thank you! Worked like a charm.
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Margaret
I have tried the online repair and a dialogue box opens saying I need to close the following app, telling me Powerpoint is open.. Problem is, I do not have any apps open! The dialogue box then says ‘We need to close some programs but weren’t able to. Please restart your computer and try again.’ Done this six times now and it all repeats with no action. Help please!
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Richard W Varney
Andre, thanks for this helpful instruction article. I was happily able to fix my “unable to start” issue with the Quick fix.
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Sholto Douglas
Thank you Andre. I had an error 0xc0000142, which this fixed. What is annoying is that there are so many useless ‘fixes’ on the Internet, causing me to re-install Office, restart my PC and much else before I stumbled across this one.
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Rantmaster3500
A repair process that takes longer than a complete uninstall and re-install is probably one of the dumber achievements Microsoft ever came up with!
And we are now paying $100 per year for that? I recall Office 2000, which I paid for ONCE, and it
lasted for 10 years. Then I paid for Office 2010 ONCE, and it lasted for 8 years.
I would have re-installed it, but Windows 10 does not let me.
That’s a pretty sick step back for MS Office. Dear MSFT, remember this: Renaming a product does not fix it! Fixing it is what’s required. I am looking for alternatives now.
Thank you oh great Satan Nutella for doing nothing but making things worse!
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Fernando Souza
Office 365 is the worst MS product I ever had. I have to repair it at least once a month and as already said by some people above , it is most likely a reinstallation. Quick repair does not work as it is anything but quick. I had a quick repair last week that took 2 days..in the meantime I was not able to work nor to stop the program from running to go for a reinstallation by myself.
Today, one week later… again a repair was required. This time I am running the online repair which is running for more than almost 2 hours now.
Already contacted online support a month ago that made some changes on some configurations but it is clear it did not work.
It is very inconvinient and amazingly it always happens when I am in a rush to finalize important work.
Just sick of it.
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Bryan Balch

Andre,
Thank you for your solution. The instructions you provided were easy to follow. I chose to make sure the issue was resolved so I selected the online (longer) fix. It did take awhile but worth it. All is well now! On this date, 2/28/21 with Microsoft 365. Much appreciation and respect! Thanks again, Bryan
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Azeezuddin Sheik
Thanks Andre, cant thank you enough for this tip. Thanks so much.
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Paul
Excellent..worked a treat!
Paul
Down Under
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Joe
How do you do this on a Mac?
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human1
It worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thank you so much, Andre!!!!!!!!
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Jeff
I clicked on repair and it said that I needed to close outlook. I didn’t have outlook open. So I shut down the computer and tried it again. Same thing. I can’t even start the repair…