Outlook, Word and Excel Keep Crashing or Won't Open on Windows 11: Complete Fix Guide

Why Outlook, Word and Excel crash, freeze or refuse to open

Office apps almost always crash for one of seven reasons: a faulty add-in, a damaged Office installation, a corrupt data file or profile, a graphics (GPU) driver conflict, a bad printer or font, a pending Windows or Office update, or security software interfering. Because Word, Excel and Outlook share the same engine files, one root cause often breaks all three at once.

That last point is what most guides miss. When only Outlook fails, the cause is usually specific to Outlook: the mail profile, the OST or PST data file, or an add-in such as a CRM or PDF plug-in. When Word, Excel and Outlook all crash on the same day, look at what they share: the Office installation itself, the graphics driver, a recent Windows update, the default printer, or an antivirus product. Treating a shared cause as three separate problems wastes hours.

This guide is written for Windows 11 and for Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and Office 2024 (and, with small differences, Office 2019). It is organised as a ladder. You start with the cheapest, safest test, and each step either solves the problem or tells you where the fault lives. If you already read our shorter guide to Outlook not working and it did not solve your case, this page goes wider and deeper: cross-app causes, how to read the crash log, Windows 11 specifics, and the hard cases.

Symptom to fix: the decision table

Match what you see to the first column, then go straight to the fix in the last column. If two rows match, start with the one that affects the most apps, because shared causes are cheaper to fix than app-specific ones.

The first 60 seconds: five checks that cost nothing

Before any tool, rule out the boring causes: restart Windows fully, check that the app is not simply still starting in the background, confirm you are signed in, make sure the disk is not full, and test whether other Office apps behave the same. These five checks resolve a surprising share of cases because Office reacts badly to full disks, half-finished updates and zombie processes.

1. Do a real restart. Use Start, Power, Restart. On Windows 11, "Shut down" can keep a hybrid hibernation state (Fast Startup), so an app that crashed yesterday may be loading the same damaged state today. Restart does a full cold boot.
2. Look for a ghost process. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager. If you see OUTLOOK.EXE, WINWORD.EXE or EXCEL.EXE under Processes while no window is open, right-click and choose End task, then launch the app again. A leftover process makes the next launch hang silently.
3. Check free disk space. Open File Explorer, This PC. Office needs room for temp files, AutoRecover data and the OST cache. Under roughly 5 GB free is a classic cause of random crashes. Our guide to fixing a slow computer shows how to reclaim space safely.
4. Check the sign-in state. Open any Office app, then File, Account. If you see "Product Activation Required" or "Sign in", fix that first, because some builds fall into reduced-functionality mode and misbehave.
5. Test a second app. If Word opens but Excel does not, the problem is not the whole installation. If all three fail, suspect the shared causes: repair, update, graphics driver, antivirus.

Write down what you observe. A one-line note such as "Excel crashes at launch, Word fine, started Tuesday after Windows update" turns a vague problem into a short list of suspects, and it is exactly what a technician will ask you on the phone.

Step 1: start the app in safe mode (the best single test)

Safe mode starts an Office app without add-ins, custom toolbars and most extensions. If the app opens in safe mode but crashes normally, the cause is an add-in or a customisation, not Windows and not your files. It takes 20 seconds and it splits the problem in half, which is why every technician starts here.

There are two ways to do it. The first is the keyboard method: hold the Ctrl key while you click the app icon, keep holding until a box asks "Do you want to start in safe mode?", then click Yes. The second is the command method, which is more reliable on Windows 11 because the Ctrl key is easy to release too early. Press Windows + R and type one of these:

outlook /safe
winword /safe
excel /safe

If a command says Windows cannot find the file, the app is not registered in the usual way. Use the full path instead, for example "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" /safe. The folder name says Office16 even for Office 2021, Office 2024 and Microsoft 365, because they share the same internal version number.

For Outlook there are extra start-up switches that fix specific problems without reinstalling anything. Run them one at a time from the Run box and test after each:

Step 2: find and disable the guilty add-in

Open the app normally if you can (or in safe mode), go to File, Options, Add-ins, choose "COM Add-ins" in the Manage box, click Go, then untick everything except the add-ins you cannot work without. Restart the app, and re-enable add-ins one at a time until the crash returns. The last add-in you turned on is the culprit.

Add-ins that most often cause crashes are PDF creators, CRM and sales tools, video-meeting plug-ins, e-signature tools, old backup or archiving utilities, and anything installed years ago and never updated. Antivirus mail-scanning add-ins in Outlook are another frequent source of the "slow to start, then freeze" pattern. Some of these appear under "Disabled Application Add-ins" after a crash. If an add-in is listed there, Office has already blamed it once.

1. Open the app in safe mode or normally.
2. Click File, Options, Add-ins.
3. At the bottom, set Manage to COM Add-ins and click Go.
4. Untick all add-ins and click OK. Also check Manage: Disabled Items and re-enable only what you need.
5. Close and reopen the app normally. If it is stable, add back one add-in per day to find the offender.
6. Update or uninstall the offender from Settings, Apps, Installed apps. Vendors usually release a fix within weeks.

Tip for shared workbooks and Excel specifically: Excel also has "Excel Add-ins" and "XLSTART" files that load silently. In the same dialog, choose Excel Add-ins and click Go to untick any .xlam or .xll file. If your crash happens only with one workbook, the cause may be a macro or a COM add-in the workbook references, not Excel itself.

For Word, the equivalent suspects are "Word Add-ins" and template files that load from the Startup folder. Safe mode ignores them, which is why safe mode is such a clean test. If you need a corporate add-in for work and it keeps crashing, record the exact add-in name and Office version and send it to your vendor with the crash log you will collect in the Event Viewer section.

Step 3: repair Office (Quick Repair first, Online Repair second)

Quick Repair detects and replaces corrupted files and takes a few minutes. Online Repair removes and reinstalls Office from Microsoft's servers, takes longer, needs internet, and fixes much more. Microsoft documents that the repair applies to the whole Office suite, even if only Word or Excel is misbehaving. Run Quick Repair first, test, and only then run Online Repair.

On Windows 11:

1. Close every Office app, including Outlook and Teams if it is open.
2. Right-click Start and choose Installed apps.
3. Find Microsoft 365 (or Office 2021 / Office 2024 / Microsoft Office Home and Business), click the three dots, and choose Modify.
4. Choose Quick Repair, click Repair, wait, then restart the PC and test.
5. If the problem remains, repeat and choose Online Repair.

Online Repair keeps your documents, your Outlook data files and your licence. It does reset some app-level settings (for example, custom ribbon layouts can revert), so if you rely on a heavily customised ribbon, export it first via File, Options, Customize Ribbon, Import/Export.

One more check at this stage: confirm you do not have mixed Office bitness or two generations installed (for example, an old Office 2016 left over with a new Microsoft 365). In Installed apps, search for "Office" and "Outlook". Seeing two main Office entries, or a separate "Outlook (new)" alongside classic Outlook, is normal on Windows 11 and is explained in the versions section. Seeing two classic Office suites is not normal and is worth cleaning up.

Step 4: update Office and Windows (and check your update channel)

Install the latest Office build and all pending Windows updates, then restart twice. Many crashes are fixed by a newer Office build, and many appear when Office and Windows are updated out of step, for example after a Windows update that is waiting for a restart. If your Office version is several months old, you are probably running on a known bug.

To update Microsoft 365, Office 2021 or Office 2024 on a Click-to-Run install, open any Office app, go to File, Account, Update Options, Update Now. To see your exact version and channel on the same screen, look for "About Word" (or Excel or Outlook) on the right. You can also check from the command line:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration" /v VersionToReport
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration" /v CDNBaseUrl

The first line prints the version, the second identifies the update channel. If you manage a business PC, the channel may be Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel or Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel. A channel that lags is fine for stability, but it also means a fix released this week may not reach you for months. If a specific build is crashing, Microsoft's release notes for each channel list known issues and the build that fixes them; check them before rolling back. For an emergency, the forced command-line update below works on a standard Click-to-Run installation:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe" /update user

Then open Settings, Windows Update, install everything offered, and restart. If Windows Update itself is failing, you will not get a stable Office until that is fixed, so see our guide on Windows Update stuck or failing. If you recently moved to a newer release of Windows 11, our Windows 11 25H2 update guide explains what changes in that version.

Rolling back is a last resort. If the crash began immediately after an Office update and you have a business deadline, Office can be returned to a previous build with the Click-to-Run client by specifying a version. This is an advanced step with trade-offs (you lose security fixes), so most home users should prefer waiting for the next build. Write down the old version first if you try it.

Step 5: turn off hardware graphics acceleration and update the GPU driver

If the window goes white or black, the cursor spins, the ribbon flickers, or the app crashes the moment you scroll or open a large file, disable hardware graphics acceleration inside the app and update the graphics driver. Office uses the graphics card to draw the screen, and a faulty or outdated driver, especially after a Windows update, is a well-known trigger for crashes in Excel and Word.

If you can open the app (in safe mode if needed), do this:

1. Click File, Options, Advanced.
2. Scroll to the Display section.
3. Tick Disable hardware graphics acceleration (the wording is similar in Word, Excel and Outlook; in Outlook the option can be absent in some builds, in which case use the registry method below).
4. Click OK, close and reopen the app.

If you cannot open the app at all, set it through the registry for the current user. This example is for Excel; replace Excel with Word or Outlook for the others. Back up the registry or create a restore point first.

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Graphics" /v DisableHardwareAcceleration /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

This one setting applies to all Office apps for your user account. To undo it later, change /d 1 to /d 0. Then update the graphics driver: open Settings, Windows Update, Advanced options, Optional updates, Driver updates, or download the driver from your laptop maker or from the graphics vendor (Intel, AMD or NVIDIA). Avoid random "driver updater" tools. If the crashes started right after a new graphics driver, roll it back in Device Manager: right-click the display adapter, Properties, Driver, Roll Back Driver.

Two related display causes are worth checking on a Windows 11 laptop with hybrid graphics. First, if the laptop switches between an integrated and a dedicated GPU, Office apps can crash on the switch; in Settings, System, Display, Graphics you can pin an app to "Power saving" (integrated GPU) as a test. Second, external monitors with mixed scaling (100% and 150%) occasionally trigger redraw crashes; test with a single screen.

Step 6: the printer and font suspects people forget

Word and Excel query the default printer when they open and when they lay out a page, so a broken, offline or network printer driver can freeze or crash them. Switch the default printer to Microsoft Print to PDF as a test; if the problem disappears, the printer driver is the culprit. This is among the most common hidden causes of "Word not responding" and of Excel closing when you print or save.

1. Open Settings, Bluetooth and devices, Printers and scanners.
2. Turn off Let Windows manage my default printer.
3. Select Microsoft Print to PDF and choose Set as default.
4. Restart the Office app and test.

If that fixes it, remove the old printer, restart the Print Spooler (net stop spooler then net start spooler in an administrator command prompt), and reinstall a current driver from the manufacturer. Our guide to printer security in the office also explains why keeping printer firmware up to date matters beyond crashes.

Fonts are a quieter cause. A damaged font file can make Word hang while it builds the font list, or make Excel crash on a specific workbook. Signs include crashes only in documents that use one font, or crashes when the font drop-down is opened. Test by opening the file after changing its font to a standard one such as Arial or Calibri; if the font list itself is the problem, open Settings, Personalization, Fonts and uninstall recently added fonts.

Step 7: read the crash log in Event Viewer (find the faulting module)

Windows records every Office crash in the Application log as an event with ID 1000 (crash) or 1002 (hang). The "Faulting module name" in that event tells you what broke: an Office component, a Windows system file, a graphics driver or a third-party add-in. This turns guessing into diagnosis.

Open Event Viewer (type it in Start), go to Windows Logs, Application, and look at the newest red Error entries from "Application Error" around the time of the crash. Double-click one and read the General tab. You will see lines such as "Faulting application name: EXCEL.EXE" and "Faulting module name: ...". Or get the last week of crashes in one command, in PowerShell:

Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName='Application'; Id=1000,1002; StartTime=(Get-Date).AddDays(-7)} |
  Where-Object { $_.Message -match 'OUTLOOK|WINWORD|EXCEL' } |
  Select-Object -First 10 TimeCreated, Message | Format-List

Here is how to interpret the faulting module. This table reflects common patterns, not a guarantee, because the same module name can have several causes.

Keep the faulting module name, exception code and Office version in a note. Those four items let a vendor or a technician reproduce your problem. For repeated crashes with different modules each time, suspect hardware: run the Windows Memory Diagnostic (mdsched.exe) and check disk health, because bad RAM or a failing drive makes random modules fail. Our article on Windows 11 blue screens covers the same hardware checks.

Step 8: the crash happens with one file only

If Word or Excel crashes only when you open a particular file, the file is damaged or contains something that triggers a bug. Use File, Open, select the file, click the arrow beside Open, and choose "Open and Repair"; if that fails, try opening it in safe mode, or recover an earlier version from AutoRecover or OneDrive history.

Work on a copy, never on the only original. Other ways to rescue a stubborn file: in Word, open the file and choose "Recover text from any file" under the file type list; in Excel, set calculation to manual before opening (open a blank workbook, then Formulas, Calculation Options, Manual, then open the broken file) so heavy formulas do not run during loading; and move the file from a network share or synced folder to a local folder, since a slow or flapping connection looks exactly like a crash. For unsaved or lost work, see our guide on how to recover an unsaved Word or Excel document.

Outlook only: profile, OST and PST repair

When Outlook alone crashes or hangs on "Loading profile", the fix is almost always one of three things: a new Outlook profile, a rebuilt OST cache file, or a repair of a PST file with the Inbox Repair tool (scanpst.exe). Try them in that order, because the first two are risk-free for Microsoft 365, Exchange and IMAP accounts.

Create a new profile (the fix that works most often)

1. Close Outlook. Press Windows + R, type control mlcfg32.cpl and press Enter (this opens the Mail Setup dialog).
2. Click Show Profiles, then Add, give it a name such as "Test", and enter your email address and password.
3. Choose Always use this profile, select the new profile, and launch Outlook.
4. If it opens and syncs, the old profile was damaged. Leave the old one in place for a week in case you need a setting from it, then remove it.

A new profile on an Exchange, Microsoft 365 or IMAP account rebuilds its mail cache from the server, so a large mailbox can take hours to download. Leave the PC plugged in and online. Your mail is safe on the server; the local OST file is only a cache.

Rebuild the OST cache

If a new profile still crashes, or you want a quicker test, close Outlook and rename the OST file. It is in %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook. Rename the file ending in .ost to something like mailbox.old, then reopen Outlook, which creates a fresh cache. Microsoft confirms that for Exchange accounts the OST can be deleted and Outlook recreates it. Do not delete a PST file: a PST can be the only copy of old mail (POP accounts and archives store mail there).

explorer "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook"
explorer "%userprofile%\Documents\Outlook Files"

Repair a damaged PST with scanpst.exe

Copy the PST first. Then close Outlook and run the Inbox Repair tool. For current Office builds it is typically in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16, or in the same path under Program Files on a 64-bit Office. Search the folder for SCANPST.EXE if you do not see it. Click Browse, choose the PST, click Start, and if errors are found click Repair. Microsoft notes that the tool makes a .bak backup and that you may need to run it several times. After repair, items it cannot place may appear in a "Lost and Found" folder.

If Outlook asks for a password again and again, open Control Panel, Credential Manager, Windows Credentials, remove entries starting with MicrosoftOffice16 or msoid, sign out of Office in File, Office Account, and sign in again. Two more Outlook-specific causes: a mailbox that is nearly full (a PST over 50 GB is heavy and slows or breaks on large archives), and a stale AutoDiscover entry after an email migration. For email-account trouble that is not about crashing, see our Outlook account recovery guide.

Word and Excel only: templates, startup folders and resets

If Word crashes at launch, rename its Normal.dotm template so Word builds a fresh one. If Excel crashes at launch, empty its XLSTART folder. Both are user-level resets that keep your documents untouched. They fix a damaged template or a bad startup file in one move.

For Word, close all Office apps and run this in Command Prompt:

ren "%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dotm" Normal.old

Reopen Word. A new Normal.dotm is created with default settings. You lose personal styles and AutoText stored there, which is why you rename instead of delete. If the problem remains, check the Word startup folder: %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP should normally be empty or contain only add-ins you know.

For Excel, look at %appdata%\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART and C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\XLSTART. Any workbook or add-in file sitting there opens every time Excel starts, so a corrupt personal macro workbook (PERSONAL.XLSB) can crash Excel at every launch. Move files out, one by one, and test. Excel's Options also has an Advanced setting "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)": if Excel opens blank when double-clicking a file, make sure that box is unticked.

Reset Office user settings without reinstalling (advanced)

If safe mode works but disabling add-ins does not, a damaged per-user setting may be at fault. Office tracks crashed items under a "Resiliency" key that can silently disable add-ins and sometimes keep a bad state. Back up the key, then delete the contents of the following for the app that fails. This approach is commonly used by technicians but is not a Microsoft-published procedure for every case, so treat it as an advanced option and export the key first.

reg export "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Resiliency" "%userprofile%\Desktop\word-resiliency-backup.reg"
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Resiliency" /f

Replace Word with Excel or Outlook as needed. If you are nervous about the registry, skip this: a test with a new Windows user account (next section) achieves the same diagnosis with zero risk. Remember that Word documents and Excel workbooks are not stored in the registry; these resets change behaviour, not your files. If a reset costs you your toolbar layout, rebuild it from File, Options, Customize Ribbon.

Step 9: repair Windows itself (SFC, DISM, new user, clean boot)

If all Office apps crash, safe mode did not help and Office repair did not help, run SFC and DISM to repair Windows system files, then test with a brand-new Windows user and a clean boot. These three tests separate a Windows or profile problem from an Office problem.

Open Terminal (Admin) from the Start button right-click menu and run these in order, waiting for each to finish:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /scan

DISM can sit at 62 percent or 100 percent for several minutes, which is normal. SFC reports whether it found and repaired files. Restart afterwards. The chkdsk /scan line performs an online check of the file system without taking the disk offline.

Test with a new Windows user

Create a temporary local user: Settings, Accounts, Other users, Add account. Sign in to it and open Word, Excel and Outlook. If they work there, the damage is inside your own user profile (settings, templates, registry keys), not Windows or Office. Then you can focus on the user-level resets from the previous section, or migrate to a clean profile.

Clean boot to find software conflicts

Press Windows + R, type msconfig, go to Services, tick Hide all Microsoft services, click Disable all, then open Task Manager's Startup apps tab and disable everything. Restart and test Office. If it is stable, re-enable items in halves until you find the conflict. Remember to switch back to Normal startup in msconfig afterward. Our Windows 11 speed-up guide helps with the startup list as well.

Security software and synced folders

Third-party antivirus and endpoint tools can inject into Office processes. Temporarily switching from a third-party product to Microsoft Defender, or updating the product, is a legitimate test (do not leave the PC unprotected). Also check whether the file or the OST lives inside OneDrive, Dropbox or another sync folder; Office writing to a file while a sync client locks it produces freezes and "file in use" crashes. Store the Outlook data files outside synced folders. If you are unsure whether the PC was compromised, read what malware is and how to spot it, since adware and malware also cause unexplained app crashes.

Office 2021, 2024, Microsoft 365 and Windows 11 differences that matter

Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and Office 2024 share the same Click-to-Run technology, so the repair, safe mode and registry steps in this guide work on all of them. The differences are in updates (subscription gets new features monthly, perpetual versions get fixes only) and in which version of Outlook you are using.

Two points deserve care. First, Windows 11 now ships with a "new Outlook" app alongside classic Outlook for Windows. They are different programs: new Outlook is a web-based client with no COM add-ins, PST support or scanpst, so most of the Outlook steps here apply to classic Outlook only. If the app you open has no "File" menu in the ribbon like older versions, you may be in new Outlook. Second, support dates matter: Microsoft has ended or is ending support for some older perpetual releases (check the lifecycle page for your version), and an unsupported version stops receiving crash fixes. If your version is unsupported, upgrading is the long-term fix.

Three realistic scenarios (illustrative)

These are illustrative examples built from common patterns, not real client cases. They show how the ladder in this guide narrows a vague crash to one cause.

What it costs in Canada: DIY versus getting help

Doing it yourself costs nothing but time: expect 30 to 90 minutes for most cases. Paying a technician makes sense when the data matters, the deadline is close, or several PCs are affected. IT Cares offers an Expert Consultation at 119.99$ CAD for 60 minutes, remote or by phone.

A new PC is rarely the answer to an Office crash; the problem almost always lives in software that moves with you unless you start clean. Compare the cost of hardware repairs in our SSD versus HDD upgrade and repair cost guide if you suspect a failing drive.

Hard cases: when the standard fixes fail

If safe mode, add-in removal, Online Repair and Windows repair all fail, the next step is a clean uninstall and reinstall of Office with Microsoft's Support and Recovery Assistant, after checking that the Click-to-Run service, the licence state and the disk are healthy. The cases below are the ones that usually need it.

Case 1: repair fails or Office "is busy" forever

Open an administrator Terminal and check the Click-to-Run service, then restart it:

sc query ClickToRunSvc
net stop ClickToRunSvc
net start ClickToRunSvc

Close all Office processes and retry the repair. If the service will not start, Windows Installer or a pending reboot is likely involved: restart, install Windows updates, and try again.

Case 2: clean uninstall and reinstall

Sign in to your Microsoft account and note how you licence Office (Microsoft 365 subscription, or a purchase tied to an account). Back up PST files, Outlook signatures (%appdata%\Microsoft\Signatures) and custom templates. Search for Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) on Microsoft's site; it can fully remove Office and then you reinstall from your account's Services and subscriptions page. After the reinstall, run Update Now before opening documents.

Case 3: crashes only with large mailboxes or large Excel files

Memory and file size can be the actual limit. Check RAM in Task Manager's Performance tab; Office on 8 GB or less together with a browser and Teams easily runs short. 64-bit Office is better for very large Excel models, while some older add-ins need 32-bit, which explains why a vendor may insist on it. For Excel's "not enough memory" message, see Excel not enough memory, and for the Word hang message see Word not responding.

Case 4: the problem follows you to a new PC

If a new Windows user on the same PC works but the issue returns on another PC with the same account, suspect the cloud side: an oversized or damaged mailbox item, a calendar entry or a rule on the server. Sign in to Outlook on the web; if the web version has the same issue, the fault is on the mailbox, not the desktop app. Removing the offending rule or item from the web interface fixes it.

Case 5: signs of an attack, not a bug

Unexpected crashes combined with strange rules in Outlook, emails sent that you did not write, or new macros in files are not a normal software fault. Change your Microsoft password from a clean device, enable multi-factor authentication, and read our guide on recovering a hacked Outlook account. Do not enable macros on documents you did not expect.

Official resources

Use Microsoft's own pages for downloads and version-specific instructions. The repair and Inbox Repair steps in this guide follow Microsoft's published documentation (opened on October 1, 2026); other items, like the Event Viewer table and registry resets, reflect common technician practice and are marked as such. Microsoft Support pages are at support.microsoft.com, and the lifecycle for each Office version is on learn.microsoft.com under Lifecycle.

When to call a pro

Call a technician when you have lost, or could lose, data you cannot replace, when a deadline is close, when the same crash returns after a reinstall, or when several PCs are affected at once. Stopping early is cheaper than a fifth reinstall, and some cases (a failing drive, a compromised mailbox) are not fixed by Office repair at all.

IT Cares has provided remote and on-site IT support in Quebec and across Canada since 2014. A remote session lets a technician connect to your PC while you watch, read the crash log, repair the cause, and explain what happened. Call 1 (888) 711-9428 or book a remote session. Have your Office version (File, Account) and the faulting module name from Event Viewer ready; that saves the first ten minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Outlook not working: 10 fixes
• Fix Word not responding
• Fix Excel not enough memory
• Fix Outlook PST errors
• Recover an unsaved Word or Excel document
• Windows Update stuck or failing
• Fix blue screen on Windows 11
• Recover a hacked Outlook account

Sources and official references

Last verified: October 1, 2026

• Microsoft Support: Repair an Office application (Quick Repair vs Online Repair)
• Microsoft Support: Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)