Office Repair Tool for 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 Versions

Most computer users would know what Microsoft Office is, or have at least heard of the Word and Excel programs. Microsoft Office contains a suite of applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, OneNote and etc that is used by over a billion users in the world. Microsoft Office is a sophisticated software that is strongly integrated into Windows. If you are having problems running any of the Microsoft Office application, you cannot just manually delete the Office folder from Program Files when it fails to uninstall.

You’d probably cause more damage to the Windows operating system than fixing it. Traces of Microsoft Office can be found in scheduled tasks, running processes, services, registry and folders. To repair a damaged Microsoft Office, the safest way is to use the hidden repair function that is built-in to the program.

Since Microsoft Office has gone through a few major updates, the method to launch the repair functionality can be different for each version.

In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to run the repair tool for each version of Microsoft Office.

Repair Microsoft Office 2003

Although Microsoft Office 2003 is no longer supported by Microsoft, which means it won’t receive anymore software and security updates, it can still run in Windows 8.1. However, you should at least use other free alternatives such as LibreOffice or OpenOffice to prevent against exploits even if you do not have the budget to update to the latest Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office 2003 comes with an easy repair option which can be launched from the Help menubar, select “Detect and Repair” and click the Start button.

Repair Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 comes with a dedicated tool called “Microsoft Office Diagnostics” that is able to automatically check for corruption in files & registry settings related to Office 2007, diagnose disk, memory, update, compatibility problems, and finally checks for known solutions. All you need to do is run the OFFDIAG.EXE file in one of the 3 possible ways.

a) You can run the “Microsoft Office Diagnostics” shortcut from the Start Menu.

b) Run OFFDIAG.EXE directly from C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\

c) From any of the Office applications by pressing Alt+F followed by the I key, go to Resources and click the Diagnose button to run Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

Repair Microsoft Office 2010

The Microsoft Office Diagnostics tool has been removed in version 2010. To initiate a repair for Microsoft Office 2010, you can go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > select Microsoft Office 2010 and click the Change button. Select the “Repair” radio button followed by Continue.

If you are unable to find Microsoft Office 2010 listed in the Programs and Features, you can trigger the installation menu with the repair option by running the Setup.exe file in the following location on your computer. You will need to right click on the Setup.exe file and run it as administrator.

“C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE14\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe”

Repair Microsoft Office 2013

To trigger the options to repair your Office programs, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > select Microsoft Office 2013 from the list and click the Change button. If you’ve installed Microsoft Office 2013 through the traditional MSI method, then you’ll see a window that is similar to Office 2010 above.

However, if Microsoft Office 2013 is installed using Click-To-Run, you will see a window that gives you 2 options which are the quick repair and online repair.

A quick repair is useful to quickly fix most issues when the computer doesn’t have an Internet connection. The quick repair option should always be the first choice before choosing the second “Online Repair” option. As for the Online Repair option, it is basically a reinstall and will take quite a long time to complete because it redownloads the installation files which are a few hundred MB in size.

Optionally, you can enter the command line below in command prompt or the Run window (WIN+R) to bring up the repair Office 2013 dialog.

For 32-bit (x86) Office 2013 installed in 32-bit Windows using Click-To-Run:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX86\OfficeClickToRun.exe” scenario=Repair platform=x86 culture=en-us

For 32-bit (x86) Office 2013 installed in 64-bit Windows using Click-To-Run:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX64\OfficeClickToRun.exe” scenario=Repair platform=x86 culture=en-us

For 64-bit (x64) Office 2013 installed in 64-bit Windows using Click-To-Run:

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\ClientX64\OfficeClickToRun.exe” scenario=Repair platform=x64 culture=en-us

For Office 2013 installed using traditional MSI method:

“C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE15\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe”

Repair Microsoft Office 2016

The steps to repair Microsoft Office 2016 are exactly the same as Microsoft Office 2013. Simply follow the steps above but make sure to select Microsoft Office 2016 from the Programs and Features list. It looks like Microsoft has finally made up their mind to standardize the step to launch the repair Office tool…

Repair Microsoft Office 365

Unlike the traditional Microsoft Office that can be purchased with a one-time payment and you get to use that particular version without expiration, Microsoft Office 365 is subscription based that allows you to always be able to upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Office. For example, the current latest version is Microsoft Office 2013 and you get to download and install it on your computer. When the 2016 version is available to the public, you get to upgrade for free.

So repairing Microsoft Office 365 would have to depend on the version of Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Simply go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > select Microsoft Office 365 from the list and click the Change button.

For Microsoft Office 365, the OfficeClickToRun.exe file is normally found in the Common Files folder and not the Microsoft Office folder, so the command line to launch the above repair window is as follows:

For 32-bit (x86) Office :

“C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeClickToRun.exe” scenario=Repair platform=x86 culture=en-us

For 64-bit (x64) Office:

“C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeClickToRun.exe” scenario=Repair platform=x64 culture=en-us

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There is an official tool by Microsoft called “Office Configuration Analyzer Tool” (OffCAT) which is able to help you detect possible problems in your Microsoft Office 2007, 2010 and 2013 installation. Obviously 2003 is not included in the list because it is no longer being supported while 2016 support will probably be added into future versions when the 2016 version is available to the public. Do take note that OffCAT is not a tool that automatically fixes problems in Office, but rather to scan the program for known configurations that cause problems.

All you need to do is select the application that you want to check for problems and click the Scan button. After OffCAT finishes scanning the Office application problems in your computer, a report will be presented with the list of issues that can cause problems to Microsoft Office. Selecting the issue will show the description and available online solutions at the box located at the bottom right.

Download Office Configuration Analyzer Tool

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For specific problems, it is unnecessary to perform a repair on the whole Microsoft Office suite. You can visit the Microsoft Fix it Solution Center to search or select an issue that is similar to what you’re experiencing, then download and run the Fix It tool to fix the problem automatically. You can also click on Office button to show all office related problem areas.

Click on the “Read More” link to open the article webpage and finally click the Fix It button to download the automated fixing tool.

Visit Microsoft Fix it Solution Center