Office 2013 Preview: Excel and Word Crash or just close after start

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This was driving me bonkers since a few weeks.

I know the only constant in the world is the quality of MS products, and this proofs the case once more. However its a preview and I have good faith that maybe it will be fixed before the final or latest in SP2 or 3 😉

Update 13.03.2013 it appears this has not been fixed in the final release and I wonder if this will be fixed ever. I added a few screenshot to make it clearer where to look for the issue in case it’s not the Abbyy Finereader.

Issue:
Word or Excel 2013 crash or close after start.

Windows 7 x67, Abbyy Finereader installed

Possible solution:
Do you have by any chance Abbyy Finereader installed. If so then I suggest you do the following for each Application (Word and Excel).

1. Start Word (or Excel) in safe mode.
Hit Windows key + R to open run
Type in “WinWord /safe” or “Excel /safe” to open in safe mode

2) Click on File<Options<Add-Ins
Under Manage select COM Add-Ins
Click on GO and uncheck ABBYY Finereader
and click OK.

In some cases it might not be the FineReader but any other Add-on. If you are able to start Word or Excel in safe mode it definitely is an Add-on. Try to look for others and disable those.

You have to repeat this for Excel where the COM Add-Ins are not visible at the first selection. But they are there.

50 thoughts on “Office 2013 Preview: Excel and Word Crash or just close after start

  1. I had the problem in Word 2013 and deleted Abby Finereader from the Add-ins and completely from my computer and Word now works OK. However, Excel 2013 still crashes on startup. I have opened it in Safe Mode and there are no Add ins running, but Excel 2013 still crashes.

    1. I’m so glad that this solution seems to help so many people and I’m disappointed that this issue seems to carry over into the production release since the preview should have been ended by now.

      The same solution worked as well for Excel but maybe you need to reboot if there is no something is still loaded in the memory. However please check again cause there should not be nothing. There should be the Power View and the powerPivot for Excel 2013 still be running. Maybe you have been in the wrong Add-Ins?

      1. Hi Andreas

        I think I identified the problem. When managing the Add ins in Excel I was only looking at “Manage Excel Add ins” of which there were none loaded. When I clicked on “Manage COM add ins” I saw that the offending add in Abbyy Fine Reader was still loading. I am puzzled why this was still loading after I have completely removed the program from my computer. After disabling the Abbyy Finereader COM add in my Excel 2013 is now working.

  2. The best solution i have found, this Works with Outlook, Word and Excel, 100%. Thanks for this.
    Essa solução foi excelente, funcionou para o Outlook, Word e Excel, de primeira, pois mal abria os programas e já fechavam ou dava erro. Só seguir os passos corretamente e funciona 100%.

  3. wow! After three hours of trying to figure out how to stop Word and Excel from crashing I came across this page and it worked like a charm!! Thank you for saving my sanity!!

  4. Thanks – this really works!!!
    incredible that Microsoft can be so crap that these kind of fixes are necessary.
    I just bought a new PC with windows 8 and office 2013 and I’m really regretting that I didn’t shell out a bit more for a Mac. You live and learn.

  5. I looked on the COM add-ins on word and the Abbyy Finereader isn’t listed. Word still crashes and quite frankly I’m sick and tired of this error

    1. Check if Abby Finereader is installed at all. if not then you have another issue. If it is installed then it must be in there Please check also if you find it in Excel.

  6. Hi. I have no add-ins listed in Office settings, but my problem is exactly the same. Furthermore, when I start word in safe mode, everything works just fine, but as I have said, I have no addins active whatsoever.. any thoughts?

    1. I just updated the post with 2 screenshots. Please check if Abbyy Finereader is installed at all. If not then you have
      another issue with any other add-in. If it is installed then it must be in there. Please check
      also if you find it in Excel.

  7. Hi, just wanted to say thanks very much for your extremely useful post. Despite me being a relative computer novice, your advice got me working in Word again within just a few minutes. (Needless to say, Microsoft was no effing help at all.) Thank you thank you thank you for saving what’s left of my sanity after dealing with the recalcitrant MSOffice and horrible Windows 8!

  8. Not gonna lie… this was news to me, and I work IT Support. Found this on a chance google search for this issue working with a client that had just installed office 2013 and wouldn’t ya know, both word and excel would crash upon loading a new document. *shakes head sadly* I hate saying it… but this is so microsoft…

  9. When I try to open Word and Excel in safe mode following your instructions it says it can’t find the file. Now what, I can’t open any of my documents??????

    1. That sounds odd. Usually when Office installs properly, it will set its path into the environment.

      Try c:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15WinWord /safe and c:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice15Excel /safe

      But to be on the safe side try reinstalling Office and reboot Windows after the install. There might be more issues around if the path is not set properly.

  10. Hi
    I have been driven crazy by this. I’ve disabled the addins now and can access excel and word, but when I close the document I still get the error message. How can I get rid of that?

  11. You are a life saver! This is exactly what I needed. Microsoft website was no help. Uninstalled Abbyy Fine reader and reinstalled updated version with a fix to work with office 2013 and it finally worked. I was working on fixing this all last night for hours and nothing worked until I came across this!

    1. If you are able to start in safe mode then it has to be any add-on or plugin. Try check what external plugins you have and maybe remove those before reinstalling office.

  12. The old industry standard of “Don’t touch MS products until support pack 3” still applies! No wonder they’re selling it at £8.95!!! Thanks

  13. I love you, thanks, I have been all the night searching what could I do with my problem, and you gave me the solution!. Just a question. When I opened again the Excel, there is something that says that macros are disabled. Am I going to have problems with that?

    1. If you get this message when opening one particular excel sheet then it means that for whatever reason there are macros in that document. Not enabling the macros will mean some functions that this macro is supposed to do will not work. a fresh new document should not have any macro and therefor not generate this message. if this message come on a new document then you may have a global macro which usually could be either malicious or any 3rd party app installed it to excel for whatever reason.

      You will find them in the macro section of Excel http://office.microsoft.com/en-ie/excel-help/about-macros-in-excel-HP005201201.aspx

      1. Oh! Thanks! I got that message when I opened a Template, so I suposse maybe the template has a macros, right? Because If I open a new document in blank, there is no message. Thank you very much!!

  14. Thanks a ton!!! Uninstalling ABBYY Finereader fixed the problem for me!!! If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, please post this link on your support page, so that more people can be benefited. Anyway, they can’t hope to get any meaningful resolution on your support page anyway.

  15. I am experiencing the same problem in Word 2013 only. I disabled the Zeon Com add-in and the problem went away. Now, I just need to figure out what that plug-in does and how to fix it if I need it.

  16. I have tried both and my word document still crashes….driving me rounf the bend!!! the only add on i have was onenote and i removed it…and safemode still crashes 🙁 i tried going into control panel-programmes-change-repair…microsot bascially unistalled it and installed it again and i still have the same problem!! no idea what to do!

    1. If even the safe mode crashes then you have a different issue that the above one. If you already tried to reinstall office (not just repair) then you may end up having to reinstall the whole windows and then office.

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