Unable to select text via click-drag in Word and Outlook (Windows 11)

Question

Unable to select text via click-drag in Word and Outlook (Windows 11)

Fernando Salazar 20

After the July 7 Office update, Word and Outlook started being unable to handle click-drag to select text. When I open a Word doc, it will be fine for 2-3 minutes, then the problem starts. Quitting then restarting, the same thing will happen -- click-drag words for a minute or 2, then stops. Another aspect of the problem: When in this state, if you click "Contact Support" under Help menu, you will be unable type a problem description in the dialog that appears -- the text is added to the insertion point in the document window.

My guess at the issue is something is sending events to the wrong window -- the doc window gets the click, but does not get drag, and in the Help menu case, the keypress events go to the doc window, not the sidebar field.

This is on Windows 11 Pro.

I spent close to 2 hours with MS support on this, including: Repair Office app (didn't help), Revert to previous Office version (didn't help), the testing with a new profile. On the new profile thing, the problem does not seem to happen.

Any ideas? I am not disposed to migrate all my old profile stuff to a new profile. The MS techs kept saying "Your profile could be corrupted" but that seems meaningless to me. What happened, was my profile hit by cosmic rays? Whatever the issue is, it is a product of Windows OS and Office, not a random event that "corrupted" the profile.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

0 additional answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi Fernando,

Thank you for your detailed sharing and I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience and frustration this situation may have caused you.

Based on your information, if the issue doesn't happen in new Windows profile, the reason is usually considered as being due to a corrupted Windows profile. In those cases, the most effective way is to migrate to a new profile because the process to clearly identify the root cause is quite troublesome. You will need to check many per-user settings in the Windows profiles, which may involve: Office add-ins, Word templates, Outlook profile/settings, Office registry settings, startup apps, mouse/clipboard utilities, accessibility/text expansion tools, cached Office/WebView state, DLP/AV, etc.

There are some troubleshooting steps you can quickly and easily try to see if it helps identify the specific cause of the situation:

1/ Test with Safe mode

Press Windows + R to open Run dialog box and type winword /safe > press OK to run.
If Word and the text click-drag feature work normally, the problem is due to an add-in.
Go to File > Options > Add-ins > select COM Add-ins > Go > uncheck all listed add-ins and click OK.

User's image

Restart Word and check if the error is gone. Then re-enable the add-ins one by one and restarting Excel each time to find which one causing the error.

2/ Test Word with no global template/add-in load

The same step: press Windows + R to open Run dialog box and type winword /a > press OK to run.
If Word and the text click-drag feature work normally, the problem is due to the corrupted Normal.dotm file
Close Word. Open Run dialog again and paste %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates > press OK
Inside the Templates folder, rename the Normal file to a different name like Normal.old
Close the File Explorer and reopen Word again to see if the issue persists.

3/ Do a profile clean boot

Since Word does work properly for 2-3 minutes before the issue appears, there is a possibility for an existing background service/startup app conflict. You can follow the guidance in this article to perform a clean boot to see if it helps resolve the issue How to perform a clean boot in Windows | Microsoft Support

You can give it a try and let me know whether it works. If not, please feel free to reach out again in the comments on this post. I'm happy to assist you further

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Yes" and kindly upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Fernando Salazar 20 Reputation points

2026-07-13T23:31:24.05+00:00

I tried these steps. Safe-mode did not work. I didn't try the Normal template thing, as that file has not been modified since 2025. But I did do the profile clean boot, and so far that seems to have worked. Thanks!
Hendrix-C 19,970 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T16:43:24.4+00:00

Hi Fernando,

Thank you for your prompt response.

I'm glad to know that the issue has been well-addressed now.

If you have any concerns or questions in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Not only will I be happy to assist you, but all moderators in the Q&A forum will also do their best to provide support and guidance.

Wishing you a wonderful day ahead.