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After clean installing windows 10 and office, word, ppt and excel files won't open

Anonymous
2023-04-09T23:27:05+00:00

I run Windows 10 pro. I had to reinstall the program, which meant that I also has to reinstall all software. The process went fine, but then ... I cannot open one single word, powerpoint and excel file. Also my VLC cannot open mp3, mp4 etc.

I can create a new file in the three office apps above, but existing files cannot be opened. This is a serious blow for me if there is no solution! What should I do? Does anyone have any advice? In fact, I'd rather go back to the previous version of Microsoft 365 where Word etc. were neat. The whole setup of office now is a mess if you ask me.

Anyway, thanks for any insight.

Regards, Danker

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-04-10T08:49:02+00:00

    Do let me know.

    Please do consider doing a check on your hard drive place your ear and listen out for funny sounds and if the issue happens again, please consider changing the hard drive.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-10T08:18:17+00:00

    According to Microsoft I have a subscription to Microsoft 365 Family. I don't know what year that is. I talked about office because following the link you provided led me to a page with "Download and install or reinstall Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 on a PC or Mac". From that page I installed it after having uninstalled what I installed earlier. The one I have installed now is fine, no more web stuff when opening a word etc. file, macros work, etc..

    The only remaining problem is that I cannot access/ open most file types that are stored in Dropbox. Above is the error I get. VLC files have a similar error message. I can also not move files out of dropbox to another location. That is annoying because my scientific library, research and notes, etc. are in Dropbox.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-10T07:23:46+00:00

    Hello again,

    I am a bit confused and I am sorry about that, can you kindly help me understand this better? In your previous post, you mentioned going back to Office 365. In your reply now you are mentioning Office 2021.

    Which of the Offices did you pay for? Did you pay for Office 365 or Office 2021?

    If you are seeing install apps, then I believe that you do not have an Office 365 subscription. If you had an Office 2021 subscription, and you want to reinstall it, what version of Office 2021 did you have? Office Home and School 2021 or Office Home and Business 2021.

    If it was Office Pro 2021 and you used a key to activate it, do you still have the key?

    If you have not reinstalled Office 2021 is it attached to your Microsoft Account? Click on account.microsoft.com and sign in and you should see the version of Office you have you can also download and install it from there if it is attached to your Microsoft Account.

    If it is not, then do you still have the activation key to reactivate it?

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-04-10T05:45:38+00:00

    Hello Fuad,

    I followed the link you provided. To make sure I attach a screenshot. At the right is "install apps". Should I do that to get office 2021?

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-10T00:06:42+00:00

    Hello,

    Thank you for coming to the forum.

    First, I will advise you to do a reboot and try and open the old files from within the apps.

    Click Start > type Word > Click the Word app then click File > Open > browse to the file. Give us a reply if the files open or not. If you do not see Word or Excel when you click start read the below.

    Second, please use the Word app or Excel app, not Microsoft 365 (Office) app. That app [Microsoft 365 (Office)] is for Office Web, which is not the same thing as the Office Desktop app, the Desktop app is what you need to open files on your computer. Microsoft 365 (Office) app is for files saved in OneDrive.

    If when you type Word in the start, you do not see it then you will need to install it, click the link below and follow the steps: https://support.office.com/article/4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658

    After the above installation and following the steps to activate the Office 365, try opening the old files again by double-clicking them

    If you do have the apps installed, do as I said and try and open the files from within the app and give a reply

    Best Regards Fuad

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