excel and other microsoft apps isnt working

Question

excel ,acess,word and other microsoft apps arent wworking

Answer 1

Hello @hafsaa,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

To assist you more accurately, I would like to confirm a few details first. You mentioned that Excel, Access, Word, and other Microsoft apps are not working, but could you let me know exactly what happens when you try to open them? For example, do you see an error message, or do the apps close immediately?

Additionally, could you please confirm whether your Microsoft account is provided by your school? The tags shown on your post indicate “For education”, so I want to make sure whether this is a school‑issued account or a personal one.? 

If your account is issued by a school, please note that the availability of Office desktop applications (such as Excel and Word installed on a computer) depends on the Microsoft 365 subscription assigned by the institution. Depending on the subscription type, some education accounts may only have access to Office Online (web version) and may not be licensed to use the desktop apps. 

To check this, please sign in to the following page using your school account: My account 

Once signed in, go to the “Subscription” section and check which license is listed on your account. If your subscription shows “Microsoft 365 A1”, this plan does not include Office desktop apps, and you will only be able to use Excel and Word online through a web browser. 

If your subscription shows “Microsoft 365 A3 or A5”, you should be able to install the desktop apps. 

In that case, please go to the “Apps & devices” section and click “Install Office” to download and install Excel on your computer. 

If you are not using a school‑provided account and are instead a personal user who wants to use Excel for education purposes, you can sign in at https://www.office.com and select Install apps to install Excel using your personal Microsoft account, provided your subscription supports desktop apps.

For your reference: Download, install, or reinstall Microsoft 365 or Office 2024 on a PC or Mac - Microsoft Support 

 

Please feel free to reply and let us know what subscription you see on your account, and we will be happy to guide you further. 

Kind regards, 

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Answer 2

Follow these steps in order on the Windows device where Excel, Access, Word, and other Office apps are not working:

1. Make sure Office is up to date

• Open any Office app (if it opens) and install all available updates.
• If apps will not open at all, proceed to the repair step.

2. Try a full Online Repair of Office This fixes most cases where all Office apps fail.

• Close all Office apps.
• Right-click the Start button.
• Select Apps and Features (Windows 10) or Installed apps (Windows 11).
• Find Microsoft 365 or Office in the list.
• Select it, then choose Modify.
• In the repair window, choose Online Repair > Repair and confirm.
• Wait for the repair to complete (can take 15–30 minutes) and then restart the PC.
• After restart, open Excel or Word and test.

3. If apps still crash with “stopped working”

• Disable problematic add-ins if you can open an app in Safe Mode:
  • Hold Ctrl and start Word or Excel to open in Safe Mode.
  • Go to File > Options > Add-ins.
  • At the bottom, next to Manage, select COM Add-ins and click Go.
  • Uncheck all add-ins (especially older ones like ABBYY FineReader or Dragon Naturally Speaking) and restart the app normally.
  • If it works, re-enable add-ins one by one to find the one causing the issue.

4. If Online Repair does not fix it

• Completely uninstall Office from Apps & Features / Installed apps.
• Restart the PC (not just shut down).
• Reinstall Office from the Microsoft account or school/organization portal that provides the Microsoft 365 subscription.

5. Check Windows updates and drivers

• Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.
• Select Check online for updates from Microsoft Update and install all updates.
• After updates, restart and test Office apps again.

If the problem continues after these steps, collect the exact error message shown when opening Excel/Word and provide it to support for more targeted troubleshooting.

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References:

• I get a "stopped working" error when I start Office applications on my PC
• "Something went wrong" error when you try to start a Microsoft 365 app
• Repair an Office application
• I get a stopped working error when I start Office applications on my PC
• When I open an excel file it shows - We're sorry, but excel has run into an error that is preventing it from working correctly, Excel will need to be closed as a result. would you like us to repair now? then shows the option "repair now","help","close" - Microsoft Q&A
• we are sorry, but word has run into an error that is preventing it from working correctly. Word will need to be closed as a result. Would you like us to repair now? - Microsoft Q&A