Issues opening MS 365 Office programs

Question

Office will not open; errors state folder or directory corrupted.

For example, when trying to open Excel, receive application error "The Application was unable to start correcetly (0xc0000142).

Answer 1

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

May I know what troubleshooting steps have you already taken?

Have you tried manual repair instead? If you haven't tried it yet, please follow the steps below.

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If you haven't tried anything yet please start by:

First, please check if your Microsoft 365 is active or if your Office license is listed. You can do this by signing in at https://account.microsoft.com/services if the subscription is active or if your Office license is listed, try these steps:

Repair Office apps:

• Press Windows + R, type appwiz.cpl and press Enter.
• Find Microsoft 365 or Office in the list, select it, then choose Change > Quick Repair.
• If that doesn’t help, run the repair again but select Online Repair instead.

Check for updates:

• Open any Office app (if it opens even briefly), go to File > Account > Update Options > Update Now.
• Restart your device after repair and try opening the apps again.

If the apps still don’t open, please let me know if you’re using Microsoft 365 or a one-time purchase version (like Office 2021), so I can guide you with the next specific steps.

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Let me know how it goes or if you have any further questions or concerns.

Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.

Answer 2

The error 0xc0000142 when starting Microsoft 365 apps is commonly caused by issues in the Office installation or by system configuration blocking required components.

Follow these steps in order:

1. Update Office to the latest build
   1. Open Task Scheduler from the Windows taskbar search.
   2. Expand Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Office.
   3. In the middle pane, locate Office Automatic Updates 2.0.
   4. Right‑click it and select Run to force an Office update.
   5. After the task completes, try starting Excel/Word again.
2. Repair Office from Control Panel/Settings
   1. Open Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program (or Settings > Apps > Installed apps on newer Windows builds).
   2. Select the Microsoft 365/Office product.
   3. Choose Change (or Modify), then:
      • For Click‑to‑Run installations: in How would you like to repair your Office Programs, first try Quick Repair. If the issue persists, run Online Repair to fully repair Office.
      • For MSI‑based installations: in Change your installation, select Repair, then Continue, and complete the wizard.
   4. After the repair finishes, restart the computer and test the apps.
3. Ensure Windows is fully updated Install all pending Windows Updates, then restart and test Office again. (See the Windows guidance in Install Windows Update referenced in the documentation.)
4. If the error persists and logs mention symbolic links (0xc0000715 scenario) If event logs or Click‑to‑Run logs show messages about symbolic link evaluation being disabled, enable it and restart the Office Click‑to‑Run service:
   1. Open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell and run:

            fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation
      

      If local/remote symbolic link evaluation is disabled, then either: Option A – via Local Group Policy Editor
      1. Run gpedit.msc.
      2. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem.
      3. Open Selectively allow the evaluation of a symbolic link.
      4. Set it to Enabled and check all required options (Local‑to‑Local, Local‑to‑Remote, Remote‑to‑Local as applicable).
      5. Apply and close the editor.
      Option B – via fsutil In an elevated Command Prompt:

            fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1
            fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2R:1
            fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2L:1
      

   2. Restart the Office Click‑to‑Run service:

            net stop ClickToRunSvc
            net start ClickToRunSvc
      

   3. Try opening the Office apps again.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, a full uninstall of Office followed by reinstall (after ensuring the disk and file system errors are corrected) is typically the next action, but that procedure is not detailed in the provided material.

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References:

• Error 0xC0000142 when you start an Office application
• "Application was unable to start correctly" error when accessing Microsoft 365 apps
• "Unable to start Office" or ”Office is busy” error message