Unable to preview any MS Office documents in Outlook 365 after Windows 10 repair

Question

My Windows 10 networking stack died recently, requiring a rescue repair-install from a USB key. Everything is now working fine except I am no longer able to preview Office documents in Outlook 365. The error for Word is:

This file cannot be previewed because of an error with the following previewer: Microsoft Word previewer

Same issue with Excel and PowerPoint. PDF previews still work fine (using Acrobat).

I've tried both a quick and a full online repair of Office 365. I've tried toggling settings in the Trust Center as described here https://www.technipages.com/outlook-fix-this-file-cannot-be-previewed .

Any suggestions for how to get Outlook preview to start working again for Office attachments?

Windows 10 Version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1288)
Office 365 Version 2204 (Build 15128.20178 Click-to-Run)

Answer 1

Hi @Adam Kessel ,

Glad to hear this issue has been resolved!
Thanks for the sharing.

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However, due to a recent update in forum policy, the question author now is not able to accept their own answers.

So I have written a brief summary of the solution this issue. Please feel free to accept it as the answer, which would benefit others who also has similar issues in forum.

Solution:
Go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\BFE in regedit and add 'local service', 'network service' and 'nt service\bfe' all to the security list with at least modify permissions and set those permissions to be recursive for all the keys under BFE.

Answer 2

Hi @Adam Kessel ,

Welcome to our forum!

Do other users around you encounter the same issue?

As i know, it may be related to compatibility. It's suggested that you could change and confirm the below option "Optimize for compatibility" is selected via File>Options>General>User Interface options.

If it doesn't work, considering it may be caused by the damage of the Outlook profile, it is suggested that you could try to create a new profile(Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>add) and add the account for testing to check if there are some differences.

On the other hand, considering the impact of some third-party programs on your computer, please try to perform a clean boot for windows and check if the issue still occur.

Hope the above help!

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Answer 3

This error prevents users from previewing the attached files in Outlook. The attached files can be of any format, like Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, etc.

A short time ago, I could not preview PDF files in Outlook. so I found the following solutions over google that fix my preview error with PDF files in Outlook:

• Install Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Delete all the files in Content. Outlook folder
• Check and correct the Windows Registry key
• Update Microsoft Office
• Check for Windows Update

Apart from carrying out the above suggestions , you may need to check this Registry key to be able to fix the error.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Answer 4

Note that PDF previews are still working, so it's not a problem of all previews being broken. I tried toggling the "when using multiple displays" option as suggested above and it made no difference.

The first poster suggested "check and correct registry key," but which registry key, and how does it need to be corrected?

Answer 5

I've now tried completely uninstalling Office 365, rebooting, and reinstalling. I still can't preview any Office document within Outlook.