Office installations include a built-in repair tool, and that’s the first place to turn when things go awry. The absolute worst case requires running a cleanup tool on the current Office installation, followed by a clean install of a new copy of Office. That has never failed in my experience, any time I’ve had to go that far. The steps to access the repair tool vary depending on your operating system.

Additional resources

Does anyone have any idea how this can be done? Instructions for repairing all seem to rely on them actually showing up as installed. Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

Microsoft Office Apps need Repair

If you’re not sure, the Installed Apps list we started with is a good place to look. If you’re coming from section 2, grab the download link for what Microsoft calls the "uninstall support tool" in its Support pages. Its filename is SetupProd_Offscrub.exe, so I’ve gotten in the habit of calling it "OffScrub" myself.

Beyond Tools: Why a SAM Tool Isn’t a Complete Solution

If you have to go this far during actual Office repairs, my condolences. You’re probably feeling pretty frustrated by now. We’re going to download and run a tool that completely obliterates your current Office installation. Then you’ll download and install a fresh, new installation from the Microsoft Office download page. This process seldom takes more than one or two minutes.

How Do I Repair Microsoft Office?

Just before the progress bar completed, a notification popped up to tell me that my Office install was complete. The installer window changed to an animated display that included what’s shown in Figure 8. The easiest way to determine this is to take the document to a different computer running another copy of Microsoft Office and attempt to open the document there. If it works, then it’s likely that your installation of Office is the problem, not the document. If it fails, it’s likely the document itself is at fault. Below the reset section in the Office Advanced Options (shown above) is an uninstall link.

• When the process completes, the "Done repairing" window appears, as shown in Figure 6.
• This process seldom takes more than one or two minutes.
• So I close Excel, try to open it again without safe mode, and… nothing.
• The absolute worst case requires running a cleanup tool on the current Office installation, followed by a clean install of a new copy of Office.
• If it works, then it’s likely that your installation of Office is the problem, not the document.
• If the steps above don’t help, the next step is to uninstall and reinstall Office.
• You can also take some preventive measures to avoid losing your work by automatically saving a backup copy of your workbook or creating a recovery file from time to time.

Repairing Office

Even on my 2012 vintage test machine, it was done in under a minute (on a healthy Office installation, I cheerfully confess). When the process FixTechGuide Office login guide completes, the "Done repairing" window appears, as shown in Figure 6. Once you’ve clicked Change, you may see a User Account Control window asking for permission to run the repair program. Click Yes, and the built-in Office repair window appears. The Quick Repair option, as shown in Figure 2, is selected by default.



You’ll then need to re-download and reinstall Microsoft Office. When complete, a checkmark appears next to the Rest button. Unzip to a folder of your choosing, then run the file named SaraSetup.exe to install the program.

When you're done, you might need to restart your computer. I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read. Microsoft SaRA is the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant. If you’re lucky, when you open your formerly balky or misbehaving Windows app, all will be well. With the Quick Repair radio button selected, click the Repair button near the bottom right corner of the window. Please relax, and don’t give in to panic or upset.

A progress bar appears and shows progress while the repair happens. Once done, a checkbox will be added to the repair button. With a backup copy of your workbook, you'll always have access to your data if your workbook is deleted accidentally or if it becomes corrupted. Choose one of the following methods to help recover your data. You can also try third-party software solutions to try to recover workbook. This takes you to the same screen shown in Figure 11 above, so you can keep going from here.

You’ll see a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 9 open up and ask you to confirm installation. If you have any Office applications open, you’ll be asked to close them before the repairs can complete. On my test machine, for example, I had Outlook open. This provoked the request shown in Figure 4 (where, of course, I clicked Continue to close Outlook so repairs could work through to completion). A window opens to ask you if you’re ready to commence repairs.