Sorry an Error Has Occurred and Word Could Not Start (6) Fix

Another computer software problem in the land of make believe called Microsoft. This time one of my clients was receiving the following error when attempting to open Microsoft Word 2016.

Sorry an Error Has Occurred and Word Could Not Start (6)

I have no fucking idea what the number 6 designates. Anyways, here is the original client request:

My Microsoft Word and Edge wont come up on my computer.

If you noticed this customer had a problem with Microsoft Edge crashing. That will be covered in a separate blog post. This Windows 10 Home edition computer had major problems.

Three different antivirus software as enabled. Windows Defender, McaFee antivirus, and Norton Internet Security. Here is a gold tip early in this blog post. Do NOT install more than one antivirus software on any computer.

When two or more antivirus software are functional on the same computer, they end up fighting each other over resources. This machine was very slow and mostly because three different antivirus was functional. I removed McAfee antivirus because it had expired.

Norton Internet Security still had around six months of an active license. Windows Defender was easy to disable and or configure to use McaFee for antivirus. Also, I decided to use my preferred PC optimization tool, on this computer.

This software freed up about 500 megabytes of disk space and cleaned hundreds of registry entries. I then ran a spyware scan with my preferred anti spyware software. This software found three major pieces of malware software.

Next, I decided to try to repair Microsoft Office Word 2016. I went into “Apps and Features” in Windows 10. I selected Office 365.

This revealed two choices, “Modify” or “Uninstall”. You want to select “Modify” then click on “Quick Repair”. This took quite awhile and to no avail.

Microsoft Word 2016 would still NOT open. There is another repair option under “Modify”. This is called “Online Repair”.

I did NOT perform an online repair of Microsoft Word 2016. Instead, I went ahead and checked to see if there were any updates available for Microsoft Office 2016. You want to open an office application that actually works.

Now you select “Account” or “Office Account”. Look for “Product Information”. Select “Update Options”.

Now click on “Update Now”. Any Microsoft Office updates will be downloaded and installed. Once this scenario finished, I attempted to open up Microsoft Word.

Finally, Microsoft Word successfully worked. I had the client test some previously created Microsoft Office 2016 Word documents. All is well in the land of make believe called Microsoft land, until the next crisis.