Fix “Microsoft Word Not Responding” Bug | Easy Guide

Just finished that school essay or a report that your boss wants tomorrow that you spent the whole night working on, but Microsoft Word not responding, resulting in loss of your hard work? If you’re facing this problem, then you’ve come to the right place. 

Microsoft Word is a very popular word editing software used by students and offices worldwide. If it’s trusted by millions of people worldwide, it must be great right? No doubt it is, but sometimes even the best things fail. The issue of MS Word not responding is very rare, but when it happens, it can prove to be quite irritating. It results in the loss of your work and also the loss of precious time. There can be plenty of issues that can cause the Microsoft Word application to not respond like the application consuming cent per cent of the RAM (Random Access Memory) or some bug in the application code.

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Solving The ” Microsoft Word not responding” Error

Whenever you face the issue of MS Word not responding, you get an error message saying “Microsoft Word is not responding” or “Microsoft Word has stopped working”. But worry not, today we will guide you on how to solve this problem. Make sure to follow all the steps carefully. 

Close The Process Of MS Word In The Task Manager

Whenever your computer is running slow, or it hangs, you know what to do – The age-old implementation of Control + Alt + Delete and then open the Task Manager. Well, you have to do the same here:

Step 1: Press Control + Alt + Delete

task manager
Task Manager

Step 2: In the top bar, search for “Processes” and click on it.

processes menu
Processes menu

Step 3: After entering in the Processes tab, look for the MS Word task (This is your Word application) and then close the application. 

If you find out that in the task manager, the disk usage of the application of MS Word is 100%, then this is a problem of RAM overload, and you’d need to fix that first. Normally, rebooting your device and then restarting the application gets the job done (like 99% of the time) but in very rare cases, it’s possible that you would have to upgrade your RAM.

Once you’ve followed the above steps, you will fix the issue of Microsoft Word not responding Bug. But if the issue persists, worry not! We’ve got other fixes that might work for you, so keep on reading.

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Opening Word in Safe Mode

If you open Microsoft Word in safe mode, it starts the application without any templates or add-ons that might be interfering with the functioning of the basic program. If Microsoft Word works perfectly in the safe mode, then we can be assured that there’s no bug in the basic problem but the add-ons that are giving us the issue of MS Word not responding. To open Microsoft Word in the safe mode, do the following steps 

Step 1: Press Windows + R to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type “winword /safe” in the bar and then select Run

run window
Run Window

Alternatively, to run Microsoft Word in safe mode, you can press the Control key on your keyboard and then double click on the Word shortcut. 

If your Microsoft Word normally opens without giving any error, then there is no problem with your basic program but with the add-ons and templates. 

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Disabling Add-ons And Templates

If your Microsoft Word works perfectly in safe mode, then you can be assured that the problem is with the add-ins and the templates of MS Word that you may have added for the ease it provides in doing your work. You can try disabling add-ons for MS Word to resolve the issue of the application of Microsoft Word, not responding. For this, follow the following steps carefully:

Step 1: Press Windows + R to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type “winword /safe” in the bar and then click on Run.

run window
Run Window

Step 3: The application of MS Word would be opened in the Safe mode.

ms word safe mode
MS Word Safe Mode

Step 4: Go to the File option in the Menu Bar.

file option
File Option

Step 5: Find and select Word Options.

word options
Word Options

Step 6: Select the Add-Ins tab.

add-ins
Add-Ins

Step 7: In the downside portion of the window, you’ll see a Manage option. Make sure “COM Add-Ins” is selected and then press the Go button. 

com add-ins
COM Add-Ins

Step 8: A new window will pop out with all the add-ins in your Microsoft Word application.

Step 9: Click the checkbox corresponding to the specific add-ins you want to disable. 

disable com add-ins
Disable COM Add-Ins

Step 10: Once you’ve disabled all the add-ins, try opening the Word application normally, i.e. without the safe mode. 

Following the above steps will resolve the issue of your Microsoft Word document frozen and not responding.

Using The Microsoft Office Recovery Tool

This solution comes in handy when you’re working on some document, and the MS Word application suddenly freezes, and when you try to restart the application, all your work is lost. Sounds frustrating right? But with the Microsoft Office Recovery tool, you can recover your past work if you lost it to the issue of Microsoft Word not responding and also fix the issue of MS Word not responding. Although there is no guarantee of recovering your lost work, there are chances, so you never know. To implement the solution, follow the following steps – 

Step 1: Go to the Start button and look for All Programs and click on it.

Step 2: Look for Microsoft Office Tools and click on it. Find the MS Office Application Recovery and click on it.

office recovery
Office Recovery

Step 3: Choose the Word file that’s not responding and select it.

Step 4: Select the Recover Application 

Once you’ve done this, try restarting the MS Word file, and it will now open, and hence the Microsoft Office not responding issue will resolve and your lost work will also be recovered.

Conclusion 

This was our take on how the solve the Microsoft Word not responding problem. A user might have to try divergent methods to discover what would work for him/her. We really hope this guide was helpful to you and let us know which method was more efficient to you. Have a great day!

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