Fix: Microsoft Word Starter 2010 cannot be opened

This error usually appears out of nowhere and users have said that they simply started their Microsoft Office one day and it powers on but there is this error message preventing them from opening any of the Microsoft Office suite apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

There are various things which can cause this error to appear and most of them are quite easy to solve if you are among the lucky ones. If you are not, then you may need to work some more for the solution but we still think you will solve the problem before you reach the end of this article!

Solution 1: Repair the Microsoft Office Started from Control Panel or Settings

You can always try repairing the Microsoft Office 2010 from Control Panel as this seems to be the most widely accepted solution you can find online regarding this problem. Dozens of people were relieved when they stumbled upon this simple solution and we hope you will be one of them!

1. Click on the Start menu and open the Control Panel by searching for it simply by typing with the Start menu window open or by clicking the Search button next to it. Alternatively, you can click the gear icon in the lower-left part of the Start menu in order to open the Settings app if you are using Windows 10.

2. In the Control Panel, select to View as: Category option at the top right corner of the Control Panel window and tap on Uninstall a Program under the Programs section.
3. If you are using the Settings app, clicking on Apps should immediately open a list of all installed programs on your PC so wait for a while in order for it to load
4. Locate Microsoft Office 2010 in Control Panel or Settings and click on Change. Follow any instructions which appear afterward in order to repair its installation.

5. After the process is over, check to see if you still receive the same problem when starting one of the Office apps. If you are, try locating the Microsoft Office Starter 2010 entry in Control Panel or Settings and repeat the same process.

Solution 2: Uninstall Starter 2010 and Open a DOC File

Another twist at the same problem would be to completely uninstall Microsoft Office Starter 2010 and let the Microsoft Office suite install it themselves. This can be done quite easily and it has helped people who didn’t have much luck with Solution 1 or who can’t find the Change option in Control Panel.

1. Follow steps 1-3 from the solution above in order to navigate to the same Control Panel or Settings window where you can locate the Microsoft Office Starter 2010 entry.
2. Click on the Uninstall option at the top of the window, confirm any confirmation dialogues, and follow the instructions which will appear on-screen in order to uninstall this tool completely.

3. After the process is over, locate any .DOC file (or any file which is usually handled by Microsoft office such as .PPT, .PPTX, .XLS, etc.) and click on Use Starter when prompted with a dialogue asking you to choose an option. Check to see if the problem is gone after Starter is reinstalled this way.

Solution 3: Update Your Windows OS Completely

Installing the latest updates has helped several users after they have already tried the methods above. The solutions above are universal and have helped the most users but installing the latest updates released by Microsoft is one of the last resorts which might solve the problem for you.

1. Open the PowerShell tool simply by right-clicking the Start menu button and selecting the Windows PowerShell (Admin) option in order to open it with administrator privileges that are required for this process. If you see Command Prompt instead of PowerShell, you can also search for it manually in the Start menu or the search bar next to it.

1. In the Powershell console, type in “cmd” and wait for Powershell to switch to the cmd-like environment which might appear more natural
2. In the “cmd”-like console, type in the command shown below and make sure you click Enter afterward:

wuauclt.exe /updatenow

3. Let this command run for at least an hour and check back to see if any updates were found and/or installed without issues.

Alternative:

1. Search for Settings in the Start menu and click on the first result which pops up. You can also click directly on the gear-like button at the lower left part of the Start menu.

2. Locate the Update & security option at the bottom part of the Settings window and click on it in order to open update-related settings.
3. Stay in the Windows Update tab and click on the Check for updates button under the Update status section in order to check if there is a new build of Windows available online.

4. If there is one, Windows should initiate the download process automatically. Make sure you remain patient and you restart your computer when prompted. Check to see if the problem with Office is solved after the latest updates are installed.

Solution 4: Run a Certain Starter File Manually

This solution may appear weird but it’s simple to understand and to perform. Even better, it sometimes gets the problem solved which made this method important enough to us to include it in the article. Basically, you will need to locate a file and simply run it and let it do its thing. Sounds simple enough!

1. Locate the file you need to run in the location displayed below. Note that this is the default location of the file and it’s put there by default no matter where you chose to install Office. If you can’t follow the path specified, this solution is probably not applicable to your scenario.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Virtualization Handler\CVH.exe

2. Run this file and wait for it to finish with its process. You should see two options at the bottom: Pause and Close. After the process finishes, click on Close in order to close this box, restart your computer, and check to see if the problem still appears.