9/05/2015

Microsoft Office: Fix file association problem for Word .DOCX, Excel .XLSX, etc.

Error Message: "This action is valid only for products that are currently installed."

I had two versions of Microsoft Office on my computer -- Office 2007 and Office 2013 (aka Office 365). I can't remember why -- probably, I wanted to make sure 2013 worked all right before deleting 2007. Having both was fine, except the default version of Office kept being 2007 instead of 2013, unless I had 2013 open already.

Anyway, before I upgraded to Windows 10, I decided to do away with the older 2007. However, after I removed Office 2007, the same file types -- .DOCX and .XLSX -- were coming up with the error message above.

The way to fix this was not obvious at all.

But the solution is fairly simple:


  • Open Control Panel in your version of Windows. To do this, maybe right-click on the Start button and choose Control Panel.
  • Depending on your View, you need to click on Programs > Programs and Features.
  • Find your version of Office in the list.
  • Click on it to highlight the program.
  • The menu at the top will change to:
    [Organize] [Uninstall] [Change].
  • Click on [Change].
  • Click on "(x) Quick Repair" and hit [Repair].
After a couple of minutes that should work.

It seems like using Programs > Default Programs > "Associate file type or protocol with a program" should work, but it didn't work for me. 

Seems there used to be a more direct "Detect and Repair" function in Office, but it's not there from what I can tell.

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