Office 2013 Windows Explorer preview pane isn't working

Hello,

I understand how it makes you feel if Office applications do not work as expected. Let me help you with the issue.

You may follow the steps below in order to set the file association for Word and check if it helps.

1.        Right click a Word file
2.        Select Open With from the pop-up menu
3.        Click Choose default Program.
4.        Select Word in the Programs box
5.        Check Always use the selected program to open this kind of file
6.        Click OK.

I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance and I will be glad to help you.

Thank you.

1.        Right click a Word file
2.        Select Open With from the pop-up menu
3.        Click Choose default Program.
4.        Select Word in the Programs box
5.        Check Always use the selected program to open this kind of file
6.        Click OK.

I've tried setting Word as the default program. It did not work.

Since the problem occurs specifically with *.docx files, did you remember to use the Open With command with a Word file in that format?

Also try repairing Office from Control Panel, which should restore file associations.

Since the problem is specifically with *.docx files, did you remember to use the Open With command with a Word file in that format?

You should also try repairing Office from Control Panel, which should restore file associations.

Yes, as you can see in the images above the file that properly shows text is a "Word 97-2003" document and the one that does not properly display is a "Word" document. I made sure to use a "Word" document when changing the file association and also went to my default programs in the control panel to check there. Changing that does not affect the display of docx files.

I have also tried to repair and reinstall multiple times. It has not changed the settings. For whatever reason, Office does not completely uninstall from my computer. This means that whatever is causing the problem may never be removed during installation. Could it be some registry file left over from old Office versions? I don't know, but it would be nice if Office actually completely removed itself when I uninstall it. Why would Microsoft do such a thing.

I should also mention that using a different user account solved an issue I had with not being able to view help files, but it did not solve the problem with docx files in the preview pane.

Your observation is correct: some settings are left behind when you uninstall and reinstall. There is a KB article that you can use for a complete removal of Office. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501/en-us. However, since uninstalling/reinstalling is time-consuming, you may not want to do that unless it is completely necessary. If the Preview pane is the only problem that you are seeing with *.docx files, you may want to leave things alone (annoying as it is).

Thank you for the link, Stefan, but I have tried that as well. Either it did not work properly or I did not do it properly (multiple times). Whatever is causing this issue seems to be a file from a different installation.

It would be really nice if Microsoft would just allow a full uninstall because each time I uninstall with the automatic and manual methods my Office 2013 still has my previous files and associations. I know some of them are saved to my login name, but I am no sure how many are. Even my addons are still there. Why would that be if there was a full uninstall?

At this point I am leaning towards reformatting my whole computer since I am about due for a reformatting anyways.

Doesn't fix my issue.

Hello,

I understand how it makes you feel if Office applications do not work as expected. Let me help you with the issue.

You may follow the steps below in order to set the file association for Word and check if it helps.

1.        Right click a Word file
2.        Select Open With from the pop-up menu
3.        Click Choose default Program.
4.        Select Word in the Programs box
5.        Check Always use the selected program to open this kind of file
6.        Click OK.

I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance and I will be glad to help you.

Thank you.