How to Reset Microsoft Word to Default Settings

Steven

Jul 28, 2023

2 min read

Updated: Sep 27

Word starts acting up. Add-ins stop working, formatting goes strange, toolbars are missing, or it crashes when you open it. You may not even remember which settings you changed. Resetting Word to its defaults gives you a clean start without reinstalling Office.

I'd work through these in order. The first steps are safe and quick, and the registry reset at the end is the most thorough.

Common Reasons to Reset Word

Add-ins aren't working the way they should.
Word crashes or freezes when it opens.
Default fonts, margins or styles have changed and you can't find where.
Toolbars, ribbons or features have gone missing.
You changed a lot of settings and just want to start over.

Step 1: Open Word in Safe Mode

Safe Mode starts Word without add-ins or custom settings. If Word works fine in Safe Mode, the problem is an add-in or your template, not Word itself.

Hold down Ctrl while you open Word, and click Yes when asked about Safe Mode.
Or press Windows key + R, type winword /safe and press Enter.

Step 2: Turn Off Add-ins

In Word, go to File > Options > Add-ins.
Next to Manage, choose COM Add-ins and click Go.
Untick all the add-ins and click OK.
Restart Word. If the problem is gone, turn the add-ins back on one at a time to find the one causing it.

Step 3: Reset the Normal Template

Word stores your default fonts, styles and margins in a file called Normal.dotm. If it gets corrupted, Word misbehaves. Renaming it makes Word create a fresh one.

Close Word.
Press Windows key + R, paste this and press Enter:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates

Rename Normal.dotm to Normal.old.
Open Word. It builds a new Normal.dotm with the default settings.

Step 4: Reset Word's Settings in the Registry

If nothing else worked, this resets all of Word's settings back to the way they were when it was installed. Close Word first, and back up the registry before making changes.

Press the Windows key, type regedit, and open Registry Editor as administrator.
Go to this location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word

Right-click the Word folder on the left and choose Rename. Rename it to Word.old. (Renaming instead of deleting means you can undo it by changing the name back.)
Close Registry Editor and restart your computer.
Open Word. It creates a fresh set of default settings.

Note: 16.0 covers Microsoft 365 and Office 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2024. After the reset you'll need to set up things like your default font and AutoCorrect entries again.

Prefer video? Here's a short video walkthrough.

Still Not Working? Repair Office

If Word still misbehaves after a full reset, repair Office: go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office, click the three dots, choose Modify and run a Quick Repair. If that doesn't fix it, run an Online Repair.