While convenient for some, and annoying for others, for better or worse, you can end up with a few applications that open during your Windows 10 startup. From the many choices available, a likely candidate is Microsoft Word.
Personally, I find this feature to be notorious because I’d like to take control of the fact of what I want to run at startup. And above all, it slows me down before I can efficiently begin using my Operating System.
In any event, though, to disable Word from opening at startup, chiefly, there are two places you’d have to look.
- Task Manager Startup Items.
- Startup Apps in your system settings.
Typically, both these places will almost have the same number of items/applications that are marked for startup; however, I know that the options can differ, so it’s always best to rule out all possibilities.
Having said that, let’s cover our ground on both of these places/locations.
Place Number 1: Checking if Word Is Enabled From the Task Manager Startup
Traditionally, when someone wants to stop something from running in Windows 10, it has either something to do with a feeling of exasperation, or speed. In my experience, it’s usually the latter (which also causes the former).
On that note, I have previously discussed on 5 things you can easily do to speed up your Windows 10, and precisely one of those items refers to eliminating some of the programs that run at Windows 10 startup.
The process for doing the exact same for Microsoft Word won’t change. So feel free to jump to that article to learn how, or follow along here.
Navigating the World of Windows 10 Task Manager Startup and How to Disable Word
First things first; you need to get there. To get started, either search for task manager in your start menu to open the app, or simply, as famously known, press alt + ctrl + delete, and then choose “Task Manager.”
Once you have the app in front of your screen, select the “Startup” tab.

From the list of applications, select Microsoft Word (may go by a few other different names such as winword or similar), and hit right-click. Once you do, choose disable. Repeat the process for all other apps, and as a safe measure, restart your device/computer/laptop for the changes to take effect.

Place Number 2: Startup Apps
If for some reason, you didn’t see an option for Word in the previous place 1, there’s a chance that it’s under the “Startup Apps” inside your system settings.
To get there, search for startup apps, and open the settings Window. Once inside, toggle the button on or off, or in your case, to off, to disable Word at startup.

Other FAQs
The process described in this post (either through task manager startup, or the startup apps), should suffice for Excel too. However, if you cannot find your application in both these places, you may be able to configure an individual setting directly from your Excel Application.
Worse case, there might be some registry tweaks you could do (an advanced feature). If you’re interested, I’d suggest researching on it first.
For this, you’d definitely have to tweak your settings inside the word application. To execute, choose file > options. Then, under the “general” section, scroll down to the area where you have “start up” options (different than startup options when your OS starts).
Lastly, uncheck the box that says, “Show the start screen when this application starts.” Image attached for reference.
This has already been sort of answered already. Feel Free to leverage place 1, and place 2, as per your need. Or, as referenced before, you can take a little bit of a detailed look on Windows 10 startup options, in my previously written post here.
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Conclusion
Primarily, there are two quick and easy methods for stopping Microsoft Word from opening, as soon as you start your Windows OS. If neither of those methods serves your purpose, as a last resort, you may want to research into tweaking some registries, which will likely solve your problem.
Do note that changing registry is an advanced feature, so double make sure about what you’re doing.