While you install Office, the crucial background service named Office source Engine should be ready to run. If this service is not starting, you won’t be able to progress further with the office setup.

Recently, we faced a strange error during Office 2016 installation on a Windows 10 running machine. This error was directly related to office root service which was later found to be disabled on the device. The complete error message received in this case:

FIX - Office Ran Into A Problem Because Its System Service Is Disabled

No matter, if you’re making a clean install or upgrading your Office installation, this service related issue may occur in both cases. Hence, you need to check the corresponding service and fix it so that you can go ahead on installation. Here are the steps you can follow to get rid of this message:

FIX : Office Ran Into A Problem Because Its System Service Is Disabled While Installing Office 2016

FIX 1 – Fixing Office Background Service

1. Press W8K + R and type services.msc in the Run dialog box, hit Enter key to open Services snap-in.

Services Windows 10

2. In Services window, scroll down and look for Office Source Engine service and check its Status. Since you’re facing this issue, you may find the service in Disabled stage. Double click on the service to open its property sheet.

FIX - Office Ran Into A Problem Because Its System Service Is Disabled

3. In the Properties window, set the service Startup type to Manual or Automatic. You may also hit Start button to check if service can run. Click Apply, then OK. Close Services window and re-try to install Office 2016, it should work on.

FIX - Office Ran Into A Problem Because Its System Service Is Disabled

FIX 2 – Register Office Validator

1. Press W8K + R to open Run dialog box.

FIX - Office Ran Into A Problem Because Its System Service Is Disabled

2. In Run, type regsvr32 Officevalidator.dll and click OK or press Enter key. The problem should be resolved. If the issue still persists, you can try creating new user account and check.

Hope this helps!

Also check: How to repair Office offline?

32 Comments

Add your comment

  • Sam

    Doesn’t work. I tried both your solutions.

  • Robert Angelo Ragodon

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

  • Timothy R Palmer

    doesn’t work for me either

  • ich

    office tells that the service doesn’t work even if Office Source Engine runs.

  • Johnny B Good

    Fix 1 = Fix 2 = Don’t work

  • RUTH

    NOPE. And FYI … I HATE MICROSOFT!!!

  • Vedat Djabiroski

    Doesn’t work for me too… any other solution?

  • Jeff

    Doesn’t work for me, either.

  • Jerry

    Windows Key + R;
    type in services.msc and then press the enter key;
    Find Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service;
    Double click and set to automatic

  • Jay

    Jerry you’re the man

  • Mohd Shadid

    I believe the issue caused by mostly optimization application or some scripts that disable a lot of stuff in windows 10 to make it faster

    anyway as Jerry have said, the issue is in [ Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service ] even if you are using the professional edition, this service should stay on as well.
    To check and run the service, you should do either of the follow:
    Method 1:
    1) Windows Key + R, and type : services.msc
    2) Find and allocate Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service, right click and start
    3) Run word as a test to make sure it’s working
    IF NOT processed
    4) in the service list, find [ Office Source Engine ], double click on it and change it’s startup type into Manual then start the service
    ————Note: if you have installed a 64 bit office, service name is [ Office 64 Source Engine ]
    5) Go to Control Panel –> Program and Features –> Click on Microsoft Office and Press on Change button, try with local repair, if didn’t work you can work with online repair if using 365

    Method 2:
    1) Start Menu, and find Cmd, Right click run as administrator
    2) net start ClickToRunSvc
    3) Run word as a test to make sure it’s working
    IF NOT processed
    4) net start ose (for 64 office, use net start ose64)
    5) Go to Control Panel –> Program and Features –> Click on Microsoft Office and Press on Change button, try with local repair, if didn’t work you can work with online repair if using 365

    Good Luck

  • Ron

    Nope – still doesn’t work – – – office validator.dll failed to load

  • Julia SB

    I don’t have a Services entry named ‘Office Source’ or ‘Office 64 Source Engine.’ Secondly, when I ran the other option for the .DLL, it told me it wasn’t installed. That means the 11 hrs. I spent letting the ‘You’ve got a problem, but I’ll run again in a minute’ was wasted. Even the Office directory was larger, Word was showing when it wasn’t before, which is why I let it run. However, one day later, it’s still acting as if it’s not loaded. I’ve used the Microsoft Utility to remove and start over twice; that’s why this time, I wanted to make it work. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. I have a Dell laptop, 8 GB RAM, 1T HD, etc. etc. More than enough to work right…

  • Bella

    Both Office Source Engine and Click to Run are showing but as “failed to read description. Error code: 2”, and when I double click, I get an error message. When trying to “start the service” on the left hand side, I get error code 3 that they can’t read the path. Office used to run beautifully on my Windows 10 laptop, until a week ago.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Seems like the service files are corrupted/missing. Please run SFC /SCANNOW command in administrative Command Prompt and see if that helps.

  • john

    Thanks Kapil , worked perfectly wish i could buy you a drink …

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad I could help. Sorry, but I don’t drink 😊

  • Frank O’Brien

    This seems awfully complex for an Office 365 Home user. Doesn’t Microsoft have an easier simpler solution? Office 365 worked fine for first two months, but then started this error problem. Part of Office 365 install routine was to first remove all older copes of Office which I owned. Now I have no Office apps that works. Any simple ideas?

  • Charlie

    I found after all of that it did not work either but then I looked at other MS services such as Click To Run and Diagnostics and found when I restarted/re-enabled these it fixed the problem. Thank you all..

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thank you for sharing this 😊

  • Judy Ashton

    Jerry, you’re the man!

  • Josh

    Jerry you the man!!!!

  • DebO

    Thank you Jerry! Half of my dissertation almost dissappeared!

  • Marcus Cormier

    This worked for me. Thank you Jerry.

  • Virgilio Hartnick

    Hi I’m new at this but I managed to fixed this, when ever you have a program that clean your pc for example Avast Start-up in my case I told it to let every beck ground programs be put to sleep when I disabled it mine worked after again don’t know it works but it did for me.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thanks for adding this!

  • Bloom

    Thank Your Jerry

  • momo

    thank you man.. it’s working !!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad we could help 😊

  • Omji

    Yes, thank you Jerry!!! That certainly worked!!!

  • Jamari

    I try this way and work.

    From Run, type services.msc Enter/Klik OK
    Find services Microsoft Office Click-to-Run Service Double Click , Startup type choose Automatic, Click Apply, Click OK,
    Done!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Thank you for adding this!

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