With lots of features, Word is one of the most used Office components for me. Today, I was trying to use SharePoint as a collaboration tool along with Microsoft Word, so that I could it to connect with my team, but Word didn’t let me do so. I was being forced by Word to use my local documents in it, as evident from this error prompt I received.

Word Could Not Create Work File, Check The Temp Environment Variable

As you can see in the image, there was nothing to help me to fix up this issue except the error message itself. I tried Microsoft Support, but their solutions did not work for me – I guess they were for previous Word editions. Then I came to the conclusion that this is due to incorrect registry entries. So, finally, I got two fixes to troubleshoot this issue and would like to share with you all.

1] Reregister Word files

To fix this problem, simple press Windows Key + R combination to bring up Run dialog. Type following and hit Enter:

winword.exe /r

In the above command, the /r part forces a re-register of Word in Windows Registry configuration and thus eventually fixes up the issue. If this fix does not work, you can try the alternative:

2] Registry Fix

1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type put Regedt32.exe in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3. In the right pane of this location, look for the AppData named string and carefully observe its Value data. The Value data for this string, if it has been changed, it is enough capable to generate the issues regarding environment variable. So restore its default Value data to this:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming

Click OK after inputting the Value data. You may now close the Registry Editor and reboot the machine. After reboot, start using Word again, and you observe that the issue has been fixed already.

Hope this helps!

NOTE: Also read bella’s comment below.

• Tags: Troubleshoot, Word