Office 2010 home and business not starting

Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14(?)\ and double click on the .exe files for excel, word, and powerpoint. Does the application open correctly?

Yes.

OS is Vista Home

Have you checked that the links in the start menu still point to the right directory?

You could always re-make the links in the start directory by using the .exe in the Program Files directory.
Delete the old links and make new ones.

Depending on your OS this process may be different. In Windows 7 go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features. Choose Office 2010 and click the change button and do a Repair.

Fraid I've already repaired / removed and reinstalled

Links all point to the correct directory

Do you get an error code along with the error message?

No fraid not

Have you tried making the links in the start menu by hand? as in delete the ones that are there and recreate them by hand?

Seems crazy to have to do that though - but it's worth a shot.
You could always just try it with one of the exe's like Word - delete out of the start menu, right click on the exe in the program files folder and pin to the start menu and see what happens.

I've pinned the winword.exe etc to the start menu and that works ok

There must be something wrong with the registry settings or in fact the keys to make sure the right application opens when a docx etc is clicked.

I would suggest deinstalling office and then reinstalling it in it's entirety.

Or if you can live with the problem - just relink all the office apps into the start menu like you did winword.exe.

Already removed and reinstalled

When did this problem start? I had a customer just this week with the exact same problem. Turns out it was either a McAfee update or and Adobe Acrobat update that caused the problem. (automatic updates) So I did a system restore to last week and manually updated both programs. That corrected the problem.

Its been a month or so. It did it from the day it was installed. might try and go back as I have a memory that it had office home & student

I did notice in researching that someone mentioned this problem and it in fact was because they had a free trial version on their computer they did not uninstall before installing the full version. Worth a shot... make sure there is no other office version installed, if so uninstall both, download ccleaner http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner and run the registry cleaner. Then reinstall office. This may clear out the the registry error if one exists, and likely so.

I believe it is a registry error as well. Especially as documents opened from the desktop create the same error. It seems to be pointing to the wrong application somewhere in the registry.

A complete uninstall and reinstall should fix it.

Reformated and reinstalled Windows and Office as no resolution was possible.