I was having this problem frequently, but it only started after I
installed a plug-in for Word - specifically the EndNote CWYW plugin.
Since I had to install files manually, in the
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Sta rtup\ directly, I
found that removing them immediately solved my problem.

Perhaps plug-ins that are being loaded with your office apps are
causing the trouble. Although just a guess, you might try shutting a
few of them off temporarily, or looking in the Excel and Word startup
directories (there is a similar one for Excel). If there are files, you
might try temporarily moving them.

Good luck with your issue!


--
Greyson