Scan and fix Office issues with the Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool
If you use Microsoft Office for more than just the occasional spreadsheet or Word document, you may have encountered issues in the past after installing a new add-in or plug-in, or making configuration changes.
While it is sometimes easy to correct those, others may require a deeper analysis.
One of the programs that you can use for that is the Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool which was just released in a new version.
It has been designed by Microsoft to analyze Office programs for "known configurations that cause problems" and to resolve several of those issues if detected.
Download the latest version of the program from the Microsoft website and install it on your system.
As far as system requirements go, it is compatible with all supported versions of Windows and the Office versions 2007, 2010 and 2013. The Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool supports most Office programs including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access to name a few. The Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5 is required to run the program.
The program scans for updates quickly on start before it displays a list of Office programs. Select one or multiple programs for the scan and click on more applications to list other programs not listed on the screen by default.
Once you have made the selection click the scan button to start the analysis.
Links to reports for each program are listed after the scan completes. When you click on a link you are taken to its report which highlights issues found.
For instance, you may receive notifications that certain dll files are not up to date or which updates are installed on the system.
Each issue comes with a description that explains it and possible solution. For some, updates may be available that you download and install while others may require that you run Fix-It solutions instead to correct it.
The report view ships with additional options. It allows you to group issues by class or severity instead of symptoms, to filter the report to only display certain types of issues, to search for issues, and to print or export information.
Exported reports can be imported again on the same or other machines running the program. This is done under scan management. There you find listed all reports, the import option, and options to delete all or select scans.
A click on advanced tools reveals three additional features that allow you to log Outlook in real-time, to load the calendar checking tool, and to troubleshoot KSM activiation.
Verdict
Microsoft's Office Configuration Analyzer Tool assists you in analyzing and fixing issues in Office programs. It may provide you with solutions on how to fix issues in Office that you cannot resolve manually. Descriptions and solutions provide understandable information regardless of experience with computers.
If you run into issues running or using Office programs, this may be the tool that you may want to run to find out more about them. (via Caschy's Blog)
Installed and run on Office 2007. Comes up with useless information such as product being out of support. Does not offer pathways to error resolution. Does not describe problem beyond two bit info. I have to use this word again: useless.
Not only is it useless, it also runs at startup–with no option to to turn it off. (Yes, you can exit after it loads, but to stop it from loading at boot, you’d have to use Autoruns or similar.)
Hyperlinks not working in Outlook? Really? Not that I noticed. It also scanned the registry and picked up some uninstalled add-ins that left traces behind.
The cherry on top is that it left a bunch of errors in my Event Viewer.
Uninstalled. Never again.