Hyperlinks in MS Office 2016 applications won't open

[JSK]

Windows 10 Pro (x64)
Intel i7 CPU 2.70GHz
32.0 GB RAM
2 x 500GB SSD
Office 2016
Firefox (default)

Sorry in advance about the length of this post, but I wanted to (a) recap the problem & (b) list both what I’ve already tried & other possibilities I’m wondering about.

I recently bought, downloaded, & installed “Microsoft Office Standard 2016 Genuine License Keys for Windows- 1 PC” to put on a new laptop. It seemed to install properly, but I’ve just discovered that I can’t open links in word documents, excel…any of the Office applications (web links or links to other Office files). When I try to, I get an error message:

“Your organization’s policies……” (see attached screenshot). I’m not in an organisation though, I’m an individual using this at home.

Things I’ve tried
If I open .doc or .docx files in WordPad then the hyperlinks work - they open the linked web pages. One difference between WordPad & Word that I’m aware of is that the former comes bundled with the OS, whereas Word (& Excel, etc) are part of the Office 2016 suite. To me, this strongly implies that whatever the problem is, it’s in the Office suite, not W10 or my browser.

I use Firefox (regularly updated) as my default browser, but I get the same issue/error message if I change my default to Opera, IE, or Edge.

Although I didn’t actually think it was this, I’ve checked “Options > advanced > “use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink” in word & it doesn’t make any difference whether that box is checked or not.

I’ve also gone to Settings>Apps>Default Apps & made sure Firefox is the default browser & in “Choose Default Apps By Type” I’ve selected Firefox as default for .html, .htm, etc

I’ve tried both uninstalling/reinstalling Office & run the Office repair process, neither of which have helped

None of the suggestions already offered on this forum worked (thanks anyway!), although the solution at slipstick.com seemed to sort it, but stopped working after a few days

Things I’m wondering about
I have 2 SSDs, C: for all OS & Application files & D: for my personal files…could it be related to this, possibly? Maybe something is responding to this as if it’s two networked computers in an organisation? I’m probably talking nonsense there, but I’m considering anything here

I’ve been looking round C: & found
[ul]
[li]winword.exe_xml, excel.exe_xml, etc (C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16. 0)[/li][li]various .opax files (C:\Users\Admin\admin)…?[/li][li]various .admx files (C:\Users\Admin\admx)…?[/li][/ul]
& wondered if it’s something in there…? From what I’ve read at FileInfo ADMX files are to do with Windows Group Policy…I’m not really sure about the relevance of xml or opax files though & I don’t understand this stuff enough to want to go changing anything without expert guidance

User profiles: there seem to be three, one of which was modified today (…?) & is a lot larger than the others (attached screenshots). Is it normal to have three user profiles & for the sizes to be so different? &, could it be related to the problem I’m having?

Any further thoughts or suggestions on what the problem is here & how I can resolve it would be very much appreciated. TIA

[Bastet]

Was the Office you purchased bought from Microsoft or a third party seller? If third party then the key may be a volume/company license which is already tied to a specific company account & has thus added your pc to their Organisation.

[JSK]

Was the Office you purchased bought from Microsoft or a third party seller? If third party then the key may be a volume/company license which is already tied to a specific company account & has thus added your pc to their Organisation.

3rd party: here, though it does describe it as being for 1 PC. I’ll get in touch & see what they have to say about your idea.
Thanks

[JSK]

I gave up on solving this - I don’t have the knowledge/skills myself & nobody on this, or other forums, seemed to have any solutions either. In the end I uninstalled Office 2016 & installed Office 2019. The company I bought from then refunded me the cost of office 2016.

2019 seems to be working fine, so I’m satisfied with that, though a bit frustrated at not being able to sort it - I have another W10 laptop that has office 2013 working on it just fine, so the company’s assertion that it was because 2016 is too old to run properly on W10 just doesn’t hold water. I guess this’ll just have to be one of those IT mysteries…

[JSK]

I don’t know how to close the thread, or to mark as ‘Solved’, although it isn’t really solved, I’ve just worked around it. So, admin, can you close this please? Thanks

Anyway, thanks for the engagement & suggestions everyone…a lot more than I got on other forums!

[Bruce]

On the bright side - at least it’s sorted.

Will close as solved - good luck.