P3D v5.2 won't launch if Microsoft Office isn't installed

[avviiator]

This is the most bizarre thing I've seen, I tried launching my flight simulator numerous times but it won't load, funnily enough, it happened right after I uninstalled microsoft office since I got a CTD error relating to it. I thought that there's no way microsoft office could be related to P3D but right after I install microsoft office again it works again. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening or what is causing this to occur? (P3D doesn't really crash but rather still running in the background and visible in task manager)

[Martyson]

@ avviiator ,

Is it an old unsupported version of MS Office possibly needing an upgrade?

The search function in P3D is here (or you can also use your favorite Internet search engine):
https://i.imgur.com/EdefE2D.jpg

[avviiator]

@ avviiator ,

Is it an old unsupported version of MS Office possibly needing an upgrade?

The search function in P3D is here (or you can also use your favorite Internet search engine):
https://i.imgur.com/EdefE2D.jpg

I searched almost everywhere but none of it is similar to mine. I believe my MS office is the latest version.

[Martyson]

@ avviiator ,

Search this forum again:

Office

did you get a bunch to look at?

[KevinKaessmann]

I had a similar behaviour in my P3D 4.5 some weeks earlier as I upgraded an older MS Office 2010 version by uninstalling, then updating it to Office 2016 32bit. In my case, the reason was RAAS (locked version that came with Aerosoft Airbus but is build into other addon aircrafts too, e.g. PMDG).

RAAS needs a 64bit Microsoft Access library, but the removal of the older Office 2010 removed this MS Access library too (although it was 32bit, on my advise for a clean installation, the MS support tool removed everything related to Office). As the newer Office was 32bit and didn't contain a 64bit Access library, after this Office update: P3D started but remained in the background.

One solution I found as recommended was to install Office 64bit, but I wouldn't do that because of compatibilty issues.
The solution for me was to download the newest locked RAAS as of 1. August 2020 from fs2crew.com to do an update (simply executed the installer). I think, they bundled the necessary MS Access library in this download, after installing this new RAAS, P3D came up in the usual way.

If you have RAAS installed ("locked" to an addon aircraft or the unlocked version), you should give the RAAS update a try.
You could check this by the P3D "Tools" drop down: if there's an entry for RAAS, this may be the reason for your problem.

BTW: https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6312&t=140904&start=60