I had exactly this issue the other day. I left my RT overnight having posted for help on this forum. When I went to the RT the next day and did a search for "Word", it was back albeit not pinned to Start/Taskbar. All I then did was to re-pin the Office apps to the desktop taskbar.This happened to my surface RT as well. However changing the windows programs on or off thing doesn't help at all. Are there any other ways to try dealing with this issue?
I had exactly this issue the other day. I left my RT overnight having posted for help on this forum. When I went to the RT the next day and did a search for "Word", it was back albeit not pinned to Start/Taskbar. All I then did was to re-pin the Office apps to the desktop taskbar.
So whilst I'm sorry I can't be of more help, I am at least glad to know that I wasn't loosing my marbles, as well as Office, and that others have had this happen too.