Microsoft Pulls (Some) Crash-Inducing Office Updates

Microsoft's update woes haven't ended with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. The company has also pulled several updates to its Office suite because they were causing crashes for some users, and it's acknowledged that one remaining update has also been causing problems too.

The updates in question are KB2863821 and KB4461522 for Office 2010. They were released on November 6, and as Softpedia noted today, Microsoft subsequently warned users that people who install the update "may experience crashes in Microsoft Access or other applications." The company didn't offer a solution. Instead, it decided to pull the update and tell people who've already installed it to remove it from their systems.

People who have installed the KB4461529 update released on November 13 have also experienced crashes with Outlook. Microsoft opted not to pull this update though because it contains security improvements that help mitigate Office users' risk of attack. The company instead acknowledged the problem and reportedly told users affected by the Outlook crash to access the email service on the web rather than via the app.

This is just the latest in a string of problems in Microsoft's recent updates. The last month-and-a-half was defined by the repeated failure to release the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. First there was a file system flaw, then people found an issue with compressed folders, then Microsoft had to hold back updates from people using specific Trend Micro apps or AMD graphics cards and then it had to withhold it from iCloud users as well.

To its credit, Microsoft has worked to mitigate the reach of these problems by delaying the Windows 10 October 2018 Update and pulling the updates to Office 2010, which is better than making them available to everyone and sorting out the issues later. But we still suspect that many are frustrated with all of these problems by now.

Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.