14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not a surprise that some of the updates that Microsoft releases for its software actually do more harm than good, as the company is rolling out botched patches every once in a while, but this time it looks like the broken one was pulled so fast that it caused only minimal damage.
This time, the update that was close to wreaking havoc was KB3128031 for Microsoft Office 2010 which, according to a report from InfoWorld, caused issues with Excel.
It appears that the update caused some workbooks to fail to run with no available workaround, as copying data to a new workbook made no difference.
Microsoft is yet to confirm the problems, but it looks like the company has already pulled the patch and systems are no longer offered to install it via Windows Update. Furthermore, the Microsoft Update Catalog links for this patch are down at the moment of writing this article, most likely as the company is working to deliver a fix and re-issue the patch.
Update pulled, download links also down
Reports on issues hitting Microsoft Excel and caused by this update are hard to find right now, so it’s probably just an isolated bug, though the fact that the company has already pulled it is confirmation that there’s indeed an issue that needs to be fixed before the patch lands on more systems.
The official KB page also says nothing about the experienced issue and the description of the patch provides only a few details.
“[This update] improves the robustness to make sure that the stability of Office 2010 applications in certain scenarios,” the software giant explains.
At this point, if you are experiencing issues with Excel after installing the update, the only way to go seems to be removing KB3128031 completely from your system. Microsoft is very likely to re-issue it via Windows Update once it repairs the fix.