First Responders: KB3001652 Hangs Computers, Never Finishes Installation

UPDATE: Microsoft has now pulled this update. Reports were fast and wide-reaching enough to cause the company to act quickly.

Original article...

Reports of the first problematic update for February are starting to roll in, and KB3001652 (Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime) seems to be the culprit.

For some the patch will start to install, but never finish, leaving the system running indefinitely. Others have reported that even a reboot of the computer sends it back into the endless installation loop. This has happened on servers, workstations, and even reported on Surface Pro 3 tablets.

Those using System Center Configuration Manager are also being offered the update, but fortunately for them, they can stagger updates and halt delivery for now.

We'll let you know what happens as things transpire. But, for now, you should avoid this one.

The associated KB article gives a prerequisite and a suggestion. It says,

To apply this hotfix, you must have Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 installed.

And…

We recommend that you close all Visual Studio 2010-related components before you install the hotfix.

I'm just guessing here, but could this be a detection issue?