Picking Up the Pieces: Microsoft Starts Fixing August Updates

It's been a rough month for Microsoft. A number of botched and then recalled patches and major Azure outages top the list. I'm sure the company would like a do-over. But, as much as Microsoft has been pained by the problems, customers have felt the agony even more. I've heard from more than a few that companies are starting to second guess Microsoft's efforts, leading to a growing mistrust in what the company produces. From patches to Cloud services, customers are now questioning if Microsoft's bold, new style can work for them.

I've still yet to weigh in completely on the matter, but until I do, you can still lend your voice to the topic by participating in a quick survey about why you believe Microsoft is failing its customers – at least in the patch release area. The survey is here: Theories for Unreliable Microsoft Patches.

Our own Tony Redmond was quick to report on the first occurrence of August Patch Tuesday problems, finding an issue with an update for Outlook 2013 that kept the application from opening mail archives. Tony has recently updated that article to tell about a new release from Microsoft designed to repair the damage of the Outlook 2013 patch. Tony has installed and tested the new patch and provides his recommendation. According to the associated KB article (KB2889859), there were more issues with the update than was widely known. The additional issues include recurring meetings, IMAP, and holiday date shifts.

The patches are available at the following locations and require manual download and installation:

Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB2889859) 32-Bit Edition

Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB2889859) 64-Bit Edition

As you should know by now, Microsoft was forced to pull a total of four update this month. This Outlook 2013 fix is the first attempt at fixing problems from August's Patch Tuesday. I expect that more are on the way.