Microsoft ackowledges problems with buggy Office 2013 patch KB 3114941

[Karlston]

Crashes in Lync and Outlook lead to Microsoft's fourth official recall of a Click-to-Run version of Office in the past four months

If you're using Office 2013 ProPlus and/or Office 2013 Click-to-Run, and you applied the April updates, you may have noticed that both Lync 2013 (also know as Skype for Business) and/or Outlook 2013 have been crashing more frequently than usual. Specifically, those who have KB 3114941 installed, and those running Office 2013 CtR 15.0.4815.1001 are seeing crashes with error code 0xc0000005.

 

Microsoft has details of the problem in KB 3158521. The crashes generate this kind of entry in your Application event log:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: date time
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Description: Faulting application name: lync.exe, version: 15.0.4805.1000, time stamp: 0x56b99a83 Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x16aeb4e8
Faulting process id: 0x13f4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d195c6a5a21379
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\lync.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: report_ID
Faulting package full name: %14
Faulting package-relative application ID: %15

Microsoft admitted to the problem yesterday and provided detailed instructions on how to roll back the bad April build to the less-buggy March build 15.0.4805.1003. For those running the "MSI version" -- the old-fashioned version of Office 2013 without Click-to-Run -- uninstalling KB 3114941 is relatively painless.

 

Rolling back a Click-to-Run patch, though, is not for the timid to undertake. However it's becoming a more common exercise -- particularly with the Feb. 16 version of Office 2016 Click-to-Run deleting POP3 email; the Word, Excel, and Outlook freeze in the Feb. 9 Office 2013 Click-to-Run; and the Word template renaming problem in the Dec. 11, 2015, Office 365 Click-to-Run.

 

By my reckoning, this is the fourth Office Click-to-Run recall in a little more than four months.

 

Source: Microsoft ackowledges problems with buggy Office 2013 patch KB 3114941 (InfoWorld - Woody Leonhard)

 

Discussion at Another buggy Office patch: Is Office 2013 causing Skype for Business or Outlook crashes? (AskWoody.com)