Microsoft gives out less information about Office bug fixes and patches

Office-Watch.comLast updated: 6 July 2021

Microsoft Access,Microsoft Excel,Microsoft Office,Microsoft Outlook,Microsoft Powerpoint,Microsoft Word,Office 2010,Office 2013,Office 2016,Office Watch

Microsoft has never been great about documenting patches and bug fixes but this month they have sunk to a new low.

Maybe it’s a delayed April Fool’s prank with Microsoft ‘taking the Mickey‘ or treating Office customers with contempt?

Sustained Engineering isn’t sustained

Maintaining Office software is the thankless job of the Office Sustained Engineering Team.

Until last month, they released a simple list of Office patches on their blog. That’s been stopped and the blog deleted (Microsoft euphemism ‘retired’).

All past blog posts and patch lists have been deleted. Even the post telling people about the end of the blog and patch lists has been deleted!

There’s an irony in a Microsoft ‘sustained’ team being deemed UNsustainable.

What’s going on?

More likely it’s another deliberate ploy to reduce any bad news about Microsoft Office. Microsoft only wants the most positive news about their products regardless of the reality. For years many bug fixes and security patches get very bland, almost useless, explanations.

Now even that pablum is too much disclosure. The new approach is to quietly publish individual Knowledge Base articles for each patch and drop the summary list of updates.

It’s possibly a cost-cutting measure. The vast cost of posting a list of updates may be too much for Microsoft to bear <sigh>.

The deletion of all past blog posts suggests this move is a PR strategy not a cost issue. Microsoft want to make it harder for web sites to publish monthly Office update lists.

April Office updates

Thanks to Softpedia here’s a list of the April 2019 updates. They only apply to Microsoft Office with .MSI installation.

Office 365 and Office 2019 use ‘Click to Run’ CtR installs which are managed separately but with an similar lack of transparency.

Office 2016

Outlook 2016 KB4464502
PowerPoint 2016 KB4462235
Project 2016 KB4464503
Skype for Business 2016 KB4462234
Word 2016 KB4462240

Office 2016 KB4011666
Office 2016 KB4462116
Office 2016 KB4464501
Office 2016 KB4462239
Office 2016 KB4418380
Office 2016 Language Interface Pack KB4462241