There are reports of the patch causing similar lockup problems with Excel 2013 and Outlook 2013 February’s Patch Tuesday continues its tempestuous ways. Now there’s word that one of the optional Office 2013 patches, KB 3114717, makes many installations of Word 2013 unusable. In addition, there are reports — apparently related — of lockups and slowdowns with Excel 2013 and Outlook 2013. Posting yesterday on the Technet Office forum, Christoph von Wittich says: When KB3114717 is installed typing in a .docx Document becomes nearly impossible and CPU load goes to 100% (.doc has no issues). This happens with Word 2013 only, Word 2016 is not affected. Tested on Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise 10240 and Windows 10 Enterprise 1511. Further investigation shows that: The problem occurs with Word 2013 SP1 32-bit. (Many people prefer the 32-bit version of Word 2013 over the 64-bit because of historic stability questions.) It also appears on 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2002 R2. The bug drives one processor core to 100 percent utilization, making it effectively impossible to edit a document. Running Word in safe mode doesn’t help. There are reports that the problem occurs with both DOC and DOCX files. There are additional reports (still unconfirmed) that a similar problem occurs with Outlook. Microsoft employee Emi Zhang reported on Technet late Thursday night: We have escalated this problem, any updates will let you know. Poster amcmill (who isn’t listed as a Microsoft employee) gave a definitive response last night in one of the Microsoft Answer forum threads on the subject: This is confirmed as an issue with update KB3114717. How to uninstall this update Windows 10: Go to Start, enter View Installed Updates in the Search Windows box, and then press Enter. In the list of updates, locate and then select update KB3114717, and then select Uninstall. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. If you’re using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then select Search. Enter windows update, select Windows Update, and then select Installed Updates. In the list of updates, locate and then select update KB3114717, and then select Uninstall. Windows 7: Go to Start, enter Run, and then select Run. Enter Appwiz.cpl, and then select OK. Select View installed updates. In the list of updates, search locate and then select update KB3114717, and then select Uninstall. Of course, amcmill didn’t mention that uninstalling the patch in Windows 10 is an ongoing pain. Every time you reboot Windows 10, the patch will reinstall, and you’ll have to remove it all over again — unless you dig into the wushowhide utility, KB 307930, which I discussed in a similar context last month. It looks like Excel got zapped as well. According to poster Chiller15 on a Spiceworks thread: We had this issue with Excel 2013 32-bit. A use would be editing a workbook and all of a sudden it would lock up or take a second to switch between cells. Looking at Task Manager, Excel was taking up ~70% of the CPU whilst it was locking up. I was able to replicate the issue and then we traced the problem back to a Windows Update (KB3114717 to be specific). Once KB3114717 was removed, the issue stopped and I was no longer able to replicate the issue. So far, the KB article hasn’t been updated; the patch (as best I can tell) hasn’t been pulled; and there’s been no further announcement on the Technet or Microsoft Answers forums. Just be glad you don’t have Windows 10 and its forced updates …. if you’re lucky. Related content opinion On a personal note... Woody Leonhard looks back a bit, looks ahead to retirement — and shares good news about who's picking up the Windows patching torch. By Woody Leonhard Nov 09, 2020 3 mins Small and Medium Business Computers Windows news analysis Get Microsoft's October patches installed — and seriously consider Win10 2004 Odd ancillary patches have their problems, but the mainstream October patches look pretty reliable. The big question: Is Win10 version 2004 up to your stability standards. I’m skeptical -- especially because it has few worthwhile improvements. By Woody Leonhard Oct 30, 2020 6 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Computers news analysis Microsoft Patch Alert: October 2020 The big news with this month’s patches – aside from the usual smorgasbord of strange errors – has more to do with the patches that are outside the regular cumulative update stream. Remarkably, we didn’t get any security fixes By Woody Leonhard Oct 22, 2020 189 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Office Microsoft news analysis With Patch Tuesday here, be sure Windows Update is paused With all the flotsam floating around, it’s easy to lose sight of Second Tuesdays. October’s arrives tomorrow and, with it, another round of Windows and Office patches. Take a minute to make sure you aren’t in the front lines, as eve By Woody Leonhard Oct 12, 2020 5 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Windows Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe