Microsoft has been forced to pull yet another patch after users reported that PowerPoint didn’t work properly after installing it.
Update KB2920732 was brought out in the February Patch Tuesday update round to improve the stability, reliability and usability of PowerPoint 2013.
However, for Office 2013 users it did the opposite, with many taking to forums to complain.
Microsoft had the following in a brief note:
“This update is currently unavailable. It is being revised to address an issue that is under investigation. The update will be restored when the issue is resolved.”
It has been a tough month already for Microsoft.
Last week it swiftly pulled and then reissued update KB3001652 after widespread complaints from users that the Visual Studio 2010 patch was affecting computers.
Redmond was also forced to make KB3001652 temporarily unavailable after users reported that it caused font corruption.
It’s been a busy start to the year for the Microsoft security team.
First it decided in January to controversially end public patch notices and make its Advance Notification Service (ANS) only available to Premier customers and organizations involved in Microsoft security programs.
Then it was caught up in a public slanging match with Google after the latter’s Project Zero team of researchers publicly disclosed an elevation of privileges vulnerability they found in Windows 8.1 just two days before it was due to be fixed in January Patch Tuesday.
Microsoft Security Response Center’s senior director, Chris Betz, penned a strongly worded blog post criticizing Google.
“Although following through keeps to Google’s announced timeline for disclosure, the decision feels less like principles and more like a ‘gotcha’, with customers the ones who may suffer as a result,” he said at the time.
“What’s right for Google is not always right for customers.”
Research by Tripwire earlier this month revealed that the number of critical patches released by Microsoft actually fell, from 42 in 2013 to 28 last year.
However, the number of vulnerabilities addressed by each actually rose 20% in the second half of the year.