The emergency out-of-band update KB5002907, originally designed to restore update capabilities for systems inactive for over 90 days, has caused widespread issues for Microsoft Office users. Reports indicate that the update leads to the loss of activation status for Office 2016 and 2019 versions, with some users even experiencing complete uninstallation of the software.
Beyond activation failures, users of Microsoft Office Home & Business 2024 have reported performance degradation, specifically noting that Word and Excel applications now close significantly slower. Investigations revealed that the update causes the deletion of two critical registry keys within the .NET Framework AppPatch branch, specifically affecting excel.exe and winword.exe.
Furthermore, the installation of update KB5002907 prevents the successful deployment of subsequent updates. Users attempting to install the KB5126052 cumulative update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 encounter the error code 0x800f0922. Technical workarounds involve manually copying the missing registry entries to restore functionality.
