Microsoft yanks buggy Windows patches KB 4052233, 4052234, 4052235
In a startling departure from the norm,
Microsoft has not only pulled the buggy Win7/Server 2008 R2, Server
2012, and Win 8.1/Server 2012 R2 patches; it’s even eliminated the
associated KB articles and entries in the official update history pages.
As I reported last week, Microsoft released a handful of buggy patches designed to fix the “Unexpected error from external database driver” bug introduced by all of the October Windows security patches. As noted then, the bug fixes have bugs themselves, and the cure is worse than the disease.
Now comes word that Microsoft has not only yanked the bad patches; it’s also deleted the KB articles associated with the patches.
Specifically, all of these KB articles report that the page does not exist:
KB 4052234 for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1
KB 4052235 for Windows Server 2012
KB 4052233 for Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2
The official update pages no longer mention the banished buggy patches, and the corresponding entries no longer appear in the Update Catalog. It’s as if they never happened.
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Two of the patches designed to fix the “Unexpected error from external database driver” bug are still available:
KB 4052232 for Windows 10 Fall (“November”) Update, version 1511
KB 4052231 for Windows 10 Anniversary Update, version 1607, and Server 2016. This version of Win10 was declared end-of-life on October 10, 2017 — almost a month ago.
As I reported last week, Microsoft never did issue a fix for Windows 10 Creators Update, version 1703, the most-used version of Windows 10. The KB article for the latest Win10 1703 update, KB 4049370, build 15063.675, says that 1703 still suffers from the bug:
Installing this update may cause applications based on the Microsoft JET Database Engine (Microsoft Access 2007 and older or non-Microsoft applications) to fail when creating or opening Microsoft Excel .xls files. The error message is, “Unexpected error from external database driver (1). (Microsoft JET Database Engine)".
These patches were all a part of the surprise “Patch Thursday” release last week. They’re optional patches, listed in all of the corresponding update history pages, not pushed out through Windows Update, only available by download.
It’s not apparent, at this moment, exactly when Microsoft pulled the patches, although they were reported missing on Sunday, German time.
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