Microsoft's Patch Tuesday update KB 3114409, intended to
help admins keep Outlook 2010 from starting in safe mode, has in fact done the
opposite. Many Outlook 2010 customers report that installing KB 3114409 forces
Outlook to start in safe mode.
As of early Wednesday morning, the patch has been pulled,
but if you're experiencing odd problems with Outlook 2010 -- it opens in safe
mode only (always opens maximized and has no sounds, no reading pane, or other
view settings that stick), has broken templates, and much more -- you should
look at the KB 3114409 article for instructions on how to remove the patch.
And you should reflect on how a patch this destructive ever
made it through internal testing.
For those of you on Windows 10's forced upgrade treadmill,
note that Microsoft has pulled the patch, so you won't be forced to install it
again.
Judging by the complaints (which started less than an hour
after the patch was released mid-day on Tuesday) and reports that the patch had
been pulled (which started appearing around midnight eastern time on Tuesday
night), it took Microsoft around 12 hours to pull the faulty patch -- yes, 12
hours to pull an obviously bad patch.
HTHC: One of my machines running Windows 10 installed this patch.
Outlook always starts in "Safe Mode". I was unable to access my iCloud contacts and calendar because safe mode disables all Outlook plug-ins. iCloud integration with Outlook was one of those plug-ins.
What is "safe mode? If you have a problem getting Outlook to run, you use a special command to tell Outlook to run with just the basics. Hopefully, Outlook starts and you can undo/disable what was causing Outlook to fail to load normally.
How can you tell you are in "safe mode"? At the top of the screen, Outlook indicates it is in "safe mode".
How do you fix this problem? I uninstalled the bad Windows 10/Office patch and then re-installed iCloud so that the interface between Outlook and iCloud would work again.
