Hey everyone! I'm facing a frustrating issue after a patching tool was deployed by the previous team. It seems to be causing the Office applications to crash unexpectedly while people are actively working. Despite reaching out to their team for help, all I got was, "set up logging and send us the logs when it happens." They insist that their patching tool isn't responsible for this, but it's the only site experiencing these crashes. After deploying it myself, I've encountered the same problem. It's not a background update, and there are no warning messages—just a sudden exit as if the apps have crashed. After reopening the apps, they show a message saying, "Updating Microsoft 365 and Office, please wait a moment..." In the Event Viewer, I've noticed entries like: *Beginning a Windows Installer transaction: {90160000-008C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}. Client Process Id: 33520.* Also, it seems to interfere with Firefox, showing a "Restart to continue using Firefox" message. Even though this issue was fixed in earlier major updates, it remains unresolved. I'm sure there's a registry key or script to restore normal operations, but my searches have only led me to generic articles about patching tools. Has anyone else experienced this issue or know of a fix? I really appreciate any help!
5 Answers
Just curious, is the patching tool you're using a custom-built solution or is it from a third party?
It looks like there's a Windows Installer transaction at play here, which might indicate that some applications are getting forced closed due to an update. You should check out the MsiExec documentation to see if there are options to prevent apps from closing immediately. That might save you some trouble moving forward!
It sounds like it could be related to a group policy or a registry setting. You might want to start by checking Microsoft's documentation on updating settings for Office apps. If that doesn't work, consider running the Microsoft Office removal tool or doing a clean manual uninstall. Just make sure to delete all Office-related files and registry keys before reinstalling. Hang in there!
So what's this patching tool you're dealing with? Ours normally prompts users to close Office apps for updates, but yours just seems to force quit without notice. How's it actually deployed?
I can see why they won't help you—the new team probably isn't equipped to support this tool. It's a tough spot to be in!
Thanks for the insight!
It's from a third party—Pulseway Patch Management.