Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste
Recorded: Sept. 14, 2026, 5:08 p.m.
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Microsoft patches Windows and Excel – breaks audio, remote access, and paste Redmond's quality drive takes another detour through the known issues list Richard Speed Richard MICROSOFT ECOSYSTEM REPORTER Published READ MORE Microsoft anoints Rust as a 'Tier 1' internal language Azure SQL Data Sync stops taking newcomers before 2027 execution AI uprising postponed after Copilot falls off the web Microsoft goes after Salesforce and ERP users with AI-powered converter Novel Blue Moon kit targeting Chrome and Windows reflects new reality of AI-driven exploits Microsoft has confirmed that its latest security updates can disrupt Remote Desktop Services, silence some USB audio devices, and break pasting in Excel.September's Windows patches hardly support Microsoft's insistence that it is sorting out quality. The known issues list suggests there's still work to do.Reports of problems with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) began circulating on social media shortly after the update, and Microsoft has now acknowledged that, for some users, RDS has indeed been broken across multiple Windows versions, including Windows 11 26H1 and Windows Server 2012. The latter is due to drop out of the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program on October 13, 2026, so perhaps administrators might consider this a going-away present from Microsoft? Connections might fail after a few minutes, servers might hang at "Please wait for the Remote Desktop Configuration," and so on."Related tools, including Microsoft Management Console (MMC), RDS Licensing Diagnoser, and File Explorer might also become unresponsive," Microsoft admitted."Additionally, the Windows Update page might stop responding and continuously display a loading indicator."If a virtual machine becomes inaccessible through RDP, stopping (deallocating) and restarting it might temporarily restore connectivity. Microsoft is working on a fix.Microsoft also confirmed issues with support for some USB Audio Class 1.0 devices on Windows 11 26H1, 25H2, and 24H2. The standard dates back to the previous century, but affected users might find themselves with no audio, broken sound settings and volume controls, or problems with multichannel audio.Some customers have restored audio by switching to two-channel mode, Microsoft says. The company is working on a fix but has not provided a timeline.Users of Microsoft's productivity applications were not left out. either A fix for Excel remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities has broken a basic spreadsheet function. "The paste operation might fail silently," according to Microsoft. Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024 are affected. Microsoft said: "Although users try to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination is unmodified. When this issue occurs, users receive no indication of the failure, such as a beep or error message."The bad news for users with automatic updating turned on is that this update could have already been downloaded and installed automatically. Microsoft has not published a workaround, and one forum user reported resolving the issue by uninstalling and reinstalling Office, while others reported success using commands to uninstall the security update. 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Microsoft's recent security updates for Windows and Excel have introduced several functional disruptions for users, directly contradicting claims of quality improvement. According to Richard Speed, the known issues list highlights several significant problems stemming from these patches, affecting remote access capabilities, audio functionality, and core application operations. The issues related to Remote Desktop Services (RDS) were among the most serious. Reports circulated regarding problems with RDS shortly after the update, leading Microsoft to acknowledge that the Remote Desktop experience was broken across various Windows versions, including Windows 11 26H1 and Windows Server 2012. These disruptions included connection failures, servers freezing while waiting for Remote Desktop Configuration, and the inability for related tools, such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), RDS Licensing Diagnoser, and File Explorer, to respond. Furthermore, the Windows Update page itself was reported to become unresponsive, displaying a continuous loading indicator. Microsoft indicated that in some instances, stopping and restarting a virtual machine could temporarily restore connectivity, and the company was actively working on a fix for these service issues. The latter part of the issue highlighted an administrative concern, as the latter version of Windows Server 2012 dropped out of the Extended Security Updates program on October 13, 2026, raising questions about support for legacy systems. In addition to remote access problems, the patches also negatively impacted hardware and multimedia functionality. Microsoft confirmed issues affecting support for certain USB Audio Class 1.0 devices on Windows 11 26H1, 25H2, and 24H2. This caused users to experience complete loss of audio, faulty sound settings, volume control problems, or issues with multichannel audio, prompting some customers to temporarily resolve the situation by switching to two-channel mode while Microsoft worked on a resolution. The impact extended to productivity applications, specifically Excel. Microsoft acknowledged that fixes for remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities inadvertently broke a basic spreadsheet function. Specifically, the paste operation could fail silently, meaning the operation would not produce any audible error message or beep to alert the user that the failure occurred. This vulnerability affected users of Excel versions 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024. Because some users had automatic updating enabled, these insecure updates may have been installed automatically. Microsoft did not provide an official workaround, but user reports suggested possible resolutions involved uninstalling and reinstalling the Office suite or using commands to remove the specific security update, though removing the update also removed its associated security fixes. |