It looks like we have another bad nonsecurity patch.
As best I can tell, the patch—KB 3128031 for Office 2010—is still available on the Microsoft Catalog, but direct links on the KB page return a “This site can’t be reached” or a 404 “Sorry, this download is no longer available” page.
A few hours ago, an anonymous poster on the AskWoody Lounge raised the alarm:
One of my Excel 2010 workbooks failed to run Workbook_Open code after installing this months Office 2010 updates. After uninstalling and reinstalling individually, I traced the problem to:
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 KB3128031
Strangely, while that workbook failed, a new test workbook with a simple message called from Workbook_Open did run. Copying all sheets and code to a new workbook did not fix the problem.
Microsoft now seems to have pulled the update but my Windows 7 update still offered it tonight.
A quick scan of the usual Office support forums doesn’t turn up any additional information.
Microsoft hasn’t issued a statement or modified the original KB article in any way. Several have complained that the official description of the problem leaves much to be desired:
Improvements and fixes
Improves the robustness to make sure that the stability of Office 2010 applications in certain scenarios.
Now, it seems, the robustness has been found to be lacking. Clicking on either of the direct download links in the KB article results in dead web pages.
On the other hand, the Microsoft Update Catalog entries for KB 3128031—one for 64-bit, the other for 32-bit—are still active.
More details as they’re available on the AskWoody Lounge.