News

Microsoft: Exchange, Skype Issues Caused by July Patches

• By Kurt Mackie
• 07/20/2018

Microsoft admitted this week that organizations using Lync Server 2013, Skype for Business Server 2015 and Exchange Server took a hit after applying its July 10 "update Tuesday" patches.

On the Exchange Server side, the Exchange team noted in a July 16 announcement that Exchange Server won't function correctly as a result of "issues with the Windows operating system updates published July 10th." The solution to the problem is to update Exchange Server using the Windows Update service or IT pros can update the catalogs used by Windows Server Update Services, a patch management system.

"Doing so will avoid any possible disruption to the MSExchangeTransport service which may have been impacted by the July 10th update," the Exchange Team ominously added.

Meanwhile, application sharing functionality took a hit this month for organizations that were using Lync Server 2013 or Skype for Business Server 2015. These problems also were associated with the July 10 Windows operating system patches. Microsoft has since removed the offending patches, according to a July 18 NextHop team announcement:

The Windows team has removed all bad packages from Windows Update and systems should no longer attempt to download an update which exposes this problem. New updates are being published through Windows Update and should be available for all operating systems by end of day July 17th.

The remedy for affected Lync or Skype Server users is to remove the July 10 security updates and then use Windows Update or Windows Server Update Services with updated catalogs to reapply the updates. Here's how the NextHop team expressed it: "For any impacted operating system, we recommend you remove the July 10th, 2018 Security Update (KB numbers will vary between OS) and re-apply Windows Updates which contain the fixed replacement security updates."

The use of the Windows Update service or updating the catalogs in Windows Server Update Services is also considered to be the best remedy because "doing so will avoid any possible disruption to the ASMCU [Application Sharing Multipoint Control Unit] service which was impacted by the July 10th update," the NextHop team added.

These update Tuesday patch problems apparently were big enough for the two product teams to issue announcements.

Of course, there have been many other problems experienced from this month's batch of "quality" and "security" updates from Microsoft. Computerworld writer Woody Leonhard recently noted that Microsoft updated its July 10 patches on July 12 and July 13. He also noted that the patches were updated yet again on July 16 for Windows 10, and that Microsoft's .NET Framework patches released this month currently have "known issue" problems that will crop up during the installation process, among other details.

If all of that weren't confusing enough, going by the date of Microsoft's quality and security cumulative updates possibly may not matter, as earlier released patches can "supersede" the later released ones. This point was mentioned by David Segura, a Windows operating system and deployment expert, in a Tuesday Twitter post.

"Don't be fooled into downloading Cumulative Updates by release date," Segura wrote. "The ones modified today, June 17, are actually superseded by the ones released yesterday, June 16."