So far, the company has not acknowledged the issue publicly, despite its first report on October 11. However, user Tim Higgison of Infomedia Ltd. says a fix is in progress. “Microsoft Business Support indicates the issue has been acknowledged by the product group and they are working on a solution,” he writes. In the meantime, the error, which appears to be linked to VBRUN300.DLL, prevents apps from running. The only mitigation right now is to uninstall the update.
A Poor Track Record
The stability of Windows cumulative updates has been brought into question lately after numerous important bugs in recent rollouts. The Edge and Chrome issues mentioned earlier were the result of an Intel Display Driver update, making it not entirely Microsoft’s fault. Meanwhile, an October 15 optional update broke Microsoft Defender ATP, leaving enterprise users at risk. An October 3 update, KB4524147, wasn’t optional, fixing a previous printer issue, but causing problems with the Start Menu. Unfortunately, the company’s commitment to update quality just hasn’t been visible in its cumulative rollouts. Fixes for the issues haven’t always been timely, either, often leaving users with weeks to wait and a choice between stability and security.