There are multiple posts online, discuss about how to uninstall Windows updates if something goes wrong with deployed patches, but I did not find anything related to Office security updates.
In this post,I will discuss about, how to remove the Microsoft Office Updates using Configmgr /Configuration manager 2012.
Background: With the release of December 2014 patches, A Bulletin ID (MS14-082- KB2726958 )related to Microsoft Office 2013 caused the macros in Excel 2010 spreadsheets stop working /breaks the macros to work.
More information about this issue was discussed on the TechNet forum https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/17254fab-9ecd-49e7-bab7-f76906167d4a/office-2013-update-kb-2726958-problem?forum=officeitpro
When user tries to execute the Excel that has Macros/VBA ,it give's error code ‘Run Time Error ‘438’’ Object doesn’t no support this property or method.
Uninstalling the update Security Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB2726958) 32-Bit Edition from add and remove programs returns the Excel to normal and all works good.
Microsoft had also released the fix for this problem ,can be found here ,it basically remove the files with extension ".exd" from %temp% and other folders ,but for some reason,this fix did not work for all users .
I decided to remove this patch from all the installed computers to avoid further tickets to service desk.
Since this is MS Office security updates ,you cannot use the wusa.exe to uninstall. wusa.exe is used for Windows security updates.
What other methods to try ,that will remove the specific patche on windows computers ?
Here is the command line to uninstall Microsoft Office security updates .
msiexec /package {ProductID} /uninstall {PatchID} /qn /quiet /norestart
ProductID—>Product ID of the Windows update component for Ex: Microsoft Office ,Microsoft Visio,Microsoft Lync etc.
PatchID—> PatchID is self explanatory
How do I find the Product ID and PatchID before I run the command line using Configuration manager or other methods?
If you are running configuration manager 2012, simply go to devices,find the computer and do resource explorer for that computer.
Right click on the Lync product ID row and click copy the Product ID information.
Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB2817626) 32-Bit Edition {90150000-012C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}_Office15.LYNC_{BC369230-B0E0-4BB0-82D6-E93196060BFA} Microsoft
So from above,you have got both product ID and Patch ID for Lync update (KB2817626).
To uninstall this Update ,replace the Product ID and Patch ID in the command line:
Uninstallation command line syntax:
msiexec /package {90150000-012C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE} /uninstall {BC369230-B0E0-4BB0-82D6-E93196060BFA} /qn /quiet /norestart
If you have multiple patches causing trouble,create a batch file and supply the command line in each row.
Create a standard package using the batch file and deploy this to all workstations (irrespective of whether this update installed or not) .if the update did not install on any of the computer,it will simply ignore it.
Monitor Client log execmgr.log if the command successfully executed or not.
How to find the product ID and Patch ID instead of using Configuration manager 2012 ? (if the patch inventory not reported to CM Site successfully) ?
You can get these values from Registry on the computer that have these patches installed.
Go to registry and drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ (if 64bit) else HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
and use find option to search for patch with display name Security Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB2726958) 32-Bit Edition (you see from add and remove programs or from SCCM Console)
Look for the uninstalstring ,you can see the product ID and patch ID information.
you may wonder,why cant I use the uninstall string from registry .You can use ,but this command line varies based on the OS architecture .I Prefer to use the msiexec method works on all platforms.
Hope it helps!