This Monday, 13th of January 2025 was a bad day for sysadmins. Outlook and other Microsoft 365 / Office Apps would crash upon start because of a new update pushed by Microsoft. The message says something about react-navis-win32.dll missing. The only fix is to install the December 2024 Updates to fix the issue.

This configuration XML File install the December 2024 updates. Beware: This configuration is for Windows Server 2016 RDS and note that automatic updates are disabled.

<Configuration ID="e2abcd00-6229-40cc-be2d-e3a8ff5efb34">
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="Broad">
    <Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">
      <Language ID="de-de" />
      <Version ID="16.0.17328.20670"/>
      <ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="OneDrive" />
      <ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
  <Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />
  <Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
  <Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="FALSE" />
  <Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
  <Updates Enabled="FALSE" />
  <RemoveMSI />
  <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration>

To download data hit setup.exe /download configuration.xml

To install execute setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

References:

https://borncity.com/win/2025/01/13/microsoft-outlook-365-or-other-ms-365-apps-are-dropping-suddenly-errors/

Download button inside WIndows Updates greyed out? This could be because of a GPO which sets the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

SetDisableUXWUAccess 0 (1 greyed out)

If you want to apply the settings without restarting your server/computer, restart Windows Updates service.

Have you ever gotten this annoying error when trying to open old control panel settings from the new settings app? This usually occurs in a domain environment.

You can fix this by creating a Domain policy or locally through secpol.msc > Local Policies > Security Options > User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account:

References:

https://martinsblog.dk/windows-server-2016-systemsettingsadminflows-exe-error/

On a Windows Server with RDS feature enabled, you might encounter an issue with Windows Update Coordinator being stuck at “Please wait while the application is preparing for the first use” during a program installation. This problem is very easy to resolve with Group Policy Editor (either locally through gpedit.msc or Domain Group Policy).

Navigate to Computer configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Application Compatibility and enable the setting “Turn off Windows Installer RDS Compatibility”.

After installing the program, I would recommend re-enabling Windows Update Coordinator by disabling the GPO setting or leaving it at “Not configured”.

Are you trying to delete a local Windows User Profile because something doesn’t behave the way it should? Here is a quick and easy tip to remember.

Deleting a user profile is very straightforward, if you know how to. Just deleting C:\Users\<username> is not enough though. In fact stranger things might occur if you just delete the user’s folder.

There are two ways of deleting a user profile:

Method 1: Advanced System Settings (Very easy)

By going into the Advanced System Settings you can delete a user profile. The user obviously has to be logged off, otherwise the “Delete” button will be greyed out.

Method 2: Regedit

Note: It is always a good idea to make a backup of your current Registry entries BEFORE making any changes. You could for example rename the registry key or “Export” it by right clicking on the key you want to backup. Sub-keys are also backed up.

There are cases where the user profile is not listed in the Advanced System Settings, but the user folder is present under C:\Users. In that case you can firstly delete the profile SID under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\

You do not have to know the user’s SID, the Key “ProfileImagePath” will help you determine the username associated with the SID.

After deleting the whole key (left side), you can also delete the user’s folder under C:\Users.