Facepalm time: Windows 10 security patch wipes custom Word autotext
A cumulative Windows 10 update is pranging customised copies of Word.
Windows 10 Cumulative Update KB3124200 has caused Normal.dotm template to be renamed and it is then creating Normal.dotm when Word is re-started.
The update was released last week and complaints are landing on the Microsoft Office forum page, here.
That’s a problem for anybody who customised their copy of Word using macros, tailored auto corrections or autotext for their own particular needs.
Normal.dot – Normal.dotm in Word 2007 and Word 2010 – is the database that stores such settings. If this file is deleted, and if Word can’t find a copy or a backup, then Microsoft’s application will re-create the file in its original format – meaning factory settings. So far it seems to be copies of Word 2016 that are affected.
Doug Robbins, a Word MVP, wrote on the Microsoft community forum: “In 30+ years of using Word, including 2016 on Windows 10, I have never had a Normal.dot or more recently Normal.dotm template simply disappear.”
A Microsoft group engineering manager for Word posted to the forum that Microsoft is looking into the problem.
“This was not an intentional change and we (the Word product team) are working to understand both the cause as well as what steps customers can take to either avoid or recover from this,” he said. ®
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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/21/microsoft_windows_10_word_2016_normal_dotm/