Office 2016 pro plus - XL copy paste is not functioning (no issue with MS Word)

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, our organization ran into the Excel copy/paste and Format Painter failure caused by the September security update (KB5002914). Since corporate policy completely blocks us from rolling back security patches, we built a zero-clipboard VBA workaround that completely bypasses the broken metadata pipeline.

It successfully copies values, cell formulas, visual formatting, and column widths without relying on the broken Windows clipboard object.

I’ve uploaded the clean VBA code along with a Group Policy (GPO) file-copy and registry configuration guide to GitHub Gists so you can drop it seamlessly into your enterprise environment via an .xlam Add-in:

🔗 [https://gist.github.com/GTBStrong/53d6d1233ff1e408f6c760af9502deec]

What the GPO Deployment does:

1. Silently pushes the .xlam file to the users' local AppData roaming directory.
2. Automates the Excel OPEN registry keys so the macro loads silently for every user on startup across all existing spreadsheets.

Hopefully, this saves some teams a massive headache while we wait for an official Microsoft hotfix!

P.S.  Initial tests for me included one larger workbook that caused the function to return a 1004 error.  I've isolated the behavior to that one particular workbook so far.  Either something about the size or the contents that is tripping up the rangeClass method.  As always ymmv.  😁

Troubleshooting Order (Safest → Most Invasive)

Based on your description, this is a known issue affecting Excel 2016 (and some other Office versions) after recent Windows updates. The symptoms you describe—copy/paste failing and the Esc key not clearing the "marching ants" border—are classic signs of this problem.

The most effective solution reported by users is uninstalling KB5002914. If you cannot uninstall this update or it doesn't resolve the issue, the repair and troubleshooting steps above should help identify the underlying cause.

Hope this Helps! 🙂

Excel losing both Paste and the ability to exit copy mode after updates, while Word still works, suggests investigating Excel specifically before treating this as a Windows-wide clipboard failure. The timing alone does not identify which update or component is responsible.
Save your work, close Excel, and test copying between two cells in a new blank workbook. Next, press Windows+R, enter excel /safe, and repeat the same test. Safe mode bypasses several startup customizations and add-ins. If copying works there, restart normally and disable Excel and COM add-ins individually, testing after each change to identify the trigger.
If the problem also occurs in a blank workbook in safe mode, try Office repair and record the exact Excel build and recently installed update numbers. Avoid removing security updates without a confirmed cause. Office 2016 support ended on October 14, 2025, so also plan migration to a supported version.

Seems that update KB5002914 broke it. From what I've read uninstalling that update fixes it, but i havent been able to test yet. 

They finally achieved messing up even with the "funking" most general basic software function... Congrats!