Outlook 2016/2021 remains running after CreateObject() from VBA in Version 2412 and later
Hi everyone, I’d like to report a behavior change that affects Outlook (Classic) in Office 2016 and 2021, starting from Version 2412 (Build 16.0.18324.20168). We use VBA to check whether Outlook is installed and configured for sending/receiving mail. We do this at startup of MS Access (2016, 2021 and 365) apps on Windows 11, but I guess this will be the same out of Excel, Word,... . The check is simple and basically does nothing like this: Dim objOutlook As Object On Error Resume Next Set objOutlook = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application") If objOutlook Is Nothing Then bolOutlookIsThere = False Else bolOutlookIsThere = True Set objOutlook = Nothing End If On Error Goto 0 In Build 16.0.18227.20162 (Version 2411) and in Microsoft 365 Outlook, this results in no lasting Outlook process - the instance is released properly. However, starting with Version 2412, this same code causes OUTLOOK.EXE to remain running in Task Manager after execution. The System tray shows up a grayed-out outlook symbol saying "outlook is going to be closed" --- forever. If Outlook had been started manually before running this code, everything works fine, that is: the extra instance will be released and a subsequent manually closing of Outlook will remove the whole. This causes problems in scripts and services that expect to perform a "clean" check without side effects. This same COM automation pattern works exactly as expected with both Excel and Word - they terminate automatically when the last object reference is released (via Set = Nothing), assuming they were not already running. Outlook, however, remains running in memory starting with Version 2412, even though no UI is shown and all references are cleared. This strongly suggests that Outlook now maintains additional internal session state or background services that prevent the process from terminating - unlike other Office applications. Confirmed behavior: Office 2016/2021, Version 2412+ -> OUTLOOK.EXE remains in memory. Office 2016/2021, Version 2411 -> no leftover process. Microsoft 365 Outlook -> behaves as expected. Excel, Word -> behave as expected Can anyone from Microsoft confirm whether this is an intentional change in COM/session behavior (possibly due to caching or MAPI preloading)? If so, is there a recommended workaround for non-interactive detection of Outlook availability? Is anyone else able to duplicate this behavior and/or able to find a workaround (other than downgrading Office to Version 2411)? Thanks in advance!
Windows 2019 Server crashes BugCheck 1E / fvevol
Hi, We have a new Intel Server / Mainboard S2600STB / two Broadcom 9640-8i Controller BIOS_VERSION: SE5C620.86B.02.01.0008.031920191559/ BIOS_DATE: 03/19/2019 2 CPU / 128 GB RAM Windows 2019 Windows 10 Kernel Version 17763 MP (40 procs) Free x64 Product: Server, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS Built by: 17763.1.amd64fre.rs5_release.180914-1434 Server for NFS is installed. The Data-Drives are Bitlocker encrypted. We copy every evening a big amount of files (Backup) from our Linux/Windows Servers with NFS/CIFS to the Data Drive. We get every day/night at least one ore more crashes (bluescreen) If we analyse the Dump we see that probably caused by : Unknown_Image ( fvevol!FveWriteUsingWorkerQueues+148 ) or fvevol.sys Since we remove Bitlocker Drive encryption at all, the server runs stable and the write performance is also much better. Cheers