The MS Auto Update setting is user specific, so it lives in the ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist, unless you are already managing it with something like Managed Preferences or a Config Profile in which case that should be overriden by your setting.

#!/bin/sh



echo "<result>$(defaults read /Users/$(ls -l /dev/console | awk '{print $3}')/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist HowToCheck)</result>"

It will list "Manual" when its not set to auto check for updates. I forget how it shows up when its set to auto, maybe "Auto"? You can also pull the last update check date from the plist (LastUpdate) as well as a key called "WhenToCheck' but I'm not clear what that one does. Anyone know? Mine is set to "2" whatever that means.

If its set to automatically this would be the result HowToCheck = Automatic;

@mm2270 that worked perfectly. I need to create a configuration profile to set it to manual. I know how to do it via a defaults write.

@asegura

This is how it's setup - works great, took 30 seconds to do. Just as easy to undo when the time comes.

Message:

@nessts Your fix worked for me! Just to be safe though, I also put in a block like @dgreening suggested.

Anyone notice that even when MS AutoUpdate is set to Manual in ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist, when you open any of the Office Apps when the Restricted Software for MS AutoUpdate is in place it quacks the restricted message at you? Shouldn't AutoUpdate not even start up if its set to manual?

@dgreening

Yes. So I turned off the message...annoying. Again.

@dgreening Yes! I recall running into that exact scenario about a year or more back. I'd completely forgotten about that though. We tried adding MS Auto Update.app into Restricted Software, but unfortunately it seems that the application tries to open or is accessed in some way in the background on launch of other Office applications, so the Restricted Software message was popping up for us even though it wasn't specifically launched. We had to quickly shut off the Restricted Software setting to avoid annoying everyone and incurring some wrath.

I wish I had an answer for how to get around that, but the only thing I can suggest is to not make it come up with a message. Just kill it silently and no message. It will still stop it from running, but its going to kick in on every Office application launch - so annoying!
You 'd also want to make sure NOT to check to send emails on violations, unless you like getting spammed by your JSS!

I learned the hard way too about how often that process is opened. @boettchs @dgreening I enabled the same software restriction process name "Microsoft AutoUpdate.app", along with a message to the user informing them to "don't update to 14.5.0..." and scoped it to devices with 10.10.

Turns out the warning message was posted over the lock screen saver and multiple times to the end users. That resulted in extra calls to the help desk. Now I just have it quit the app and the message field is blank.

Just turn off the message. It's fine now...
Or rather, take the text out of the message portion of the Restriction setup.

Yeah, it looks like that is what I am going to have to do. Can annoy the crap out of our users, thats for sure!

I just put this Config Profile together using mcxToProfile. I tested it installing it as computer level:
sudo profiles -I -F /path/to/MSAutoUpdateSettings.mobileconfig
and it seems to work. It forces the Microsoft Auto Update.app settings to "Manual" You can click the "Automatic" radio button in the app, but if you quit and relaunch it, its set back to "Manual" so it forces the setting. Use at your own risk as I haven't thoroughly tested it, but I did install it as I mentioned on a 10.10.3 Mac. I don't use mcxToProfile that often so hopefully it converted everything over and didn't add in anything that shouldn't be there.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

    <key>PayloadContent</key>

    <array>

        <dict>

            <key>PayloadContent</key>

            <dict>

                <key>com.microsoft.autoupdate2</key>

                <dict>

                    <key>Forced</key>

                    <array>

                        <dict>

                            <key>mcx_preference_settings</key>

                            <dict>

                                <key>HowToCheck</key>

                                <string>Manual</string>

                            </dict>

                        </dict>

                    </array>

                </dict>

            </dict>

            <key>PayloadEnabled</key>

            <true/>

            <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>

            <string>MCXToProfile.f47d5b57-53d3-4488-a13f-83bd703cfdea.alacarte.customsettings.1c7fafc2-3dc1-4320-ab7b-2e0c4fced0b9</string>

            <key>PayloadType</key>

            <string>com.apple.ManagedClient.preferences</string>

            <key>PayloadUUID</key>

            <string>1c7fafc2-3dc1-4320-ab7b-2e0c4fced0b9</string>

            <key>PayloadVersion</key>

            <integer>1</integer>

        </dict>

    </array>

    <key>PayloadDescription</key>

    <string>Included custom settings:

com.microsoft.autoupdate2

</string>

    <key>PayloadDisplayName</key>

    <string>MCXToProfile: com.microsoft.autoupdate2</string>

    <key>PayloadIdentifier</key>

    <string>MSAutoUpdateSettings</string>

    <key>PayloadOrganization</key>

    <string></string>

    <key>PayloadRemovalDisallowed</key>

    <true/>

    <key>PayloadScope</key>

    <string>System</string>

    <key>PayloadType</key>

    <string>Configuration</string>

    <key>PayloadUUID</key>

    <string>f47d5b57-53d3-4488-a13f-83bd703cfdea</string>

    <key>PayloadVersion</key>

    <integer>1</integer>

</dict>

</plist>

Looks like MS still has the 14.5.0 update available online.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46973
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3062536/

Im going to open a support ticket and verify that MS knows the extent of these issues.

Rather than uninstalling Microsoft Office 2011 and rolling back to 14.4.9, we've been encouraging affected users (less than 1% of our population fortunately) to use Self Service to fix Outlook as needed until a patch becomes available.

Maybe your environment would welcome that, maybe not. Regardless here is the script based off the commands provided by @nessts. You may notice that I don't use $3 for the username. This script is technically agnostic and can be run as root through ARD to fix the user who is logged in to increase your killing power.

I've also included a handy icon for Self Service.

Script: http://tinyurl.com/nro5nhn
Icon:

yeah in all reality Outlook is working fine you just have to be careful about how you quit it. Its definitely not worth rolling out to your base as it only causes problems there will likely be another update shortly that hopefully will work better.

As above only seems to occur if you have a Mailbox folder expanded to show sub directories. 14.5.0 install worked fine here, then expanded a folder within an Exchange account quit Outlook and re-opened and no Main Window. Open > New Window has no effect. So assume if you had something expanded prior to the install you'd be in the error state straight away.

Looks like the following is enough to restore the Main Window:

• Quit Outlook


• kill database daemon


• delete Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist and com.microsoft.outlook*


• killall cfprefsd


• Re-open Outlook

As long as you un-expand all your folders prior to quitting Outlook the problem doesn't seem to re-occur.

When the no window error occurs, the following is logged:

15/05/15 9:12:42.923 am Microsoft Outlook[4117]: An uncaught exception was raised
15/05/15 9:12:42.923 am Microsoft Outlook[4117]: Collection <_NSArrayM: 0x7b6280f0> was mutated while being enumerated.
15/05/15 9:12:42.926 am Microsoft Outlook[4117]: (
0 CoreFoundation 0x91fe7c63 __raiseError 195
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x9b078a2a objc_exception_throw 276
2 CoreFoundation 0x91fe752a __NSFastEnumerationMutationHandler 362
3 CoreFoundation 0x91ed34d7 -[__NSFastEnumerationEnumerator nextObject] 199
4 OfficeWindowLocalizer 0x02a5c3e8 MSGetMBUNamedString 1612
5 OfficeWindowLocalizer 0x02a5c3d3 MSGetMBUNamedString 1591
6 OfficeWindowLocalizer 0x02a5c3d3 MSGetMBUNamedString 1591
7 OfficeWindowLocalizer 0x02a5e101 MSGetMBUNamedString 9061
8 OfficeWindowLocalizer 0x02a5e1d6 MSGetMBUNamedString 9274
9 Microsoft Outlook 0x000910ab _ZN12CSharablePtrI14CAccountActionE3SetEPS0 10029
10 Microsoft Outlook 0x00090db6 ZN12CSharablePtrI14CAccountActionE3SetEPS0 9272
11 AppKit 0x911f8e3d -[NSIBObjectData nibInstantiateWithOwner:options:topLevelObjects:] 1312
12 AppKit 0x911f8917 -[NSIBObjectData nibInstantiateWithOwner:topLevelObjects:] 56
13 AppKit 0x913ea2c2 -[NSNib instantiateNibWithExternalNameTable:options:] 735
14 AppKit 0x913e9ef5 -[NSNib _instantiateWithOwner:options:topLevelObjects:] 162
15 AppKit 0x913e9057 -[NSViewController loadView] 304
16 OfficeWindowLocalizer 0x02a5e145 MSGetMBUNamedString 9129
17 Microsoft Outlook 0x0008c2c1 _ZN12CSharablePtrI15CScheduleRecordE3SetEPS0 55949
18 AppKit 0x91361635 -[NSViewController loadViewIfRequired] 66
19 AppKit 0x9136159b -[NSViewController view] 36
20 Microsoft Outlook 0x0008c1c2 _ZN12CSharablePtrI15CScheduleRecordE3SetEPS0 55694
21 Microsoft Outlook 0x00084e56 ZN12CSharablePtrI15CScheduleRecordE3SetEPS0 26146
22 Microsoft Outlook 0x00088d76 ZN12CSharablePtrI15CScheduleRecordE3SetEPS0 42306
23 AppKit 0x913ac1ba -[NSWindowController windowDidLoad] 621
24 AppKit 0x91392ae2 -[NSWindowController window] 121
25 AppKit 0x913a5cd7 -[NSWindowController showWindow:] 36
26 libobjc.A.dylib 0x9b076853 -[NSObject performSelector:withObject:] 70
27 AppKit 0x9143c7ee __36-[NSApplication sendActionfrom:]_block_invoke 51
28 libsystem_trace.dylib 0x992fbc03 _os_activity_initiate 89
29 AppKit 0x9143c707 -[NSApplication sendActionfrom:] 602
30 AppKit 0x9143c3ad -[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] 479
31 AppKit 0x9143c09e -[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] 162
32 AppKit 0x9143b71a -[NSMenu _performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:sendAccessibilityNotification:] 79
33 AppKit 0x9150de3b __38-[NSMenu performActionForItemAtIndex:]_block_invoke 52
34 libsystem_trace.dylib 0x992fbc03 _os_activity_initiate 89
35 AppKit 0x9150ddff -[NSMenu performActionForItemAtIndex:] 141
36 AppKit 0x9150dd5e -[NSMenu _internalPerformActionForItemAtIndex:] 45
37 AppKit 0x9150dd29 -[NSMenuItem _internalPerformActionThroughMenuIfPossible] 106
38 AppKit 0x9150db82 -[NSCarbonMenuImpl _carbonCommandProcessEvent:handlerCallRef:] 120
39 AppKit 0x914230b7 NSSLMMenuEventHandler 679
40 HIToolbox 0x995685a4 _Z22_InvokeEventHandlerUPPP25OpaqueEventHandlerCallRefP14OpaqueEventRefPvPFlS0_S2_S3_E 36
41 HIToolbox 0x993a6681 _ZL23DispatchEventToHandlersP14EventTargetRecP14OpaqueEventRefP14HandlerCallRec 2291
42 HIToolbox 0x993a565c _ZL30SendEventToEventTargetInternalP14OpaqueEventRefP20OpaqueEventTargetRefP14HandlerCallRec 402
43 HIToolbox 0x993b9f25 SendEventToEventTarget 88
44 HIToolbox 0x99568422 _ZL18SendHICommandEventmPK9HICommandmmhPKvP20OpaqueEventTargetRefS5_PP14OpaqueEventRef 447
45 HIToolbox 0x9942c27c SendMenuCommandWithContextAndModifiers 72
46 HIToolbox 0x9942c220 SendMenuItemSelectedEvent 207
47 HIToolbox 0x9942c0db _ZL19FinishMenuSelectionP13SelectionDataP10MenuResultS2 145
48 HIToolbox 0x995ba517 ZL14MenuSelectCoreP8MenuData5PointdmPP13OpaqueMenuRefPt 775
49 HIToolbox 0x9942c87b _HandleMenuSelection2 512
50 HIToolbox 0x9942c665 _HandleMenuSelection 55
51 AppKit 0x913347f6 _NSHandleCarbonMenuEvent 359
52 AppKit 0x91263ae9 _DPSNextEvent 1710
53 AppKit 0x91262dc5 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] 350
54 AppKit 0x9125777c -[NSApplication run] 907
55 AppKit 0x911ccbc0 NSApplicationMain 2082
56 Microsoft Outlook 0x0004ea9e _ZN12CSharablePtrI14CNetHostOptionE3SetEPS0 480
57 ??? 0x00000001 0x0 1
)

FYI from the MS AnswerDesk:

"Yes, it has been escalated to our Senior Technician and they are now working on to this issue
we were given a work around for this issue, you may try to use this if the issue still exist"

1. Try the following steps to resolve the issue. We know that they are resolving the issue in many cases, but not all:

Open Terminal & type these commands:
defaults delete com.microsoft.Outlook
killall cfprefsd< enter>
Launch Outlook

as of this moment, this is the work around that we were given, however as of this moment we are also waiting for the new work around and update for this issue

I really apologize for the inconvenience"

This may be an issue where the root cause was something Apple did to fix the issue when it appeared during the Yosemite developer previews:

https://twitter.com/Schwieb/status/599302035524034560

One fix (which I would not recommend for production use) is to roll back the version info so that Outlook 14.5.0 reports itself as 14.4.9:

https://twitter.com/Schwieb/status/599313411273424896

I tested this in a VM and changing the version does appear to fix the problem of the main window becoming invisible.

optional image ALT text

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I've written a post with my findings. For those interested, it's available from here:

https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/office-2011-14-5-0-and-outlook-main-window-invisibility/

This might also be an issue for Outlook 2016 for versions prior to v15.10 too.

One of my users stopped using Outlook 2016 for this same fault. I had updated them to v15.10 before knowing about the issue. The user was on v15.9 when the problem existed. This user has a mailbox over 10GB and a very large folder structure stemming from the inbox.

Sorry can't provide for info, we only have a small group testing the new Outlook.

@davidhiggs i've been running office 2016 since it first went public beta (incl the 15.10), and I haven't had any issues with it not opening the main window.

Testing here indicates that the problem occurs when you expand the Exchange mailbox sub folders then quit with them expanded.

I'm not convinced it's related to the folder structure. My Office install on my machine is affected, but no test machine that I've signed into and set up identically to my main machine has had the issue. I can uninstall and reinstall Office on my machine with every combination of folder expanded status before the update and it will always have this issue. I can do the same to various test machines with the same account and OSX version and it will never have the issue. If it was related to the folder structure alone, the test machines should run into the same problems that my main machine is having. Same goes for if it were account related. Something else is must be causing the bug.

I've pinned it down the "NSOutlineView Items MailNavigationPane" array in the com.microsoft.Outlook.plist.

When you expand a nested folder a new item is written in this array. These seem to be the cause of the Main window not being display.

Rather than delete the whole Outlook plist, you can delete this array only, using the below:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy "/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist" -c 'Delete "NSOutlineView Items MailNavigationPane"'
killall cfprefsd

This leaves the remaining prefs in tact and is less disruptive. The user just sees the folder structure collapsed.

It still needs to be run every time they close with the folders expanded. You could make a shell script to do this then launch Outlook as a work-around.

MS have told us that 14.5.1 should be out "shortly" to resolve the issue.

So where is one supposed to obtain outlook 14.4.9?