Microsoft wants to know how many out-of-support copies of Office are installed on Windows PCs, and it intends to find out by pushing a patch through Microsoft Update that it swears is safe, not that you asked.
Quietly mentioned in a support post this week, update KB5021751 is targeting versions of Office “including” 2007 and 2010, both of which have been out of service for several years.
Also missing is any explanation of how the update will gather info on Office installations, whether it is collecting any other system information or what exactly will be transmitted and stored by Microsoft.
The Register does mention a possible opt-out, but as they say, that could have other undesirable consequences. Of course, if you use LibreOffice this won’t bother you, or if you pay for Office 365 then you probably also won’t be bothered.
See https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/21/microsoft_office_count_update/
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