A Teams and Outlook ARM crash affecting Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 owners has been traced to Windows security updates released on or after 11 August 2026. Microsoft confirmed the issue in a Windows release health update and has marked its status as ‘Mitigated’, though a permanent fix is still in development.
The affected update is KB5121003, which applies to Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. According to WinTips.org, users running Windows 11 26H1 encounter the same behaviour through a separate update, KB5121000. That detail is worth noting for IT teams managing a mixed fleet: the symptoms are identical across versions, but the specific patch number differs depending on which release of Windows 11 is installed.
What breaks, and what does not
Microsoft Teams and the new Outlook for Windows are the two applications affected. ‘Classic Outlook, Word, Excel, and other applications are not known to be affected,’ Microsoft said in its release health update. The problem is most likely to surface on new or freshly imaged PCs that have not yet pulled any Microsoft Store updates. Users who have kept Store apps current are less exposed.
As PCWorld reports, the issue spans Windows 11 versions 24H2, 25H2, and 26H1 on ARM-based hardware. That is a broader version range than Microsoft’s own initial advisory suggested, which focused on 24H2 and later. For organisations that have already rolled out Copilot+ PCs across multiple Windows 11 release tracks, every current version is potentially in scope.
The workaround: an AI gaming package, oddly enough
Microsoft has not disclosed the root cause, but the recommended workaround is to update the Auto Super Resolution Package. Microsoft describes this package as something that ‘allows Copilot+ PCs to use AI to make supported games play more smoothly with enhanced details.’ It is, in other words, a component you would not instinctively reach for when diagnosing a Teams or Outlook launch failure.
The fix is straightforward enough: open the Microsoft Store, go to Downloads, select ‘Check for updates’, and install Auto Super Resolution Package version 1.0.19.0 or later. That should restore normal behaviour for affected applications while Microsoft works on a proper patch.
As CyberSecurityNews notes, Microsoft posted its advisory to the Windows release health dashboard on 1 September 2026 at 19:20 PT and has since updated the issue’s status to ‘Mitigated’. The permanent fix will arrive with a future Windows update, though Microsoft has not given a specific release date.
A difficult August for Windows updates
This is not the only rough edge left by August’s update cycle. Microsoft also confirmed that August 2026 .NET Framework updates broke printing and PDF export in some applications. Shortly after that, the company began rolling out a fix for a separate issue in which peripherals with built-in RGB lighting were triggering system crashes and EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors on Windows 11 devices. On top of that, Microsoft asked customers to disregard alerts claiming Microsoft Defender Antivirus had been turned off after installing the latest Defender updates.
Three distinct post-patch problems disclosed in quick succession is the sort of thing that makes patch management teams reach for a strong coffee before approving the next Patch Tuesday rollout. The ARM-specific nature of the Teams and Outlook crash adds a layer of frustration: Copilot+ PCs are positioned as Microsoft‘s showcase devices for AI-era Windows, and launch failures in two of the platform’s most-used productivity applications are not the advertisement anyone wants.
For now, IT administrators managing ARM-based Windows fleets should verify that Auto Super Resolution Package version 1.0.19.0 or later is installed via the Microsoft Store before deploying or imaging new machines, and should monitor the Windows release health dashboard for the permanent fix.
