Windows Update 2019-08 Cumulative Update has broken VBA code use case

Hi Chris,

The most effective way to engage us is by creating a support case. Start from this webpage

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us

and click the "Contact Us" link.  There are multiple options, depending on the product and how you want to communicate with us.

In this particular case, I agree that it's not obvious which product or path to choose.  To some, it would appear to be an Office product issue, when it turns out to have been a change to a Windows component (oleaut32.dll), but you wouldn't have known that unless we told you.

When you are the developer of the software in question, and your software is having an issue with Microsoft components, it's almost always best to choose the developer tools you used when asking for a support case. But if you used Visual Basic 6, you won't find that as an option, since we no longer support VB6 development. I know, it's frustrating. If you created an app with VB6 and feel certain that a Microsoft change has caused your app to break (as was the case when our update to oleaut32 broke several VB6 apps and VBA scripts), choose Visual Studio as the product, and it will end up with the correct team. We can help work it out from there.

If it was a VBA script in an Office product (Excel, Word, etc.), then choose Office as the supported product, and choose subtopics related to scripting. 

In both cases this time, the resolution will actually come from Windows product engineering, since the shared oleaut32 is used across many other products, and it just happens to have caused problems with apps using SafeArrays and Variants, which are most commonly used in VB6 and VBA (but also used in some C++ apps). This particular regression was related to trying to copy an empty safearray to a variant.  But you probably wouldn't know that just because your code called a function with an empty ParamArray, or tried to assign Array() to a variable.

Whenever possible, choose the product in use that requires the most technical specialty, and you'll get more advanced support.

Scot

This is also happening, when passing the empty array to a Sub/Function.

In this case it will only occur if it is passed with "ByVal".

If passing the parameter "ByRef" the issue does not occur.

Class1:

Option Explicit

Public Type MyType

  Prop1 As Integer

End Type

Sub Test()

  On Error Resume Next

  Dim Arr() As Object

  TestByRef Arr           'Works before and after Windows Update

  TestByVal Arr           'Fails after Windows Update

  Dim Arr2() As MyType

  TestByRef Arr2          'Works before and after Windows Update

  TestByVal Arr2          'Fails after Windows Update

  Dim Arr3() As Class1

  TestByRef Arr3          'Works before and after Windows Update

  TestByVal Arr3          'Fails after Windows Update

  Dim Arr4() As Variant

  TestByRef Arr4          'Works before and after Windows Update

  TestByVal Arr4          'Works before and after Windows Update

  Dim Arr5() As Integer

  TestByRef Arr5          'Works before and after Windows Update

  TestByVal Arr5          'Works before and after Windows Update

End Sub

Sub TestByRef(ByRef P As Variant)

End Sub

Sub TestByVal(ByVal P As Variant)    'Error occurs on this line

End Sub

Yes, your observation is perfectly consistent with the change that was introduced with the update. If your code doesn't require copying the contents of an empty array to the variant, then it doesn't flag it as invalid. ByRef doesn't require a copy to be made, but ByVal does.

Official update so far:

"We will release a fix for this issue over the coming days as part of the ‘optional’ C update, which we are releasing early to address this issue. Note we are confirming which channels customers can pick up the update. Windows Update for Business customers will need to apply the update via Microsoft Update Catalog or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)."

Translation: We have a fix that we have tested on some platforms, and still waiting on testing in other platforms, and our release schedule will depend on which version of Windows you have, and how you obtain updates. In some cases, I think the release may even be this afternoon.  In other cases, maybe another week or so.  Or somewhere in between.

That's all I have for now.

Thanks again Scott.

You get an anonymous "atta-boy" in this article (I have no association with the site)

2019 08 16- Windows update causes Office VBA to fail

https://office-watch.com/2019/windows-update-causes-office-vba-to-fail/