Microsoft acknowledges Outlook problems after recent Windows 10 security update

Microsoft acknowledges that some users may experience issues with Outlook after installing update KB5008212 for Windows 10 version 21H2. Recent emails would no longer appear in the program’s search results for those affected.

When users perform a search in Outlook’s Windows 10 application, recent emails would not appear in the results. The relevant update was released on December 14 as part of Patch Tuesday and aims to fix 67 various security vulnerabilities. Microsoft is investigating in their own words currently what is causing the problem for Outlook.

As a temporary solution, the company has a workaround shared, where users can create a new key through the Registry Editor under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows. The workaround disables Windows Desktop Search, causing Outlook to use the built-in search function. By default, Microsoft warns with such changes that this can cause possible problems and advises everyone to make a backup of the Registry first.