Another Patch Tuesday launch has broken another key Microsoft tool

Database connections that utilize the Microsoft ODBC SQL Server driver might now fail as the result of a recent Patch Tuesday update.

According to an update to the Windows Health Dashboard (opens in new tab), users who installed the update to the database tool, which came as part of an update dubbed KB5019980,  receive an error message either within the app or via their SQL Server.

This message might look like this: “The EMS System encountered a problem” accompanied by “Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver] Protocol error in TDS Stream” or “Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Unknown token received from SQL Server”.

What now?

Microsoft promises that it is looking to provide a resolution to the faulty updates and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

The update (opens in new tab) was originally meant to address an issue that affected File Explorer, which meant that the tool failed to localize folders, as well as security issues within the Windows operating system.    

If you don’t know if you are using any of the affected apps, Microsoft says to open any apps which use a database and then open the Command Prompt.

Users should then select Start, then type Command Prompt and select it, and then type the following command: tasklist /m sqlsrv32.dll.

This isn’t the first time in 2022 that we’ve seen a patch Tuesday update cause issues.

The KB5002112 and KB5002121 updates reportedly impacted access to MS Access runtime applications. 

Another Patch Tuesday update, called KB5018410, reportedly caused issues for OneDrive and OneDrive for Business users, allegedly causing OneDrive to “unexpectedly close” for some Windows Users 10.

But we might soon be seeing the end of patch Tuesday as well know it. 

In July 2022, Microsoft rolled out a tool that will utilize Windows Update for Business to roll out important updates automatically.

Dubbed Microsoft Autopatch, the tool for Windows 10 and 11, and Microsoft Edge and Microsoft 365 is now available for users with Windows Enterprise E3 and E5 licenses.