Managing update stability
Microsoft has announced a change to the way administrators manage software updates for the Microsoft 365 App suite, specifically for those on the Monthly Enterprise Channel. This channel is a setting that determines how often your Word, Excel, and Outlook applications receive new features and bug fixes.
From September 2026, the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center will allow IT administrators to roll back devices to a version from two releases prior. Currently, rolling back to older versions can be difficult and may leave a system without the latest security fixes. This new update aims to address that problem.
Extended rollback options
When a new software update causes a conflict with a business-critical tool—such as a specific accounting plug-in or a complex Excel macro—the standard response is to revert to a previous version. Under the new system, when a rollback is triggered, the software will not simply return to an old state. Instead, it will install the version from two months ago while simultaneously applying the most recent security updates available for that specific release.
Once a device has been rolled back, it will stay in that state. It will not automatically try to update to the problematic version again until the administrator manually resumes the update cycle. This is intended to give businesses more time to investigate the cause of a software conflict without leaving their computers vulnerable to known security threats.
Centralised control
These changes will be managed through 'Cloud Update' in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center. This is the central dashboard where IT staff manage how Office software is deployed across a company. By using this central tool, a business can apply these rollbacks to a single department or the entire company at once.
While the preview and general availability are currently scheduled for September 2026, Microsoft schedules are subject to change. We do not yet know if these features will be extended to the 'Current Channel', which is the update schedule used by many smaller organisations.