A recent Windows 11 update appears to be causing serious problems for Microsoft Teams and the new Outlook app on some Windows on Arm PCs, including Surface devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.
Reports began appearing after the rollout of update KB5121003, which started shipping as part of this month’s Patch Tuesday release.
Affected PCs can launch Teams or the new Outlook, but the apps may close almost immediately. In some cases, Teams briefly displays a white screen before crashing.
The issue has been reported across multiple Windows on Arm systems rather than a single Surface model, suggesting the problem may be tied more broadly to ARM64 devices.
Surface and other Snapdragon PCs are affected
One of the reported cases involves a Surface Laptop 7, while another comes from an HP OmniBook 3 running on Snapdragon hardware.
The symptoms are similar across systems.
| Area | Current situation |
|---|---|
| Windows update involved | KB5121003 |
| Main affected apps | Microsoft Teams and new Outlook |
| Affected platform | Windows on Arm |
| Example devices | Surface Laptop 7, HP OmniBook 3 |
| Classic Outlook | Reportedly still works |
| Teams behavior | White screen or immediate crash |
| Root cause | Not yet confirmed |
| Official known issue listing | Not currently listed in supplied report |
One affected PC owner said Teams initially worked after a factory reset, only to break again once Windows Update automatically installed the latest updates.
Attempts to fix the issue by reinstalling components such as WebView2 reportedly did not resolve the problem.
Classic Outlook can provide a temporary alternative
The new Outlook app appears to be affected, but classic Outlook reportedly continues to function on PCs experiencing the bug.
That gives some customers a temporary option for accessing email while Microsoft investigates the issue.
Teams is more complicated because the supplied report does not identify a similarly reliable desktop replacement for every affected configuration.
People who depend on Teams for work or meetings may therefore need to use another available version or access the service through a web browser until the problem is resolved.
Microsoft has not confirmed the root cause
The exact reason for the crashes remains unclear.
Similar reports across several Snapdragon based PCs suggest there may be a common issue, but Microsoft has not officially confirmed that KB5121003 contains a widespread ARM64 specific bug.
The update’s official release information also does not currently list the Teams and Outlook crashes as a known issue, according to the supplied report.
That means it is still too early to say whether every Windows on Arm device running KB5121003 is affected.
The problem may depend on a particular combination of Windows components, app versions or hardware.
The timing is particularly important for Windows on Arm
Microsoft has spent considerable effort promoting Windows on Arm as an important part of the future of Windows PCs, particularly through its newer Surface devices and Snapdragon based Copilot+ PCs.
Teams and Outlook are also two of Microsoft’s most important productivity applications, especially for business customers.
A bug that prevents both apps from running therefore has a larger impact than a minor compatibility problem with less commonly used software.
For now, affected PC owners may need to rely on classic Outlook, web versions of Microsoft services or other unaffected options.
Microsoft has not provided a confirmed fix timeline in the supplied information, so the main issue remains unresolved while reports from Windows on Arm customers continue to accumulate.
Discussion (0)
Be the first to comment.