KB5002907 and the Removal of Perpetual/OEM Office: What Is Known as of September 25, 2026

TL;DR

• Not officially confirmed. The KB5002907 page (released 09/01/2026, updated 09/17/2026) describes the update as applying "only" to Microsoft 365 Apps on Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel. It lists no known issues and has not been pulled. Nothing on release health or the Message Center mentions it either. The removal reports come from an AnandTech Forums post by "Steltek" timestamped 10:42 PM on September 24, 2026, a Microsoft Q&A question (~Sept 25), and a German Dr. Windows thread. BleepingComputer, Born City, Windows Latest, Neowin, Office-Watch, ghacks and Reddit have published nothing on it.
• Why OEM/retail machines are likely exposed (inference, not confirmed): Dell OEM Office 2019 is Click-to-Run retail Office. Office-Watch reports that retail Office 2019 buyers "have received nothing at all" since end of support on October 14, 2025, with the last retail build at version 2508, build 19127.20302, so these installs are months "out of date" and use the same Click-to-Run build lineage as Microsoft 365 Apps. That fits the update's targeting criteria. Office-Watch says volume-licensed Office 2019 has "quietly received ten security updates" since end of support, the latest on July 14, 2026, on its own PerpetualVL2019 branch, so it is probably less exposed. No source says OEM licenses are specifically targeted. The real risk for OEM is recovery, because the license lives in a Microsoft account, not in a product key.
• What to do: Turn off "Receive updates for other Microsoft products" (or the equivalent GPO/MDM/RMM setting) and hide or decline KB5002907 on every client now. Reinstall each machine from account.microsoft.com/services, signed in with the Microsoft account the Dell OEM license was activated with. Where that account is unknown, open a Microsoft support case with Dell invoices and service tags ready, because Microsoft support has been asking OEM users for proof of purchase.

Key Findings

1. The official KB article: no acknowledgment

• Title/metadata: "KB5002907: Optional update for out-of-date Microsoft 365 Apps installations." Page metadata shows a release date of 09/01/2026 and an update time of 2026-09-17 08:43 AM.
• Applies to: Windows 11 26H1, 25H2, 24H2 and 23H2; Windows 10 22H2; Windows Server 2019, 2022 and 2025.
• Stated scope: "This optional update is available only for Windows PCs with Microsoft 365 Apps installations that are more than 90 days out of date and use Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel." It "is not a Windows operating system update, and it does not install automatically."
• Stated behavior: "the update starts the Microsoft 365 Apps update process and attempts to move the installation to a current build," and "makes no changes when updates are managed by Group Policy or Cloud Update."
• Delivery: Microsoft's own install steps tell users to turn on "Receive updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows." That makes the toggle the documented gate.
• What's missing: The page has no "Known issues" section and does not mention perpetual, retail or OEM Office, uninstallation, a pull or a pause. As of September 25, Microsoft has made no documented revision acknowledging the Office-removal reports.
  

2. Community reports (all unverified)

Interpretation: These reports are consistent and appeared almost together, which suggests a real pattern and not one isolated glitch. Still, the volume is small and there are no logs or reproductions. No journalist or MVP has independently tested the claim. Notably, the AnandTech poster says the update was "released yesterday" (~Sept 23), while the KB is dated September 1. That may mean Windows Update offered it gradually, or offered it more widely late in the month. That would explain why reports only started around September 23–25.

3. OEM vs. retail vs. volume license

• No source confirms that OEM licenses specifically are targeted. The reports mention a "Lifetime" Office 2016 Pro, a "validly licensed" Office 2019, and Office 2019 Pro Plus. None identifies the license channel reliably.
• Likely mechanism (my inference, clearly unconfirmed): Dell-preinstalled Office Home & Business/Home & Student 2019 is retail Click-to-Run. Retail Office 2019 stopped getting builds after end of support on October 14, 2025. Office-Watch puts the last retail build at version 2508, build 19127.20302, and other listings cite 2509, build 19231.20194. So these installs are now far more than 90 days out of date on the same build line as Microsoft 365 Apps, which is exactly the population KB5002907 targets. If the update's detection logic cannot tell a stalled retail or OEM perpetual install from a stalled Microsoft 365 install, that would produce what users describe.
• Volume-licensed Office 2019 is probably less exposed. Office-Watch reports that VL customers "have quietly received ten security updates" since end of support, through July 14, 2026, reaching version 1808 build 10417.20176 on the PerpetualVL2019 branch. Build listings show Office LTSC 2019 at 1808 (Build 10417.20207) on September 8, 2026. Current VL installs on a separate channel are less likely to match the "90 days out of date / Current Channel" criteria.
• OEM is especially vulnerable in recovery, not in removal. Dell's documentation says that for preinstalled Office 2019/2021/2024, "The Office application detects the correct license in the MSA and automatically reactivates" once you sign in with "the same Microsoft Account (MSA) that was used for the activation." It also says OEM licensing "requires that the license is activated on the computer before the computer is reimaged." If a practice's front-desk PC was activated with an unknown personal or employee account, or never linked properly, no product key exists to fall back on. A Microsoft Q&A case from September 13, 2026 ("Office Vanished") shows an HP OEM Office Home & Student 2019 license disappearing from the user's Services & subscriptions. Microsoft support asked for "proof that I had office on my laptop," and later declined to help because /dstatus showed "grace period." That case is not tied to KB5002907, but it shows the entitlement problem you are likely to hit.

4. Microsoft's response: none found

• There is no acknowledgment on the KB page. I found no Windows release health or Microsoft 365 Message Center entry, no Tech Community post by Microsoft staff, and no evidence the update has been paused or pulled.
• Microsoft offers no official prevention guidance specific to this issue. Existing controls still apply:
• Windows Update toggle: Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > turn off "Receive updates for other Microsoft products." The KB's own install steps require this to be on.
• Group Policy: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update\Manage end user experience\Configure Automatic Updates > clear "Install updates for other Microsoft products."
• Intune/MDM: ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Update/AllowMUUpdateService = 0.
• WSUS/RMM: decline or block KB5002907. You can also hide it per machine with Microsoft's wushowhide.diagcab troubleshooter, which Q&A users already rely on to hide KB5002914.
• Office update policy (untested for perpetual installs): the KB says the update "makes no changes when updates are managed by Group Policy or Cloud Update." Deploying the Office ADMX update policies may therefore make the update skip a machine. Nobody has confirmed this works for retail or OEM perpetual Office, so use it as a backup layer, not your main control.

5. Recovery and remediation

No source confirms any recovery method for KB5002907 specifically. The steps below are the standard supported path for Dell OEM Office, adapted to this incident:

1. Triage first (establishes cause for your Microsoft case): Check Windows Update history for the KB5002907 install time. Check Installed apps and whether C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root still exists. Run cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\ospp.vbs" /dstatus if Office remnants exist, and check the Application event log. Tell apart (a) Office binaries uninstalled, (b) license removed or in grace but apps present, and (c) Microsoft 365 installed over the perpetual copy. The Q&A title describes lost licenses, while AnandTech describes removal.
2. Remove leftovers: If a partial or unwanted Microsoft 365 Click-to-Run install is present, remove it with Microsoft's Office uninstall support tool. Microsoft Q&A volunteers note that perpetual Office "does not work well or at all when Microsoft 365 is installed."
3. Reinstall from the Microsoft account: Sign in at account.microsoft.com/services with the account originally used to activate each Dell's Office. Dell says the license then reactivates automatically. Also check the Dell Digital Delivery / Digital Locker app, which Dell community guidance identifies as a way to re-download software bought with the PC. Dell recommends one Microsoft account per computer, for example the service tag as the alias, and notes an account can hold at most 25 licenses. Check whether your clients followed that pattern.
4. Dell recovery partition / SupportAssist OS Recovery: This may restore the factory image, including the Office preinstall, but it wipes the machine. Activation still depends on the original account binding. I found no reports confirming this path restores Office after KB5002907. Use it as a last resort and test on one machine first.
5. If the activating account is unknown or the entitlement is missing: Open a Microsoft support case, escalated to Microsoft 365 activation/licensing. Attach Dell order invoices showing the Office SKU as a line item, service tags, COA/labels, the /dstatus output and the Windows Update history showing KB5002907. Microsoft is not known to have offered manual entitlement restoration for this issue so far. The September 13 OEM case suggests first-line support will ask for proof of purchase.

6. Timeline and scale

• Sept 1, 2026: KB5002907 published.
• Sept 8–10: September Patch Tuesday. The separate KB5002914 Excel bug appears, and Microsoft adds it as a known issue on September 10.
• Sept 17: KB5002907 page updated. Nothing visible was added about perpetual Office.
• ~Sept 23–25: First public Office-removal reports (AnandTech, Dr. Windows, Microsoft Q&A), plus several "Office disappeared" Q&A posts that don't name the KB.
• Scale: There are only a handful of public reports, but they are clustered and rising over the last 48 hours. No trade press coverage yet. Your roughly 85 machines across several practices would be far larger than anything public. That supports causation, since many unrelated machines failing at once points to a common trigger. It also means you are likely ahead of Microsoft on this.

7. Related issue: KB5002914 (Excel copy/paste), a separate bug

• The KB5002914 Excel 2016 security update was released September 8, 2026. It caused paste, autofill and formula dragging to fail silently in Excel 2016/2019/2021/2024. Microsoft confirmed "A code regression contained within a recent service update is causing impact."
• Fixes: KB5002665 for Excel 2016 (September 16), and builds 10417.20208 (LTSC 2019), 14334.20918 (LTSC 2021) and 17932.21000 (LTSC 2024). Microsoft told BleepingComputer it is "aware of some user scenarios impacted by conditional formatting," where paste can still fail in Office 2016/LTSC 2019, and it recommends Paste Special (Ctrl+Alt+V) as the workaround. BleepingComputer added on September 23 that KB4461632 addresses Office Online Server. Office-Watch reports that retail Office 2019/2021/2024 remain at risk.
• Relationship: This appears unrelated in mechanism. KB5002914 is a monthly security patch with a code regression, while KB5002907 is a Windows Update–delivered trigger that forces a Click-to-Run update. Both belong to the same troubled September wave, which also included Microsoft's September 14 out-of-band updates KB5129235, KB5129237 and KB5129238 fixing Remote Desktop Services failures. One important confounder: Q&A threads show some users deliberately uninstalled Office 2016 while troubleshooting the Excel bug. On your clients, rule out removals by staff or other technicians before blaming KB5002907 for every machine.

Recommendations

1. Today: Push a policy through your RMM/GPO disabling "updates for other Microsoft products" and blocking KB5002907 on all client endpoints, including machines that still have Office.
2. Document causation on 3–5 representative machines: Record update history timestamps, the before/after state of the Office folder and registry, and /dstatus output.
3. Inventory licensing: For each affected Dell, identify the activating Microsoft account (the service-tag alias if Dell's recommended pattern was used) and pull the Dell invoices.
4. Recover: Reinstall from account.microsoft.com/services wherever the account is known. Batch the unknown-account machines into one business support case that cites the KB and the scale of the incident.
5. Escalate publicly: Reply to the Microsoft Q&A thread and file feedback. Consider contacting BleepingComputer or Born City. With KB5002914, BleepingComputer reported that Microsoft confirmed the bug "following a wave of customer reports on Reddit and the Microsoft Q&A forums."
6. Plan ahead: Office 2016 and 2019 are already out of support (October 14, 2025), and Office LTSC 2021 ends October 13, 2026. Budget for Office LTSC 2024 or Microsoft 365 Business, especially for machines whose OEM entitlement can't be restored.

Caveats

• The "confirmed side effect" in your brief is not confirmed by Microsoft. It rests on a few unverified user reports and the timing on your own fleet.
• I could not retrieve the full Microsoft Q&A thread or any moderator reply. The Dr. Windows post does not explicitly report removal.
• The OEM/retail exposure explanation is my inference from channel and build facts. It has not been verified.
• This situation is changing daily. Recheck the KB page (watch for an updated_at later than 2026-09-17), Windows release health and BleepingComputer before telling clients what to expect.