Microsoft AutoUpdate failures -- and how to fix

A bad release of Microsoft Auto-Update a number of months ago can result in ultimately filling the hard drive with “localized” Office application folders when each weekly Office update is automatically run.

A visual example of this problem (which most people might not see unless they look for it or try to run an Office application with a broken icon):  An Office application would have a “wrong” icon on it along with extra folders with the name of the wrong-icon application in the Applications folder:

Open

The solution to this problem is to go to Applications --> Service Provider Support and run the “Microsoft Office Uninstaller” and then reinstall Office from Managed Software Center on the affected system.   Just deleting the extra folders will not resolve the problem.

Running the “Microsoft Office Uninstaller” will remove those extraneous folders and the problem should not recur once Office has been reinstalled.