Microsoft is investigating a Windows 11 problem that can prevent Microsoft Teams and the new Outlook application from launching correctly on ARM-based computers, adding another compatibility issue to the growing ecosystem of Windows devices powered by ARM processors. The problem appeared after security updates released beginning with the August 2026 Patch Tuesday and primarily affects systems that have not yet received certain Microsoft Store package updates.
According to Microsoft’s Windows release health information, the issue can occur after installing Windows security updates released on or after August 11, 2026, including KB5121003. On affected computers, Microsoft Teams and the new Outlook for Windows may refuse to launch or may unexpectedly close shortly after starting.
The scope of the problem is relatively specific. Microsoft says it affects ARM-based devices running Windows 11 version 24H2 or later, with systems such as the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 among the hardware potentially impacted. The company says the problem is most likely to appear on new computers or freshly imaged machines that have not yet downloaded Microsoft Store updates.
This distinction is important for organizations deploying fleets of new Windows on ARM computers. A newly provisioned laptop may successfully receive Windows security updates through normal enterprise management processes while still lacking an updated Store-delivered component, creating a dependency that administrators may not immediately associate with applications such as Teams or Outlook.
Microsoft has not publicly disclosed the technical root cause of the failures. However, the workaround it recommends provides an interesting clue about the dependency involved: affected users should update a component called the Auto Super Resolution Package to version 1.0.19.0 or later.
Auto Super Resolution is associated with the Copilot+ PC platform and uses AI-assisted processing to improve the visual quality and performance of supported games. At first glance, a component designed around gaming and graphical enhancement would appear to have little connection with productivity applications such as Teams and Outlook, making its involvement in the problem particularly unusual.
Microsoft nevertheless says updating this package can resolve the application failures. Users can open the Microsoft Store, navigate to the Downloads section, check for available updates and install Auto Super Resolution Package version 1.0.19.0 or newer.
For individual consumers, the workaround is relatively straightforward. Enterprise environments can be more complicated because Microsoft Store access is sometimes restricted, centrally managed or disabled as part of corporate security policies. Administrators deploying ARM-based systems may therefore need to verify that the required package version is present as part of their provisioning process rather than assuming Windows Update alone will deliver everything necessary.
Microsoft says it is working on a permanent solution that will arrive through a future Windows update. Until that fix is released, ensuring that Microsoft Store components are current remains the recommended mitigation for affected devices.
The incident also illustrates how Windows has evolved from an operating system updated through a relatively small number of mechanisms into a platform containing components delivered through several independent channels. Windows Update, Microsoft Store packages, application-specific update systems, drivers and firmware can all participate in determining whether a modern Windows installation behaves correctly.
That complexity becomes particularly visible on new PCs. Organizations commonly build standardized Windows images, install security patches, configure endpoint protection, enroll systems in device-management platforms and then deliver those computers to employees. If a required Store package remains outdated, however, the machine can technically be fully patched from a Windows Update perspective while still containing a component capable of causing application failures.
ARM systems introduce another dimension to this challenge. Microsoft’s investment in Windows on ARM has increased significantly with the arrival of Copilot+ PCs, particularly systems based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors. Devices such as the Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 were among the products that helped push ARM Windows hardware toward a broader mainstream audience.
Historically, one of the biggest obstacles facing Windows on ARM has been application compatibility. Windows was built around an enormous ecosystem of x86 and later x64 applications, drivers, extensions and enterprise tools, many of which were designed with assumptions about Intel and AMD processors. Microsoft has consequently invested heavily in native ARM applications and emulation technologies intended to make existing Windows software work transparently on ARM hardware.
Modern Windows on ARM is considerably more capable than previous generations, and major applications increasingly provide native ARM versions. Nevertheless, incidents like the Teams and Outlook launch problem demonstrate that compatibility involves more than whether an executable can run on the processor architecture. Dependencies between applications, Windows components, Store packages, drivers and platform-specific features can introduce problems that may only appear on ARM devices.
For enterprise IT teams, this makes ARM-specific testing increasingly important. An organization that validates a Windows update exclusively on conventional Intel or AMD laptops may not discover a regression affecting ARM hardware until the update reaches production devices. As ARM adoption grows, treating the architecture as another supported platform rather than simply another Windows laptop configuration becomes increasingly necessary.
The affected applications also make the current problem particularly disruptive. Teams and Outlook are among the most frequently used applications in Microsoft-centric organizations, and failures involving both can immediately interfere with communication, meetings, email and collaboration. Even when the underlying operating system remains stable, losing access to these applications can make a workstation effectively unusable for many employees.
Microsoft says classic Outlook is not known to be affected by the issue. Word, Excel and other applications are also not currently considered impacted, narrowing the problem primarily to Teams and the new Outlook application on the affected ARM configurations.
The difference between classic Outlook and new Outlook is noteworthy because the applications use substantially different architectures. New Outlook is closely connected to Microsoft’s modern web-based application platform, while classic Outlook remains the traditional Win32 desktop client that enterprises have used for decades. Different dependencies between these application models can result in one client failing while the other continues operating normally.
For organizations that still maintain classic Outlook, this could provide a temporary fallback in environments where users encounter problems with the newer application. However, that option may not exist on machines provisioned specifically around Microsoft’s newer productivity stack, reinforcing the importance of deploying the recommended Store update.
The issue is also part of a broader series of problems associated with Microsoft’s August 2026 updates. Microsoft previously confirmed that .NET Framework updates released during the month could interfere with printing and PDF export functionality in some applications.
Another problem involved Windows 11 computers using peripherals with integrated RGB lighting. Microsoft began deploying a fix after users encountered system crashes and gaming-related problems associated withEXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATIONerrors.
Microsoft also recently told customers to disregard certain warnings indicating that Microsoft Defender Antivirus had been disabled. Those alerts could appear after installing recent Defender updates even though the underlying antivirus protection had not necessarily been turned off.
Taken together, these incidents highlight the difficult balance involved in maintaining Windows as an enormous hardware and software ecosystem. Security updates need to be deployed quickly because delaying patches can leave organizations exposed to vulnerabilities, but operating-system changes can interact with drivers, applications and platform components in ways that are difficult to reproduce across every possible hardware configuration.
Enterprise administrators therefore increasingly rely on staged deployment strategies. Instead of immediately installing updates across every workstation, organizations can deploy them first to a representative group containing different hardware generations, processor architectures and business applications. Problems discovered in those rings can then be investigated before updates reach the entire fleet.
ARM hardware should now be represented in those validation groups whenever organizations use it in production. A testing pool containing only x64 machines cannot reliably identify regressions that specifically affect ARM-based Windows systems, even when the applications being tested have identical names and user interfaces.
There is also a useful lesson here for Windows troubleshooting. When an application stops working immediately after a Windows update, administrators naturally focus on the operating-system patch itself. In modern Windows environments, however, resolving the problem may require updating a seemingly unrelated Microsoft Store package rather than removing the Windows security update.
For affected users, the immediate action is therefore relatively simple: check Microsoft Store updates and ensure that Auto Super Resolution Package 1.0.19.0 or later is installed. Classic Outlook, Word, Excel and other applications are not currently known to suffer from the same problem, while Microsoft continues developing a permanent Windows-side fix.
The incident is unlikely to derail Microsoft’s broader Windows on ARM strategy, but it demonstrates the kind of platform-specific compatibility problems that must continue to be addressed as ARM PCs become more common. For consumers, the difference between ARM and x64 may increasingly become invisible during normal use, but for developers, QA engineers and enterprise administrators, processor architecture remains an important testing dimension.
As Microsoft expands Windows across increasingly diverse hardware and builds more AI-oriented components into Copilot+ PCs, dependencies between the operating system, Store-delivered packages and applications are likely to become even more significant. The Teams and Outlook failures provide a practical reminder that keeping a modern Windows computer updated no longer necessarily means installing Windows Update alone; every layer of the platform can matter when a seemingly unrelated component becomes part of the application dependency chain.