Tip 1130: Outlook 2013’s Tile is a solid blue square

Following last week’s Office 2013’s updates, users began complaining that the Outlook icon on their Windows 8 Start screen was blank. With a little tweaking, the label "Outlook 2013" returned, but the Outlook icon remained missing.

This is caused, in part, by the update in KB 2863911. To fix it, you can uninstall the update… or better yet, install SP1.

Lync users who installed KB 2863908 will have the same problem. Sharepoint Designer also suffers from the missing icon if an update is installed prior to installing SP1.

KB2863911 fixes a problem for Exchange server users, so anyone who is not using Exchange mailbox won’t be affected by it (and many who are won’t be affected by the issue it fixes), however, it’s better to install Office 2013 SP1.

When Outlook is configured to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 mailbox by using Cached Exchange Mode and the mailbox is moved to a Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 mailbox server, Outlook cannot connect to the Exchange mailbox. Additionally, the Outlook status bar shows a status of Disconnected.

If Outlook’s version number in File, Office Account is 15.0.4551 or lower, open Control Panel, Windows Updates and check for updates. Office 2013 Sp1 is available to all Office 2013 users, including Home Premium and RT via Windows Updates.