EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Microsoft has confirmed that its 365 system is experiencing a widespread outage affecting users across parts of North America. The company posted an alert on X (formerly Twitter) around 2:17 p.m., announcing that it has identified the problem and is working to restore services.

An hours-long outage is preventing Microsoft's enterprise customers from accessing their inboxes, files, and video meetings.

The dilemma for millions of Windows users now is that Microsoft also warns that “while you might choose ultimately to uninstall a security update, you should know the risks associated with the uninstallation.” These include vulnerability to attacks, compromised personal information and potential data loss, Microsoft says.

Some Microsoft 365 services are still down, with users reporting they're unable to access Outlook and Teams. Microsoft 365 suffered a major outage on Thursday, leaving some users unable to send or receive emails. That's obviously not ideal in the middle of a workday.

Microsoft Outage Status Update: Problem Identified Amid 451 4.3.2 Temporary Server Issue, Estimated Time Here

Microsoft 365 services were impacted on Thursday with most users facing a problem with Microsoft Outlook, specifically regarding receiving messages.

You can spend money on third-party PC optimization tools to improve performance, but Microsoft PC Manager claims to deliver the same benefits for free. I put it to the test.