August, 2009

On Tuesday August 25th, 2009, Microsoft released an important/high priority non-security update for Office called Office Genuine Advantage Notifications to assist Microsoft’s efforts to reduce piracy. This update applies to Office XP, 2003 and 2007 suites and applications, and helps users confirm that the copy of Office that is installed on a computer is genuine and correctly licensed. For complete details on this update see “Description of the Office Genuine Advantage Notifications application.”

This update can be obtained using Microsoft Update beginning at 10:00 am PST.

For more information about the ways Microsoft protects customers and partners from the risks of software piracy:

·         Microsoft on the Issues

·         “Microsoft’s Software Protection Platform: Protecting Software and Customers from Counterfeiters”

·         Genuine Microsoft Software

·         How to Tell

This is advance notice that we will start providing SP2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office system via Microsoft Update’s Automatic Update the week of September 21, 2009. This continues our commitment to providing a minimum of 30 days notice prior to distributing service packs via this method. The availability will happen gradually over time, completing in early February. This is in response to customer requests as well as to ensure that our service infrastructure can meet the demand for the service pack.

On Tuesday, August 11th, 2009, Microsoft released three security updates for Office Web Components addressing four security vulnerabilities. The security updates apply to Microsoft Office 2000, XP, and 2003 Web Components, as described in security bulletin MS09-043. These updates address the issue discussed in security advisory 973472. For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for August 2009" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for August 2009" for IT professionals.

As previously discussed in the post Office Web Components Lifecycle, there are three versions of Office Web Components, and each version was also released as part of the next version of Office. So Office 2000 Web Components released both as part of Office 2000 and part of Office XP. The following table maps the different versions of Office Web Components to the updates needed for those versions:

*Project Server 2007 includes the installation package for the Office 2003 Web Components so that clients who connect to the server can automatically install the Office Web Components. Project Server installations are not vulnerable to the security vulnerability and do not need to install any updates.

**SQL Server 2008 includes  the installation package for the Office 2003 Web Components for use in SQL Server client-side functionality. Most server installations will not contain Office Web Components and will not need to be updated.

Note: Office 2000 is no longer in support.

Microsoft also released two updates to the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filter.