Office Sustained Engineering : Announcements

August 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:47:00 GMT

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:

OWC Version	From Product	Patch Needed
2000	Office XP	KB947320
XP (2002)	Office XP, web download	KB947320
XP (2002)	Office 2003	KB947319
2003	Office 2003, web download (versions 1-3)	KB947319
2003	Web download (version 4), Project Server 2007, SQL Server 2008*	KB947318

*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.

July 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:35:00 GMT

On Tuesday, July 14th, 2009, Microsoft released one security updates for Office addressing a single security vulnerability. The security update applies to Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, as described in security bulletin MS09-030. For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for July 2009" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for July 2009" for IT professionals. Microsoft also released two updates to the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filter.

As a reminder, today is the last day of extended support for Microsoft Office 2000. Starting August 1, 2009, Microsoft will discontinue support for Office Update and the Office Update Inventory Tool. To continue getting the latest updates for Microsoft Office products, use Microsoft Update. For more information see the FAQ.

June 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:31:00 GMT

On Tuesday, June 9th, 2009, Microsoft released 17 security updates for Office in 3 bulletins addressing 11 security vulnerabilities. The security updates apply to the following products:

Microsoft Office Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, Excel Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer, the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, the 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Excel Services in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (32 bit, 64 bit), as described in security bulletin MS09-021.
Microsoft Office Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, Word Viewer 2003, the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, as described in security bulletin MS09-027.
Microsoft Office 2000, XP, and 2007, as described in security bulletin MS09-024.

For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for June 2009" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for June 2009" for IT professionals.

Microsoft also released two updates to the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filter and an update to Outlook. The update to Outlook resolves an issue that occurs when you attempt to save after you edit a meeting request with Service Pack 2 installed. If certain fields, such as the list of meeting attendees, are edited, you will be prompted to either save and notify the meeting attendees or not save. If you choose not to save, your changes are lost. This update resolves that issue. The update, which will install successfully if either Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 is installed, also delivers many of the Outlook performance enhancements in Service Pack 2 to users who are not yet ready to install the service pack.

Starting August 1, 2009, Microsoft will discontinue support for Office Update and the Office Update Inventory Tool. To continue getting the latest updates for Microsoft Office products, use Microsoft Update. For more information see the FAQ.

May 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:52:00 GMT

On Tuesday, May 12th, 2009, Microsoft released 7 security updates for Office in 1 bulletin addressing 14 security vulnerabilities. The security updates apply to the following products:

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, PowerPoint Viewer 2003, PowerPoint Viewer 2007, the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, as described in security bulletin MS08-017. These updates address the issue described in Microsoft Security Advisory 969136.

For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for May 2009" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2009" for IT professionals.

Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office system available today!

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:38:00 GMT

We're pleased to announce the release of all languages for Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System, the 2007 Microsoft Office servers, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. As promised, this post contains a list of the products that are patched by SP2 with their corresponding knowledge base articles, information on how to obtain the packages, and links to additional SP2 resources. We hope you'll find this to be one of the best service packs produced by the Office team ever!

List of Service Packs Released

Desktop Products

Office Server Products

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

How to Obtain the Service Pack Packages

Links to Additional Resources

List of Service Packs Released

Below you will find a list of the 24 service packs produced by the Office team. The links will take you to the main knowledge base article that describes the changes made to the product or products impacted by that service pack.

Desktop Products

Product	Knowledge Base Article
The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite	953195
Microsoft Office Project 2007	953326
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007	953292
Microsoft Office Visio 2007	953327
Microsoft Office Access Runtime and Data Connectivity 2007	957262
Calendar Printing Assistant for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007	953329
Microsoft Office InterConnect 2007 – Japanese only	953330
Excel Viewer 2007	953336
PowerPoint Viewer 2007	953332
Visio Viewer 2007	953335
Microsoft Office Proofing Tools 2007	953328
Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite	954914
Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007	953195
Microsoft Office Project Language Pack 2007	953326
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer Language Pack 2007	953292
Microsoft Office Visio Language Pack 2007	953327

Office Server Products

Product	Knowledge Base Article
The 2007 Microsoft Office servers	953334
The 2007 Microsoft Office servers, 64-bit edition	953334
The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack	953334
The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack, 64-bit edition	953334

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Product	Knowledge Base Article
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0	953338
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, 64-bit edition	953338
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack	953338
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack, 64-bit edition	953338

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 2 is also available in a single, complete package intended for use in new installations. Links to these packages on the Download Center can be found in knowledge base article 968170.

How to obtain SP2

Recommended Method: Microsoft Update

We recommend using Microsoft Update to apply SP2. Microsoft Update's detection will determine the products and languages you have installed and update your machine all at once.

Optional Method: The Download Center

If you choose not to use Microsoft Update, the SP2 packages are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. Please click here to find links to the downloads.

Links to Additional Resources

Many of the Office teams will be discussing the work they did in SP2. You'll find some great information at the locations below.

Natural Language Group Team Blog

David LeBlanc (Office Crypto)

Doug Mahugh's Blog (Office Interoperability)

Stephen Peront's Blog (Office Interoperability)

Office Chart Object Model in PowerPoint and Word

John Guin's Blog (OneNote)

Daniel Escapa's Blog (OneNote)

Outlook Team Blog

Project Team Blog

PowerPoint Team Blog

SharePoint Designer Team Blog

SharePoint Designer Support Blog

Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Technologies and Products

SharePoint Team Blog

Visio Team Blog

Word Team Blog

Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System due to ship April 28th

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:50:00 GMT

Last October, we announced the upcoming release of the 2nd service pack for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and the 2007 Microsoft Office servers. Today, we’re happy to provide both a formal release date, and more details on what you should expect to see in SP2.

A fair amount has been said about SP2 already, but there is a lot more to share. We’ll cover the highlights here, but please check back on April 28th when all of our documentation will be published. It is important to remember that the information provided today is by no means a comprehensive list. We worked with the individual teams in Office to come up with a list of changes that they were most proud of and felt would be most beneficial to you, our valued customers.

In addition to the numerous product improvements introduced by SP2, you may also notice that our SP2 documentation has been overhauled. Gone are the days of the long-winded or too sparse knowledge base articles that do little to describe what’s included in the actual service pack or that include details that may not be what you are looking for. In their place are what we hope are more user-friendly and informative KB’s. The technical information still exists, but it has been pulled from the main KB articles and now will live on TechNet. And, back by popular demand, is the spreadsheet listing individual bugs that were fixed across all of our products.

The Service Pack team would like to express our sincere thanks to the many beta testers who took the time to download, install, test, and provide feedback to us. This was the largest beta we’ve done to date for an Office service pack with thousands of beta testers from over 60 countries. We know your time is extremely valuable, and we very much appreciate all you’ve done. Your efforts have helped to make this a great release!

Don’t forget to come back on April 28th. We’ll have a comprehensive list of everything we’ve released, where you can find it, and links to additional information. A brief note, some of the information posted earlier needed clarification. We have made slight modifications to the information below.

Very sincerely,

The Office Service Pack team

We’ll start with updates that pertain to multiple products, highlight fixes to the individual desktop applications, and then discuss fixes to the server products.

Changes that impact desktop applications

Service Pack 2 adds the ability to open, edit and save documents in version 1.1 of the OpenDocument Format for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These applications now let users save, open, and edit files as OpenDocument Text (*.odt), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods), and OpenDocument Presentations (*.odp).
The 2007 Microsoft Office Service Pack 2 is the first service pack to support uninstall of client updates through the Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite as well as via Windows Installer command line. The Service Pack Uninstall Tool will be available as a separate download.
The Microsoft Save As PDF or XPS add-in has been built into Office applications in SP2. Users no longer have to download and install the add-in separately.
When many graphic objects are present performance has been improved.
In many scenarios, expect increased print fidelity of graphical objects.
Improved interoperability using standard DrawingML markup to describe the visual properties of the SmartArt graphic.
Substantial improvements to Forms-based authentication support in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SPD.

The 2007 Office Suite SP2 has been tested and is supported for Internet Explorer 8. Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 will all be supported upon their release.

Access

The ability to export reports to Excel has been added.
Fixes for issues with the import data wizards, report printing and previewing, macros, Excel integration, and date filters.
Updates to Access Developer Extensions are now included in SP2.

Excel

The charting mechanism has improved robustness and targeted performance improvements.
A chart object model has been added to Word and PowerPoint.
Improved printing of graphical content, especially on PCL printers.

Groove

Improved form tools.
Synchronization reliability has been improved.

InfoPath

Increased compatibility between InfoPath forms and other Microsoft products, such as Groove and Outlook.

OneNote

SharePoint synchronization has been improved which helps reduce the load on SharePoint servers and produce fewer errors.

Outlook

Performance in startup, shutdown, view rendering, and folder switch has been improved.
Calendar updates, search, and RSS are more reliable.
The object model has been improved.

PowerPoint

Resaving of files is faster. Several printer-specific problems have been fixed.
The Microsoft Office Excel Chart Object Model has been more fully integrated.

Project

The scheduling engine, Active Cache, and Gantt charts all have improvements.
There is additional reliability with earlier versions of the .mpp format.

Publisher

Fixes have been made in the following areas: print preview, compatibility with Internet Explorer 8, e-mail on Windows Vista, and saving to the Content library.

Visio

Improved compatibility with other Microsoft products in several key scenarios, such as inserting Visio drawings as linked objects in PowerPoint or Word, exporting reports to Excel, and saving drawings as Web pages for browsing in Internet Explorer 8.

Word

Fidelity of PDF and XPS output has been enhanced compared to the output created through the use of the download.
Better integration of the Microsoft Office Excel Chart Object Model.

Changes that impact the server products

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server SP2 include fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms. SP2 provides the groundwork for future major releases of SharePoint Products and Technologies.

An STSADM command line that scans your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to the next version of SharePoint and provides feedback and best practice recommendations on your current environment.
SP2 offers support for a broader range of Web browsers.

Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be supported on their release.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

The performance and stability of content deployment and variations feature has been improved.
A new tool has been added to the STSADM command-line utility that enables a SharePoint administrator to scan sites that use the variations feature for errors.

Excel Services

SP2 makes it easier to configure Excel Web Access Web Parts on new sites.
Several rendering, calculation, and security issues have been resolved.
Some display issues have been addressed.
Improved compatibility with Mozilla Firefox browsers.

Groove Server

Improved synchronization reliability.
Groove Server 2007 Manager will install and run with SQL 2008.
Groove’s LDAP connectivity and auto-activation functionality have been improved.
Error reporting in the Groove Relay Server has improved significantly.
Groove Relay Server has improved robustness.

Forms Server

Memory requirements and the page load times for large browser-rendered forms have been reduced.
Browser rendering of various controls, such as the 'cannot be blank' asterisk and the rich text field has been improved.

Project Server

Better memory management in the queue service.
Performance to certain database table indexes is improved.
Resource plans, build team, cost resources, and the server scheduling engine have improved.

Search Server

Improvements to the reliability and stability of very large corpus crawls.
Backup-restore has been improved.
A new command has been introduced to the stsadm.exe tool that lets a SharePoint Administrator to tune the Query processor multiplier parameter.
Improved accuracy in searches involving numbers.

Note: Two minor changes were made on April 22, 2009 to the original post of this blog. The changes were: Substantial improvements to Forms-based authentication was moved to the desktop section and support in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePointDesigner was added to the sentence. Windows Server R2 was changed to Windows Server 2008 R2.

April 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:41:00 GMT

On Tuesday, April 14th, 2009, Office released 10 security updates in 2 bulletins addressing a total of 4 security vulnerabilities. The security updates apply to the following products:

Microsoft Office Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, Excel Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer, the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, as described in security bulletin MS08-009. These updates address the issue described in Microsoft Security Advisory 968272.
Microsoft Office Converters 2000 and 2002, as described in security bulletin MS08-010. These updates fix issues related to Microsoft Security Advisory 960906.

For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for April 2009" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for April 2009" for advanced users.

March 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:02:00 GMT

On Tuesday, March 10^th, 2009, Office released two updates for the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filters. No security updates for Office were released.

February 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

On Tuesday, February 10^th, 2009, Office released 3 security updates in 1 bulletin addressing 3 security vulnerabilities. The security updates apply to Microsoft Office Visio 2002, 2003 and 2007. For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for February 2009" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for February 2009" for advanced users. Office also released two updates for the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filters.

January 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:09:00 GMT

On Tuesday, January, 13^th, 2009, Office released updates to the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filters. No security updates for Office were released.

Excel Viewer 2003, Word Viewer 2003 and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to retire

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:40:00 GMT

In accordance with the Microsoft Product Lifecycle Policy, we are now providing notice that the Excel Viewer 2003 and Word Viewer 2003 web downloads will leave support on December 31^st, 2009. Notice was previously provided on the PowerPoint Viewer 2003 download page that the PowerPoint Viewer 2003 will be retired on October 16^th, 2009. After these dates, Microsoft will not provide hotfix, service pack or security update support for these products. Customers should transition to the latest versions of the Excel Viewer, Word Viewer, and PowerPoint Viewer 2007, which support the Excel 2007, Word 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats and are otherwise backwards compatible. The version of PowerPoint Viewer 2003 that is included with PowerPoint 2003 and used in the “Package for CD” feature will continue to be supported.

December 2008 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:46:00 GMT

On Tuesday, December 9^th, 2008, Office released 18 security updates in 4 bulletins addressing a total of 15 security vulnerabilities. The security updates apply to the following products:

Microsoft Office Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, Excel Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer, and the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, as described in security bulletin MS08-074.
Microsoft Office Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, Word Viewer 2003, and the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, as described in security bulletin MS08-072.
Microsoft Office XP, Project 2003, and Project 2007, as described in security bulletin MS08-070. Note: the security update for Office XP is available in the Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Traditional Taiwan), and Korean locales only. Other locales of Office XP are not affected.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 32-bit edition and 64-bit edition, as described in security bulletin MS08-077.

For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for December 2008" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for December 2008" for advanced users. Office also released two updates for the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filters.

Office also released an update to Office 2003. This update fixes a problem that prevents Office patches from installing when the Office Source Engine (OSE) service is disabled, which is one of the most common reasons for Office patches to fail to install. The Office Source Engine is used by Office to manage Office files during patch installation and is required for patch installation to succeed. After installing the update, the OSE service will run and patches will install successfully even if the service is disabled. If you are using Microsoft Update, Automatic Updates, Windows Server Update Services, or any other deployment tool that uses the Microsoft Update agent, the update will only be offered to your system if the Office Source Engine service is disabled. The update available from the Microsoft Download Center will install on all Office 2003 client systems. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, you may need to restart your computer after installing the update for it to take effect.

November 2008 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:31:00 GMT

On Tuesday, November 11^th, 2008, Office released 4 security updates in one bulletin. The security updates apply to the following products:

Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 32-bit edition and 64-bit edition, as described in security bulletin MS08-069.

For complete details, see "Microsoft Security Updates for November 2008" for home users and "Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for November 2008" for advanced users. Office also released two updates for the Outlook 2003 and 2007 Junk Email Filters.

Office also released 11 optional updates to Office Help. These updates allow you to access the latest documentation for Office when you are not connected to the internet. The updates are:

Announcing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:04:00 GMT

We’re pleased to announce that Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office system is expected to be released in the near future. Although we aren’t yet announcing the exact release date, it will fall between February and April of 2009.

Historically, we have waited to communicate details about service packs until their release (or very shortly before). As we communicated with SP3 for Office 2003 and SP1 for the 2007 Office System, we will be taking steps to increase transparency and visibility into the Office servicing model at the request of our customers. To that end, we would like to start sharing some details into what will be included in SP2 for the 2007 Office system. This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything included in this service pack and we will share more details prior to the final release, but we want to start communicating to customers what they should be aware of at a high level.

To be fair, this is not the first time we have talked about SP2. Several months ago, we announced that we’ll be further demonstrating our increased commitment to interoperability by including support for Open Document Format (ODF), XML Paper Specification (XPS), and Portable Document Format (PDF) in SP2. In addition to those file format additions, some other highlights that you’ll find in SP2 include:

For Office Desktop Programs:

· Improved Outlook Calendaring Reliability

· Improved Outlook Performance

· Enabling Object Model support for Charts in PowerPoint and Word

· Improved cryptographic functionality by supporting all cryptographic algorithms offered by the operating system

· Improved functionality in Excel’s charting mechanism

· Ability to ungroup SmartArt graphics (and as a result, the ability to add animations to them in PowerPoint)

· Ability for Visio to export UML models to an XML file compliant with the XMI standard

· Tool that enables the uninstall of Office client Service Packs

For Servers:

· Performance and manageability improvements to variations in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) including STSADM commands for repairing links between source and target pages

· Improvements around processing status approvals from Office Project Web Access into Office Project Professional 2007

· Improvements to read-only content databases and index rebuild timer jobs in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

In the coming weeks, individual product teams across Office will begin updating their blogs and highlighting some of the specific work that they’ve included in SP2. You can find the links to some of the blogs at the end of the post.

In the next few days we will also invite a select set of Office enterprise customers to a private SP2 beta. From these customers we hope to gather great feedback about the service pack, including areas that we’ll need to improve upon before we release it to the general public. Based on the success of the SP2 beta program and customer needs, we will certainly evaluate whether to expand this in the future.

Please check back for additional updates!

Thanks,

Office Service Pack Team

Access Team Blog

Daniel Escapa’s Blog (OneNote)

InfoPath Team Blog

John Guin’s Blog (OneNote)

SharePoint Designer Team Blog

SharePoint Designer Support Blog

Windows SharePoint Services Blog

Word Team Blog

Announcing New Daylight Saving Time Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:54:00 GMT

Microsoft has released an update to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (x86, x64). This update provides the latest time zone definitions. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB956612 and the Microsoft SharePoint Team blog.