Office Sustained Engineering : Office

December 2009 Update Release

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:40:00 GMT

On Tuesday, December 8th, 2009, Microsoft released 6 security updates. In Office we are addressing 2 security vulnerabilities with 2 security bulletins. The security updates apply to:

Microsoft Office Converters 2002, 2003, and Office Converter Pack, described in security bulletin MS09-067.
Microsoft Office Project 2000, 2002, and 2003, described in security bulletin MS09-068.

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

This month you will notice an update is available for the file validation tool currently running with Office 2010. We are testing the release mechanism for Office 2010. With this test we are looking for a smooth transition when Office 2010 becomes publicly available. Here are the locations for x86 and x64 updates.

There will be a new product category under the Office family today on Microsoft Update. The new category will be titled Office 2010. The Office 2010 product category will include updates for the following categories: service packs, optional updates, and critical updates or security updates.

For additional information on Office 2010 Products see: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx.

******Office 2010 updates will be available via WSUS after Office 2010 releases (Office 2010 Beta updates are excluded from deployment via the WSUS distribution channel).*********

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

FAQ concerning Service Pack 2 and the Cumulative Updates for April 2009 for the 2007 Microsoft® Office System and Microsoft Office servers

The Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:22:00 GMT

Many of our customers have questions on the relationship between the set of hotfixes released in the Cumulative Updates (CU) for April 2009 and Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office servers. This post will aim at answering those questions.

Cumulative Updates are accumulated sets of hotfixes that the Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering team releases to customers approximately every two months.

If you do not use Cumulative Updates, this blog will probably not be interesting to you. If you are only using SP2, please refer to the following blog post for more details.

Throughout this post, we will use the term "April CU" to refer to the set of hotfixes released in the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009.

1. When was SP2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office servers released? When were the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009 released?
SP2 was released on Tuesday April 28th, 2009. Majority of the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009 were released on Thursday April 30th, 2009.

2. Where can I obtain SP2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office servers?
Please refer to the following blog post on how to obtain SP2. The corresponding KB article is KB968170.

3. Where can I obtain the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009?
Please refer to KB968765 on how to obtain these.

4. What should we install to get the latest updates for all Office products?
For our general customer base, we recommend installing SP2. If you have needed updates in the April CU, we recommend installing both SP2 and the April CU.

5. What hotfixes are included in SP2?
SP2 will contain every hotfix, security update, infrastructure update, service pack or any other update that was released for Office 2007 through February 2009. Therefore, all hotfixes that were released in CUs prior to the April CU will be included in SP2.

Please refer to KB968170 for a list of all SP2 packages.

6. Will we get the latest updates for an Office product if we install only the April CU and not SP2?
The short answer is no. If you want the latest updates for an Office product we recommend installing both SP2 and the April CU.

To explain further, the April CU includes only a subset of SP2 files, those that were updated due to a hotfix request. On the other hand, the service pack contains product improvements and updates to many other files that are not impacted by a hotfix request. The volume and diversity of fixes in SP2 is much greater than in the April CU. If you install only the April CU, you will not get all the latest updates and the benefit of the service pack.

7. What service packs are required to install the April CU?
To install the April CU, you must have installed either Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SP2. Cumulative updates released in April 2009 and beyond will no longer install on an Office 2007 system without a service pack installed.

8. Which one should we install first between SP2 and the April CU? Do they overwrite each other?
You can install SP2 and the April CU in any order.

The installer checks to see if the environment already has a newer version of the file it is attempting to replace. If not, it replaces the old file with the newer version; otherwise it skips the install and retains the newer version. The April CU version of a file is newer than the SP2 version of the same file and always takes precedence during an install. Therefore, if you install SP2 followed by April CU, the April CU version of the file replaces the SP2 version. On the other hand, if you install April CU first and then SP2, the April CU version of the file is retained in the environment. The April CU version of a file contains all updates to that file that were in SP2 as well. Hence, installation order does not matter.

Below is an example table for a file (microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll), in various installation scenarios.

Installation Scenario	Patches Installed	Example File	File Version after installation
SP2 only	coreserverwwsp2.msp	microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll	12.0.6420.1000 (SP2 version)
April CU only	coreserver.msp	microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll	12.0.6504.5000 (April CU version)
SP2 + April CU	coreserverwwsp2.msp + coreserver.msp	microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll	12.0.6504.5000 (April CU version)
April CU + SP2	coreserver.msp + coreserverwwsp2.msp	microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll	12.0.6504.5000 (April CU version)
SP1 + April CU	Osrchwfewwsp1.msp + coreserver.msp	microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll	12.0.6504.5000 (April CU version)

For a list of files and file versions in April CU packages, please refer to KB968765 and browse to the KB article for a specific product.
For a list of files and file versions in SP2 packages, please refer to KB970357 (2007 Microsoft Office System SP2), KB970358 (MOSS SP2) and KB970359 (WSS SP2).

9. Will server-packages be released for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) in the April CU? How different will they be from SP2?
Yes, the Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering team began the trend of releasing consolidated packages for server products due to a high volume of customer requests for this type of package. This was first done in the December CU.

In the April CU too, there are 2 cumulative server-packages:
(1) WSS server-package - that contains updates for WSS
(2) MOSS server-package - that contains updates for ECM, Project Server, Search, Excel Services, InfoPath Server and MOSS

The server-packages include all hotfixes for server products that the Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering team has ever released. However, there are files updated in the service pack that have never been updated in a hotfix. In order to get all the latest updates, you need to install SP2 and the April CU server-packages.

10. What do I need to install in my environment to get the latest updates for all server products?
You need to install both SP2 and the April CU server-packages (WSS server-package, MOSS server-package) to get the latest updates for all server products. In general, install the latest service pack and the latest CU server-packages to get the latest updates for server products.

11. If I install both SP2 and the April CU and then uninstall SP2, will I lose updates from the April CU, previous CUs or previous service packs?
The 2007 Microsoft Office suite SP2 is the first service pack to support uninstalling updates for the 2007 Office desktop products. Note you cannot uninstall SP2 for Microsoft Office server products.

No, you will not lose updates from the April CU, previous CUs or previous service packs if you uninstall SP2 for desktop products. For example, there are patches from SP1, December CU and February CU installed in your environment. You install SP2 and the April CU and then decide to uninstall SP2. The installer will uninstall everything that is superseded by SP1 and then reinstall patches from the December, February and April CUs (since applying these patches on top of SP1 is a supported scenario).

Please refer to KB954914 for more detailed information on uninstall for SP2.

12. Is it a supported scenario to install a patch from an older CU on top of a patch from a newer CU?
If you attempt to install a patch from an older CU after applying a patch (for the same set of files) from the newer CU, the installer will prevent installation and give an error that says: "This patch or one that supersedes it is already installed." This holds true for both desktop and server products.

Note that since the updates are cumulative in nature, the newer CU patch always contains the latest version of the set of files and encompasses fixes in those files from the older CU as well.

13. Where can I find a list of all fixes in SP2?
KB968170 includes a list of all SP2 packages and the Knowledge Base (KB) articles corresponding to them. Each KB contains a link to an Excel spreadsheet that lists the issues fixed in that package.

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.