Office Sustained Engineering : Service Packs

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.

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

Upcoming end of support for Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

David [Microsoft] — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:35:00 GMT

Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) was released nearly a year ago, on September 17th, 2007. Per the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy for service packs, when a new Office service pack is released, the previous service pack is supported for one year. This provides customers an opportunity to test and deploy the new service pack. In accordance with Microsoft’s lifecycle policy, Office 2003 Service Pack 2 will leave support on September 17th, 2008. This date is extended for security updates to include the second Tuesday of the following month. Any security updates released on or before the second Tuesday in October, October 14th, will support both Service Packs 2 and 3. Security updates released after October 14th will support only Service Pack 3. We encourage all customers to deploy Service Pack 3 as soon as possible to take advantage of the significant security benefits that it contains.

Office 2007 SP1 releasing to Automatic Update

David [Microsoft] — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:23:00 GMT

As we noted when we released Office 2003 Service Pack 3 via Microsoft Update (MU), we are committed to providing at least 30 days notice before making Office service packs available via Microsoft Update automatic distribution (for Vista and XP). Today, we are giving notice that SP1 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System will begin being available via MU Automatic Update starting around June 16th. We released SP1 for Office 2007 to customers approximately 5 months ago and since that time we have had 10’s of millions of downloads and a very good reaction from our customers.

Given our commitment to advance notice, we wanted to use this blog as one of many avenues to alert our customers to the fact that we will be distributing SP1 automatically via Automatic Update beginning June 16th. The availability will happen gradually and not everyone will see it at the same time. Think of the 16th as the earliest possible start of distribution and that no sooner than that date will SP1 start to become available to customers' systems via this channel. This is necessary to ensure that our service infrastructure can meet the enormous demand for the service pack.

This policy approach seems to have worked really well with SP3 for Office 2003 because it gave the market plenty of time to evaluate the SP and gave us time to address specific customer concerns. We’ve undertaken the same steps for SP1 for Office 2007 and so it’s great to be getting it out to those customers who depend on Automatic Update.

- The Office and MU teams

Updates to Office 2003 include changes made in Office 2003 Service Pack 3

David [Microsoft] — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:35:00 GMT

As you may know, Office 2003 Service Pack 3 contains some changes to the behavior of Office. For example, certain file types cannot be opened or saved by default, although you can re-enable this functionality by setting registry keys as described in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article and on David LeBlanc’s blog. A common question is whether these behavior changes are included in post-SP3 security updates. In short, yes: security updates released after SP3 contain behavior changes first released in SP3, even if you do not have SP3 installed. This post will briefly describe why that occurs and will outline which updates contain which changes.

For several reasons, Office patches are cumulative - broadly speaking, they contain all changes from previous updates to the same component, including service packs. By “component”, we mean the set of files in the patch - typically, this is the file or set of files like excel.exe that define the core, central functionality of an application. We plan to provide a more thorough explanation in a future post. The key thing to know for this discussion is that the latest update to Excel will contain SP3 changes in Excel, including behavior changes, and likewise for the other Office applications. This occurs even if SP3 has not been installed - if you have SP2 installed and install a security update released after January 1st, 2008, you will see the SP3 behavior changes. The information in this post applies to all update types, including security updates, non-security updates, and hotfixes.

Below, you will find a list describing which changes are contained in which updates. For the most part, the title of an update should make it clear which product is affected - for example, “Security Update for Microsoft Office Word 2003” is an update for Word. A few files like mso.dll and cdrimp32.flt may be more confusing. These files are typically contained in updates called “Security Update for Microsoft Office 2003”, and you can determine exactly which files are affected by such an update by consulting the “File Information” section of the security bulletin.

If you install an update to Microsoft Office Access 2003, you will see the following behavior change:

· Access add-ins can no longer be configured for use by all users. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938809.

If you install an update to Microsoft Office Excel 2003, such as MS08-014, you will see the following behavior change:

· Certain macros in older Excel file formats have increased security. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938806.

If you install an update to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, such as MS08-015, you will see the following behavior change:

· MAPI forms do not run in public folders and user folders. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938816.

· Attachments with the .gadget extension can no longer be opened in Outlook. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938811.

If you install an update to Microsoft Office Project 2003, such as MS08-018, you will see the following behavior change:

· Documents saved in certain formats no longer contain the version number of Office. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938807.

If you install an update to Microsoft Office Word 2003, such as MS08-009, you will see the following behavior change:

· The Fast Save setting in Microsoft Office Word has been removed. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938808.

If you install an update to Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Word 2003, PowerPoint 2003, or cdrimp32.flt, you will see the following behavior change in the updated application:

· Office 2003 can no longer open or save certain file formats. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938810.

If you install an update to the file MSO.DLL, such as MS08-016, you will see the following behavior changes:

· Office 2003 can now be configured to allow or deny specific COM components. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938815.

· Some COM components with unusual characteristics may not function as expected. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938814.

· Changes have been made to the behavior of Microsoft Office Document Imaging. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938813.

· Documents saved in certain formats no longer contain the version number of Office. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938807.

Edit: The behavior covered in this post is described by Microsoft Knowledge Base article 951646.