Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

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Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:26:53 GMT

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re: Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

bitzie — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:40:07 GMT

But it still begs the question... why does it appear that Microsoft shoots themselves in the foot all the time with incomplete communication?

The issue of communication

The Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:16:52 GMT

Read this: Have You Seen My Stapler? - Viral Tarpara's Blog : Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

The issue of communication

The Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:20:25 GMT

Read this: Have You Seen My Stapler? - Viral Tarpara's Blog : Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

The issue of communication

MVPs — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:05:41 GMT

Read this: Have You Seen My Stapler? - Viral Tarpara's Blog : Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

re: Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

Becky Burwell — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:03:29 GMT

You say: Microsoft Office 2003 becomes "end-of-life" on June 30th 2007 with extended support out to 2009

I assume you mean June 30th 2008 not 2007.

re: Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

Becky Burwell — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:05:49 GMT

I just looked at the Microsoft site and see end of life support for Office 2003 is indeed July 30, 2007.

re: Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

Robin Harris — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 09:57:06 GMT

The list I published came direct from the KB article. And you say it is false.

Whatever.

My point is that millions of small businesses and home users, who don't have access to Office Migration Planning Manager or the expertise required to use it or the other tools you proffer, are left out holding the bag. You don't care about them, do you? You don't even seem to know they exist.

Also, I didn't make any of the claims you list above - other than reprinting the KB list. If that list is wrong, Microsoft has only themselves to blame.

Robin Harris

re: Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

Viral Tarpara — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:36:30 GMT

Actually Mr. Harris, not to sound like a broken record, but your fact-checking is amateur at best as you seem to pick and choose your facts. Office Migration Planning Manager is free for ANYONE to use. I provide the links to the download. It is an IT tool, but thoroughly documented.

Only files PRIOR to Word 6.0 for Windows, Lotus, Quattro, and Pre-97 PowerPoint files are blocked by default.

As for "reprinting" the KB article, you are disingenious with how to interpret the KB implying that ALL formats are blocked. Furthurmore your article is misleading and inflammatory to the point that you imply that Microsoft acted maliciously, which is certainly not the case.

I will agree with you that we did not make it easy for "average" users so Microsoft has revised the KB again to provide simple, easy to use fixes which are also provided on my blog article. We could have done a better job of informing home-users and unmanaged organizations.

Overall, after reading a handful of your article, I will say that even though you seemed to blame Microsoft for world's computer problems, you do bring a valid viewpoint when it comes to home-users and extremely IT-challenged businesses.

Analogy...

cquirke — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:01:36 GMT

Here's an analogy: You have a house built by a contractor, who insists on retaining a master key so they can do onging repairs inside your house at their convenience.

One day, you find you can't get into the rooms in your house because they've changed the locks.

But that's OK, as the reason they changed the locks is because the locks they installed when they built the house were defective.

re: Office 2003 SP3 - The Facts and Fiction

EricE — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:32:08 GMT

Sigh - rather then getting mad at the end users for misinterpreting your intentions and complaing that the "bloggers" are gunning for you, perhaps it would be best for MS to try to come up with a better way to communicate.

Or better still, stop changing default behavior of things automatically!

You guys know that there are people who are going to take anything you do and read nefarious purposes into whatever you do, so anticipate them!

Instead of just turning off old file formats as part of a patch (and telling people you didn't have to install the patch is silly - MS has been, rightfully so, encouraging people to patch!)why can't you pop up a dialog box offering to disable the formats with the default action (for those who don't even bother to read the dialog, let alone the technote) to retain the status quo?

That's a much more up-front approach. One could argue that MS shouldn't have to do so, that the technote covers it, but here we are yet again with MS with egg on their face and coming off as being autocratic and inconsiderate of their users needs. The bottom line, the patch changes default behavior - behavior that, by judging the reaction from people, is pretty important. Hopefully that tells MS something.

It's been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result each time. Can we stop the insanity?

CS TechCast 6: Let There be Gantt Charts

Consortio Services Blog — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:02:41 GMT