• Current Cumulative Updates for Office - Q1 2014

    Posted over 1 year ago
    by Joe Schaeffer MSFT}

    As I mentioned in the Current Cumulative Updates for Office - Q3 2012 post, each quarter I will post information on the latest updates for the Office for Windows and Office for Macintosh products.

    The information below is being provided regarding the most currently available updates available for the supported Windows and Macintosh versions of Office as of January 2, 2014.

    As a reminder on why I'm providing this information and how it should be used, please see my Keeping Up with Office Updates post which discusses the cumulative updates for Office (and Outlook in particular) that companies need to be aware of and push out to their users. 

    Office for Windows

    Office 2013

    Office 2010

    Office 2007

    Office 2003

    • Current Service Pack Level: Office 2003 SP3
    • Latest cumulative Update: June 2010 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2270183)
    • No new cumulative updates will be released as Office 2003 is out of mainstream support.  Extended support will end on April 8, 2014.

    Note: Each of the KB articles includes the list/links for all the Office products (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc).  Most of you focus on Outlook and that’s the only ones required and is also provided separately but I wanted to provide the larger “Office” list in case you want it.

    As a reminder, Microsoft Update does *NOT* make the cumulative updates available to users.  These have to be downloaded and either installed independently or deployed using tools such as WSUS, SCCM, etc. 

    Office for Macintosh

    Office 2011

    • Current Service Pack Level: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 SP3 (released January 2013)
    • Note: Office for Mac 2011 SP2 support ends April 8, 2014
    • Note: Office for Mac 2011 SP1 support ended July 9, 2013
    • Office for Mac 2011 support ends on January 12, 2016
    • Latest cumulative Update: November 2013 - 14.3.9 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2902808)

    Office 2008

    • Current Service Pack Level: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac SP2 (released October 2009)
    • Office 2008 for Mac support ended on April 9, 2013
    • Latest cumulative Update: March 2013 - 12.3.6 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817449)

    Note: Each of the KB articles includes the link for downloading the package which updates ALL Office Products…there are not separate updates for each of the various components of Office as there is with the Windows releases.

     

  • Removing ActiveSync Devices Without Prompting

    Posted over 1 year ago
    by Joe Schaeffer MSFT}

    So, I consider myself a pretty good PowerShell user/scripter.  But, I was stumped by a small issue with trying to use the "Remove-ActiveSyncDevice" cmdlet in Exchange 2010 to not prompt for each device removal.

    Our (Microsoft) TechNet article on using Remove-ActiveSync Device (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125032(v=exchg.141).aspx) did not provide a lot of help.  It tells you there's the "-Confirm" parameter and that it will cause you to be prompted, but does not say how to get it to NOT prompt.

    If you try "-Confirm $false", you'll get the following error back:

    A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'False'.
        + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Remove-ActiveSyncDevice], ParameterBindingException
        + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Remove-ActiveSyncDevice

    This method: DiRECTIVE + SPACE + VALUE is a normal way of running commands and providing values.  But, for the "-Confirm" directive and the Remove-ActiveSyncDevice cmdlet (I suspect this is true with most Exchange cmdlets) you CANNOT use that method.  You MUST use DIRECTIVE + COLON + VALUE: -Confirm:$false

    With that, it will NOT prompt.

    I'm sure there's lots of folks out there that already knew this...especially if you normally use the method with colons, you probably didn't even realize this was an issue.  For the rest of us, this is one of those things where what should/would normally work with other directives (using a space) does not work with -Confirm.

  • Moving the OST in Outlook 2013 for Windows RT

    Posted over 1 year ago
    by Joe Schaeffer MSFT}

    I recently ran into this and wanted to share, as I'm sure others may run into this as well. 

    As many of you may know, Windows RT 8.1 includes a version of Outlook 2013...so that you're not limited to just using the Windows Mail app...which is great!  However, what many may run into is that the default location for storing your OST is C:\Users\<login>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook.  Which, if you have the 32GB Surface (or equivalent) you probably don't want a big OST file eating up your space.  In my case, I installed a 32GB SDHC in my Surface RT and wanted the OST to be there.

    The issue is that you can only set where the OST file is created during Profile creation...not once you've setup the profile.  If you try once the profile is setup, the option to Browse and select where the OST file goes is grayed out.

    This KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2752583  explains how to set where to put the OST during Profile creation and *is* also applicable to Outlook 2013 on Windows RT.

  • Current Cumulative Updates for Office - Q4 2013

    Posted over 1 year ago
    by Joe Schaeffer MSFT}

    As I mentioned in the Current Cumulative Updates for Office - Q3 2012 post, each quarter I will post information on the latest updates for the Office for Windows and Office for Macintosh products.

    The information below is being provided regarding the most currently available updates available for the supported Windows and Macintosh versions of Office as of October 1, 2013.

    As a reminder on why I'm providing this information and how it should be used, please see my Keeping Up with Office Updates post which discusses the cumulative updates for Office (and Outlook in particular) that companies need to be aware of and push out to their users. 

    Office for Windows

    Office 2013

    Office 2010

    Office 2007

    Office 2003

    • Current Service Pack Level: Office 2003 SP3
    • Latest cumulative Update: June 2010 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2270183)
    • No new cumulative updates will be released as Office 2003 is out of mainstream support.  Extended support will end on April 8, 2014.

    Note: Each of the KB articles includes the list/links for all the Office products (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc).  Most of you focus on Outlook and that’s the only ones required and is also provided separately but I wanted to provide the larger “Office” list in case you want it.

    As a reminder, Microsoft Update does *NOT* make the cumulative updates available to users.  These have to be downloaded and either installed independently or deployed using tools such as WSUS, SCCM, etc. 

    Office for Macintosh

    Office 2011

    • Current Service Pack Level: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 SP3 (released January 2013)
      • Note: Office for Mac 2011 SP1 support ends July 9, 2013
      • Note: Office for Mac 2011 SP2 support ends April 8, 2014
      • Office for Mac 2011 support ends on January 12, 2016
    • Latest cumulative Update: September 2013 - 14.3.7 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2877813)

    Office 2008

    • Current Service Pack Level: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac SP2 (released October 2009)
      • Office 2008 for Mac support ended on April 9, 2013
    • Latest cumulative Update: March 2013 - 12.3.6 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817449)

    Note: Each of the KB articles includes the link for downloading the package which updates ALL Office Products…there are not separate updates for each of the various components of Office as there is with the Windows releases.


  • Determining Lync 2013 Client Installed using the Registry

    Posted over 1 year ago
    by Joe Schaeffer MSFT}

    Recently a customer asked me for a way to determine which Lync 2013 client their users had installed (basic vs. full) using the registry.  We don't have this well documented (ok, to be honest I could not find any documentation on it), so I did some testing in my lab and put together the following information for them...which I thought I'd share as I'm sure others may have this same question.

     

    That any version of Lync 2013 is installed

    If you just want to verify if ANY version (Basic, Full, or as part of Office 2013 Pro) of Lync 2013 client is installed, you can use the following registry key:

    For 64-bit Windows:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Registration\{0EA305CE-B708-4D79-8087-D636AB0F1A4D}

    ProductName = "Microsoft Lync 2013"

    For 32-bit Windows:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Registration\{0EA305CE-B708-4D79-8087-D636AB0F1A4D}

    ProductName = "Microsoft Lync 2013"

    Lync 2013 Basic

    The following registry value will exist if the Lync 2013 Basic client is installed:

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Office15.LYNCENTRY

    DisplayName = “Microsoft Lync Basic 2013”

    Note the name of the key, it is DIFFERENT between Lync 2013 Basic and Full.

    Lync 2013 Full (separate from Office 2013 Pro)

    The following registry value will exist if the Lync 2013 Full client is installed:

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Office15.LYNC

    DisplayName= “Microsoft Lync 2013”

    Note the name of the key, it is DIFFERENT between Lync 2013 Basic and Full.

    Lync 2013 Full as part of Office 2013 Pro

    Lync 2013 as part of Office 2013 Pro does NOT have its own registry key, since its installation is controlled by the Office 2013 Pro setup.   So, a way to detect if Lync 2013 is installed as part of Office 2013 Pro would be to use the first key I provide above (to determine Lync 2013 is on the system) and the ABSENCE of the other keys above would denote that Lync 2013 was installed as part of Office 2013 Pro.

     

     

    Hope this helps.  Note that this is NOT an all inclusive list of registry keys...as there are other registry keys that could also be used that exist depending on if Lync 2013 is installed and/or which version of Lync 2013 is installed.