Office 2003 upgrade status

Office 2003 upgrade status what is the current release

#1 tos226

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Posted 19 June 2005 - 09:14 PM

I have all these Windows XP upgrades coming in from MS.
I never see a thing about Office2003 professional (last summer vintage). Have there been Service packs? security patches? I've been to MS site, but haven't found a clear answer.
Excel is 11.6355.6360 SP1, Word is the same. Am I more or less up to date?
Sorry for the dumb question, but I know I'll get a good answer here :thumbsup:

#2 tos226

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Posted 20 June 2005 - 11:14 PM

I found a place about Office upgrades - see below list.
I used SEARCH on my computer and don't see those upgrades, unlike the stuff I see in the WINDOWS directory.
That means, I think, they are not part of automatic Windows updates :thumbsup:

So now I need suggestions from the experts, PLEASE. What do I do and how?
Which of these upgrades should be used?
If a KB# is the same under different applications, do we need to bring them in several times?
Do we run Excel and its update, then Word and its update ... I'm confused big time. No skills to be an administrator :flowers:

Pieces copied from MS site:

Quote

Office 2003 upgrades since release of SP1 - sorted by date - the link is
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeup...0798601033.aspx

1. Office 2003 Update: Redistributable Primary Interop Assemblies :The Office 2003 Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA) redistributable is a Microsoft Windows Installer package that contains the Primary Interop Assemblies for Office 2003 products.
Can someone translate above to English for me?

2. KB838905 for Office
This update fixes a vulnerability where a specially crafted image could allow an attacker's code to run on a user's machine due to a security vulnerability in the graphics interpreter code.

3. KB885828 - for Office - smart tags upgrade
This update increases the reliability of Smart Tags by placing additional restrictions on the ability to associate Web sites with Smart Tag actions.
plus various upgrades for French language, accessibility, etc

Updates specific to several office2003 products - the link is
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeup...0224941033.aspx

4. KB838905 for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word
This update fixes a vulnerability where a specially crafted image could allow an attacker's code to run on a user's machine due to a security vulnerability in the graphics interpreter code.

5. KB887979 Word upgrade
A security vulnerability exists in Microsoft Word that could allow arbitrary code to run when opening a maliciously modified document. This update resolves this vulnerability so that Word documents are handled appropriately.

6. KB838344 for Project, Visio
This update fixes a vulnerability where a specially crafted image could allow an attacker's code to run on a user's machine due to a security vulnerability in the graphics interpreter code.

#3 jgweed

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Posted 21 June 2005 - 10:28 AM

You are right, Office updates are not part of Windows Automatic Updates. Bring each KB# in ONCE, for example, KB838905 in your list above. Some updates will be for all Office applications, while others will be for a specific part of Office. Note also that KB838344 is the same as KB838905, except one is designed for Project/Visio (not in MS Office), while KB838344 is for the Office Suite. If you don't have Project/Visio also installed, you can skip that one.

I cannot understand the first example, either.

Regards,
John

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should be silent.

#4 tos226

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Posted 21 June 2005 - 08:19 PM

Thank you, John.
Illiterate as I am, I did it. Partly. And survived :thumbsup:

But now I wonder if you can help me reconcile things and use for lessons learned.

There was a link for MS to snoop into my computer whereby they determine what's needed. I allowed it, right or wrong?

MS screen informed me that 5 upgrades apply.
The list does NOT quite match the list in my original post. Puzzling.

From the above list (refering to my numbering scheme) they picked:
3. KB885828 - for Office - smart tags upgrade
5. KB887979 Word upgrade
They added KB89699 Outlook junk mail patch. I took that as well.
They added two French upgrades, grammar and spelling, which I skipped.
Upgrade 6 didn't come in, which is OK considering I have neither.
I shouldn't have put it in the list in the first place.

Upgrade 2. KB838905 for Office, which to me looked most significant, wasn't available on that screen. Would you suggest I go after it now or will it break my computer?

From your experience, are upgrades always a guessing game :flowers:

or are there valid rules to follow that you could share? I'm just trying to learn how to go about it in the future.

#5 jgweed

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Posted 22 June 2005 - 01:20 AM

I would go after 905, since it is a flaw in all Office components, and not worry overmuch about MS snooping.
I think you puzzled out what had to be done, and what you needed.
About the only rule I would suggest is to determine if the patch is critical, and for your version,and install it, after checking all updates for potential duplications.
Regards,
John

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should be silent.

#6 tos226

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Posted 22 June 2005 - 09:12 PM

jgweed, on Jun 22 2005, 01:20 AM, said:

I would go after 905, since it is a flaw in all Office components, ...

About the only rule I would suggest is to determine if the patch is critical, and for your version,and install it, after checking all updates for potential duplications.

I need to impose on your patience a bit more, having read your suggestions.
The details of KB838905 are beyond comprehension :thumbsup:

, really, to a non-sysadmin type such as me.

I read this, and it is frightnening to contemplate if I mess up
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838905
They recommend checking for a file gdiplus.dll. My version is 5.1.3102.2180. This upgrade seem to apply to Office 2003 Standard edition, and they'll update that file to 6.0.3264.0.

I think I should bail out of this one after all.
Am I right? There seems to be a distinction of sorts between Standard and Professional Office 2003. I have Professional. Perhaps that's why it didn't come up on the list when Bill Gates snooped my computer ???

Thanks for all the good advice so far and thanks in advance for looking into this one as well.

This post has been edited by tos226: 22 June 2005 - 09:15 PM

#7 jgweed

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Posted 22 June 2005 - 11:37 PM

Given the date of the original patch, the Pro version may not be effected, and I don't see anywhere in the documentation that Pro is included. Normally something would be said about Pro being included. Certainly, since I use an version of MS Office much earlier than XP, and more often than not use OpenOffice.Org for my tasks, I am no great expert on the differences between Office and Office Pro.
That is as much as I can safely say. Perhaps someone else can comment.
Regards,
John

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should be silent.