5 replies to this topic

[DesertJerry]

I ran the Belarc Advisor 7.2v (profile 06 September 2008) and the follwing items were listed as follows:

Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system
KB940289[sp]
KB951596 **
KB951808 **
KB954038 **

I then checked AutoPatcher and read the .APMs to find these same items were listed as follows:

KB940289 - Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack Service Pack 1
KB951596 - Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System **
KB951808 - Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System **
KB954038 - Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System **

I then opened the help file for the Office Integrator v1.0.0.61 to compare how the Integrator identified the same updates/hotfixes and found them listed as Links > Misc > Office Compatibility Pack:

Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.exe
compatibilitypacksp1-kb940289-fullfile-en-us.exe
office2007-kb951596-fullfile-x86-glb.exe **
office2007-kb951808-fullfile-x86-glb.exe **
office2007-kb954038-fullfile-x86-glb.exe **
Replcement: KB947801 replaced by KB 951596

Now I know it is a minor difference but AutoPatcher is outnumbered two to one on identifying these items and, not being an Office expert, I figured I'd ask here: are the three items identified by **'s really suposed to be identified as Office 2007 security updates or Compatibility Pack updates or are they both?

I know, it's nit-picking a bit, but it's bugged me for a while about the differences in how they are identified.

[Erik Ramey]

Basically they are both:

Example: office2007-kb951596-fullfile-x86-glb.exe can be applied to Office '07 and Office 2003 with the '07 compatibility pack.

Do to how parent structures are created by AutoPatcher, I had to create it's own "catagory" for them to be detected along side an Office '03 installation.

[James]

Hi DesertJerry

Just to add to what Erik has posted, Microsoft themselves are not consistent in their naming. The confusion comes from Microsoft, not from Belarc, AutoPatcher or the Integrator. Because it deals with Office 2007 formats, I think Microsoft tend to regard it as part of Office 2007. Because it isn't used with Office 2007, but with Office 2003/2002/XP it also seems to be in a category all of its own.

Looking at just KB951596, for example, we find Microsoft calling this update:

1) "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats (KB951596)"
2) " ... security update for the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system: August 12, 2008"
3) "Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB951596)"

All I have done is cut-and-paste Microsoft's own words from:
1) The security bulletin
2) The KB article
3) The download page
They are all the same update and they all cross-link to each other.

Although the wording is different from Belarc, you'll notice that AutoPatcher's description has not changed from Microsoft's own description (i.e. number (3) above).

I guess we will all be bugged by this until Microsoft is consistent.

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[james.faction]

I've found pretty consistently for the past few months that after running autopatcher at least twice and making sure I have all updates for Office 2003 and the compatitibility pack for 2007 formats, I still have these updates offered by Windows update:

Compatibility Pack SP1
SP1 for Office 2007

(since I don't have Office 2007 only Office 2003, I'm assuming the "SP1 for Office 2007" relates to the compatibility pack. Indeed it is about 25-30Mb, certainly a lot smaller than the full Office 2007 SP1 would be.)

Combined these are a further 50Mb+ to download.

These updates are only offered if the Compatibility pack is installed.

It would be great to see these included in Autopatcher for Office 2003.

[james.faction]

no reply. is anyone still active on the Autopatcher for Office 2003 project?

There is now about 70Mb of updates on Microsoft Update (sorry, not Windows Update) all for Office 2003 or relevant components of Office 2007 due to the compatibility pack - mostly Office 2007 components - after running all updates from Autopatcher.

If I had time I would make the modules myself.

[James]

james.faction

Apologies that we have missed your earlier post and not replied.

Please check your PMs

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