Office 2003 on Win7 Pro - also XP

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, ...winston

Support for Office 2003 products is ending on April 8, 2014.

After this date, Office 2003 products will no longer receive the following:
Assisted support
Online content updates **
Software updates from Microsoft Update **
Security updates to help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware,
and other malicious software, which can steal your personal
information.

The highlighted line _suggests_ - though far from clearly - that the
update servers will no longer supply even already-written updates (in
effect, could be turned off). Anyone know if this is in fact the case?

More importantly, same question for XP itself. Consensus appears to be
that the servers for XP _will_ remain on (for _already-created_ updates)
for some time after kill day.

Although you will still be able to start and run Office 2003 after this
date, you may want to upgrade to a newer version of Office to get
continuing support and updates

I think the key word there is "continuing", and what interpretation one
puts on it.

</qp>

Also of note for XP users (not Win7)

cf.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/end-of-support.aspx

<qp>
Will Microsoft Security Essentials be supported after April 8, 2014?
Microsoft Security Essentials will not be available for download on
Windows XP after April 8, 2014. If you already have Microsoft Security
Essentials installed, you will continue to receive anti-malware
signature updates through July 14, 2015. However, please note that PCs
running Windows XP after April 8, 2014 should not be considered protected.
</qp>

Yes, you won't be able to _download_ MSE, but you'll still be able to
get _signatures_ for it. (If you've already downloaded it - as a
standalone, not an "update" - I presume you can _transfer_ it to a PC on
which you haven't, though.)

 

[Paul]

In message <[email protected]>, ...winston


The highlighted line _suggests_ - though far from clearly - that the
update servers will no longer supply even already-written updates (in
effect, could be turned off). Anyone know if this is in fact the case?

More importantly, same question for XP itself. Consensus appears to be
that the servers for XP _will_ remain on (for _already-created_ updates)
for some time after kill day.

I think the key word there is "continuing", and what interpretation one
puts on it.
Yes, you won't be able to _download_ MSE, but you'll still be able to
get _signatures_ for it. (If you've already downloaded it - as a
standalone, not an "update" - I presume you can _transfer_ it to a PC on
which you haven't, though.)

Wsusoffline can be used to archive all Office updates.
When using the tabs in wsusoffline generator, the "Legacy" tab
holds access to WinXP and Office 2003. The other later Windows
OSes and later versions of Office, are under the left-most
tab of WsusOffline.

Do your WsusOffline before April 8, and you'll be in relatively
good shape for later. At least then you don't have to worry about
Windows Update.

http://forums.wsusoffline.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=411

http://download.wsusoffline.net/

(fetch from Microsoft now)
http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/wsusoffline_generator.png

(install to some other C: later)
http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/wsusoffline_installer.png

The WsusOffline generator and updater, are written by the people
on that site. The actual download files, come from a Microsoft
hosted site. So your updates are Microsoft updates, and don't
come from wsusoffline.net . This is one of the conditions,
for Microsoft lawyers to not be attacking that site (with some
kind of take-down request).

Paul

 

[VanguardLH]

Wsusoffline can be used to archive all Office updates.
When using the tabs in wsusoffline generator, the "Legacy" tab
holds access to WinXP and Office 2003. The other later Windows
OSes and later versions of Office, are under the left-most
tab of WsusOffline.

Do your WsusOffline before April 8, and you'll be in relatively
good shape for later. At least then you don't have to worry about
Windows Update.

http://forums.wsusoffline.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=411

http://download.wsusoffline.net/

(fetch from Microsoft now)
http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/wsusoffline_generator.png

(install to some other C: later)
http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/wsusoffline_installer.png

The WsusOffline generator and updater, are written by the people
on that site. The actual download files, come from a Microsoft
hosted site. So your updates are Microsoft updates, and don't
come from wsusoffline.net . This is one of the conditions,
for Microsoft lawyers to not be attacking that site (with some
kind of take-down request).

Just to be aware, WSUSoffline retrieves critical and security updates.
It will retrieve the service packs ONLY if you configure it to do so
(the install-time default is not to get service packs). It does NOT
retrieve important and recommended updates. So you can get the highest
priority updates but not all of them that Microsoft made available.

http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk/doc/faq-enu.txt
"WSUS Offline update by default downloads only patches contained in
Microsoft's catalog WSUSSCN2.CAB. This includes at least all critical
and security-related patches, but not every important, recommended or
optional one."

Yes, it says if you downloaded them (not installed them) that you can
manually add them to the WSUS folders. If you read their instructions
on how to modify the WSUSoffline files, you'll soon realize that only
sysadmins would bother, if at all.

WSUSoffline is better than nothing, especially if you will have to do
later do fresh installs of the discontinued products, but it won't get
you to the same state for a product as was available when Microsoft
pushed out their own updates (criticial - yes, important - no,
recommended - no, security patches - yes, service packs - only if you
configure WSUSoffline to include them).

By the way, with anti-virus authors also discontinuing support of
Windows XP, you might want to include MSE and the Defender updates in
WSUSoffline as it might be the only AV product available (if you added
it) in the future.

Also, you might want WSUSoffline to generate .iso files. This
aggregates all the updates for a product with an ISO file. Else, you
end up with the products in subfolders under the 'client' folder under
the WSUSoffline folder but the ancilliary programs are in different
subfolders. Presumably its updater program will know how to find the
ancilliary products in other subfolders but I like to keep it all
together. Of course, this means more disk space gets consumed as the
support programs are duplicated in the ISO files. I don't have to take
the entire WSUSoffline folder with all stored products to another host
to update it. I can just take the ISO file with the product that I'll
be updating on the other host.

If you have current Windows XP installations, you better start doing
full image backups of them (and incremental images if you use that host
to capture any changes between the full backups). Get an imaging
program and schedule it to do backup your XP hosts. WSUSoffline won't
get your XP host back to its same state (or, at least, to a fully
updated fresh install with updates coming from Microsoft) because
WSUSoffline doesn't retrieve all updates.

 

[Paul]

Just to be aware, WSUSoffline retrieves critical and security updates.
It will retrieve the service packs ONLY if you configure it to do so
(the install-time default is not to get service packs). It does NOT
retrieve important and recommended updates. So you can get the highest
priority updates but not all of them that Microsoft made available.

http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk/doc/faq-enu.txt
"WSUS Offline update by default downloads only patches contained in
Microsoft's catalog WSUSSCN2.CAB. This includes at least all critical
and security-related patches, but not every important, recommended or
optional one."

Yes, it says if you downloaded them (not installed them) that you can
manually add them to the WSUS folders. If you read their instructions
on how to modify the WSUSoffline files, you'll soon realize that only
sysadmins would bother, if at all.

WSUSoffline is better than nothing, especially if you will have to do
later do fresh installs of the discontinued products, but it won't get
you to the same state for a product as was available when Microsoft
pushed out their own updates (criticial - yes, important - no,
recommended - no, security patches - yes, service packs - only if you
configure WSUSoffline to include them).

By the way, with anti-virus authors also discontinuing support of
Windows XP, you might want to include MSE and the Defender updates in
WSUSoffline as it might be the only AV product available (if you added
it) in the future.

Also, you might want WSUSoffline to generate .iso files. This
aggregates all the updates for a product with an ISO file. Else, you
end up with the products in subfolders under the 'client' folder under
the WSUSoffline folder but the ancilliary programs are in different
subfolders. Presumably its updater program will know how to find the
ancilliary products in other subfolders but I like to keep it all
together. Of course, this means more disk space gets consumed as the
support programs are duplicated in the ISO files. I don't have to take
the entire WSUSoffline folder with all stored products to another host
to update it. I can just take the ISO file with the product that I'll
be updating on the other host.

If you have current Windows XP installations, you better start doing
full image backups of them (and incremental images if you use that host
to capture any changes between the full backups). Get an imaging
program and schedule it to do backup your XP hosts. WSUSoffline won't
get your XP host back to its same state (or, at least, to a fully
updated fresh install with updates coming from Microsoft) because
WSUSoffline doesn't retrieve all updates.

My target for this effort, is a machine that is many hours drive
from here, and it only has dialup. Anything I can carry in the car
with me, is a bonus. Even if I'm not getting the latest Daylight
Savings file to go with it. I did select the Windows Defender and
MSE tick boxes.

Paul

 

[Henry]

Paul wrote:




Just to be aware, WSUSoffline retrieves critical and security updates.
It will retrieve the service packs ONLY if you configure it to do so
(the install-time default is not to get service packs). It does NOT
retrieve important and recommended updates. So you can get the highest
priority updates but not all of them that Microsoft made available.

http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk/doc/faq-enu.txt
"WSUS Offline update by default downloads only patches contained in
Microsoft's catalog WSUSSCN2.CAB. This includes at least all critical
and security-related patches, but not every important, recommended or
optional one."

Yes, it says if you downloaded them (not installed them) that you can
manually add them to the WSUS folders. If you read their instructions
on how to modify the WSUSoffline files, you'll soon realize that only
sysadmins would bother, if at all.

WSUSoffline is better than nothing, especially if you will have to do
later do fresh installs of the discontinued products, but it won't get
you to the same state for a product as was available when Microsoft
pushed out their own updates (criticial - yes, important - no,
recommended - no, security patches - yes, service packs - only if you
configure WSUSoffline to include them).

By the way, with anti-virus authors also discontinuing support of
Windows XP, you might want to include MSE and the Defender updates in
WSUSoffline as it might be the only AV product available (if you added
it) in the future.

Also, you might want WSUSoffline to generate .iso files. This
aggregates all the updates for a product with an ISO file. Else, you
end up with the products in subfolders under the 'client' folder under
the WSUSoffline folder but the ancilliary programs are in different
subfolders. Presumably its updater program will know how to find the
ancilliary products in other subfolders but I like to keep it all
together. Of course, this means more disk space gets consumed as the
support programs are duplicated in the ISO files. I don't have to take
the entire WSUSoffline folder with all stored products to another host
to update it. I can just take the ISO file with the product that I'll
be updating on the other host.

If you have current Windows XP installations, you better start doing
full image backups of them (and incremental images if you use that host
to capture any changes between the full backups). Get an imaging
program and schedule it to do backup your XP hosts. WSUSoffline won't
get your XP host back to its same state (or, at least, to a fully
updated fresh install with updates coming from Microsoft) because
WSUSoffline doesn't retrieve all updates.

When you run WSUSoffline, how large is the update file(s) it retrieves from
Microsoft? I would let it update the service packs.

Henry

 

[VanguardLH]

When you run WSUSoffline, how large is the update file(s) it retrieves from
Microsoft? I would let it update the service packs.

Depends on what products you select in WSUSoffline to have it retrieve
updates. I have it retrieve updates for every product it supports.
That way, even for still-supported products, I have an offline source to
apply the updates. Not only do I collect the updates (which go into the
'client' subfolder) but I also get the service packs for each of them,
C++ runtime libs, and .NET frameworks. I want everything it will
retrieve although that is still not every update available from MS for
each product. I even include MSE and Defender updates since those may
become the only AV products that will support Windows XP.

So with the program files and collecting everything it will along with
duplicating them into ISO files for individual use, my 'wsusoffline'
folder is now at 35.6 GB in size (the 'iso' subfolder is 21.6 GB of
that).

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, ...winston

The highlighted line _suggests_ - though far from clearly - that the
update servers will no longer supply even already-written updates (in
effect, could be turned off). Anyone know if this is in fact the case?
More importantly, same question for XP itself. Consensus appears to
be that the servers for XP _will_ remain on (for _already-created_
updates) for some time after kill day.
I think the key word there is "continuing", and what interpretation
one puts on it.
Yes, you won't be able to _download_ MSE, but you'll still be able to
get _signatures_ for it. (If you've already downloaded it - as a
standalone, not an "update" - I presume you can _transfer_ it to a PC
on which you haven't, though.)

Wsusoffline can be used to archive all Office updates.
When using the tabs in wsusoffline generator, the "Legacy" tab
holds access to WinXP and Office 2003. The other later Windows
OSes and later versions of Office, are under the left-most
tab of WsusOffline.

Do your WsusOffline before April 8, and you'll be in relatively
good shape for later. At least then you don't have to worry about
Windows Update.[/QUOTE]

The source winston was quoting said "Support for Office 2003 .. is
ending .. after that date .. will no longer receive the following:
....
Software updates from Microsoft Update
....

It's not clear to me (and I suspect most others!) whether that line just
means no _new_ updates will be generated, or whether even _existing_
updates will stop being receivable (i. e. the server will be turned
off). For XP, as opposed to Office 2003, the consensus seems to be that
the server won't be turned off, so I suspect the same applies to the
server for Office 2003.

 

[Paul]

The source winston was quoting said "Support for Office 2003 .. is
ending .. after that date .. will no longer receive the following:
...
Software updates from Microsoft Update
...

It's not clear to me (and I suspect most others!) whether that line just
means no _new_ updates will be generated, or whether even _existing_
updates will stop being receivable (i. e. the server will be turned
off). For XP, as opposed to Office 2003, the consensus seems to be that
the server won't be turned off, so I suspect the same applies to the
server for Office 2003.

It would mean no new updates.

And as for serving the existing updates,
they're available today. But we don't know
how long they might last (be served for free).

In the o2K3 folder, there are four files under "enu". I didn't
want to type out all the details in high precision (they're in
a VM where the integration is broken so I can't copy/paste).

923618 ~120MB July27,2007
934736 ~13MB Sept12,2007
975051 0.6MB Sept 9,2009
2760494 0.5MB Oct 9,2013

That gives you a rough idea, that the first file
released, was functionality/bug style fix. And as
time goes on, the support drops to security or
trivial stuff. (Trivial in terms of file size.)

There is another file, in a separate glb (global?) folder

2456849 1.2MB Dec. 9,2010

Paul

 

[...winston]

Paul wrote, On 3/31/2014 9:33 PM:

It would mean no new updates.

Correct.

Like previous EOL products the time frame of the disappearance of what
WU/MU pushed prior (and after EOL) are not coincidental.

Also possibly of note..as WU engine evolves and update its engine,
earlier deprecated O/S may not be capable of upgrading to a later
version thus throttling what was available and thus the removal of
updates previously available. i.e. Updates have more than one reason
that impacts their availability ('in perpetuity' is not one of them).\


...winston

 

[Charlie+]

Just to be aware, WSUSoffline retrieves critical and security updates.
It will retrieve the service packs ONLY if you configure it to do so
(the install-time default is not to get service packs). It does NOT
retrieve important and recommended updates. So you can get the highest
priority updates but not all of them that Microsoft made available.

http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk/doc/faq-enu.txt
"WSUS Offline update by default downloads only patches contained in
Microsoft's catalog WSUSSCN2.CAB. This includes at least all critical
and security-related patches, but not every important, recommended or
optional one."

Yes, it says if you downloaded them (not installed them) that you can
manually add them to the WSUS folders. If you read their instructions
on how to modify the WSUSoffline files, you'll soon realize that only
sysadmins would bother, if at all.

WSUSoffline is better than nothing, especially if you will have to do
later do fresh installs of the discontinued products, but it won't get
you to the same state for a product as was available when Microsoft
pushed out their own updates (criticial - yes, important - no,
recommended - no, security patches - yes, service packs - only if you
configure WSUSoffline to include them).

By the way, with anti-virus authors also discontinuing support of
Windows XP, you might want to include MSE and the Defender updates in
WSUSoffline as it might be the only AV product available (if you added
it) in the future.

Also, you might want WSUSoffline to generate .iso files. This
aggregates all the updates for a product with an ISO file. Else, you
end up with the products in subfolders under the 'client' folder under
the WSUSoffline folder but the ancilliary programs are in different
subfolders. Presumably its updater program will know how to find the
ancilliary products in other subfolders but I like to keep it all
together. Of course, this means more disk space gets consumed as the
support programs are duplicated in the ISO files. I don't have to take
the entire WSUSoffline folder with all stored products to another host
to update it. I can just take the ISO file with the product that I'll
be updating on the other host.

If you have current Windows XP installations, you better start doing
full image backups of them (and incremental images if you use that host
to capture any changes between the full backups). Get an imaging
program and schedule it to do backup your XP hosts. WSUSoffline won't
get your XP host back to its same state (or, at least, to a fully
updated fresh install with updates coming from Microsoft) because
WSUSoffline doesn't retrieve all updates.

Hi VanguardLH -- You seem to know the WSUS Offline prog. fairly well, I
notice that when updating a computer, the tab that is titled 'Software'
is a blank tab, does that mean that eg. Office 2002/3 is not being
updated and it needs modification of the .ini file to do this?
I noticed that a computer on which I recently installed Office 2003 the
installation was not updated by WSUS (even though the Office updates are
waiting there) and the installation was subsequently updated by the MS
Update system over the internet. Just thought you might know the answer
as to why WSUS didnt' do it! C+

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

The source winston was quoting said "Support for Office 2003 .. is
ending .. after that date .. will no longer receive the following:
...
Software updates from Microsoft Update
...
It's not clear to me (and I suspect most others!) whether that line
just means no _new_ updates will be generated, or whether even
_existing_ updates will stop being receivable (i. e. the server will
be turned off). For XP, as opposed to Office 2003, the consensus
seems to be that the server won't be turned off, so I suspect the
same applies to the server for Office 2003.

It would mean no new updates.[/QUOTE]

As written, it's ambiguous - though for once _I_ don't think
deliberately so. "... will no longer receive ... updates", on the face
of it, means of any sort; however, most of us are choosing to believe
that that only applies to _new_ updates, and that the existing ones will
remain available at least for a little while - in fact I'm pretty sure
I've seen that confirmed by Microsoft as far as XP is concerned (the
above quote related to Office 2003).

And as for serving the existing updates,
they're available today. But we don't know
how long they might last (be served for free).

In the o2K3 folder, there are four files under "enu". I didn't
want to type out all the details in high precision (they're in
a VM where the integration is broken so I can't copy/paste).

923618 ~120MB July27,2007
934736 ~13MB Sept12,2007
975051 0.6MB Sept 9,2009
2760494 0.5MB Oct 9,2013

That gives you a rough idea, that the first file
released, was functionality/bug style fix. And as
time goes on, the support drops to security or
trivial stuff. (Trivial in terms of file size.)

Hmm. Mine looks like this:

C:\wsusoffline\client\o2k3\enu>dir
Volume in drive C is system
Volume Serial Number is 70CB-A7A2

Directory of C:\wsusoffline\client\o2k3\enu

2014-03-05 09:49 <DIR> .
2014-03-05 09:49 <DIR> ..
2013-10-09 07:45 518,960 office2003-KB2760494-FullFile-ENU.exe
2009-09-09 23:39 634,776 office2003-KB975051-FullFile-ENU.exe
2007-07-27 17:09 123,368,360 Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe
2007-09-13 00:38 12,874,840 WordViewer2003SP3-KB934736-FullFile-ENU.exe
4 File(s) 137,396,936 bytes

There is another file, in a separate glb (global?) folder

2456849 1.2MB Dec. 9,2010

Paul

I have that one too:

C:\wsusoffline\client\o2k3\glb>dir
Volume in drive C is system
Volume Serial Number is 70CB-A7A2

Directory of C:\wsusoffline\client\o2k3\glb

2014-03-05 09:46 <DIR> .
2014-03-05 09:46 <DIR> ..
2010-12-09 20:40 1,213,344 office2003-KB2456849-FullFile-ENU.exe
1 File(s) 1,213,344 bytes