Defensively installing Microsoft Office Service Pack 3

On February 28, Microsoft started to distribute Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 via Microsoft Update. As I noted earlier, it's safer to avoid new software, including new bug fixes and new service packs (a big collection of bug fixes).

In the current issue* of the Windows Secrets newsletter, Susan Bradley points out a problem with service packs for Microsoft Office: there is no undo. If, for example, Service Pack 3 causes a problem, you can't roll back to Service Pack 2; instead, you have to uninstall Office 2003 and reinstall it.

In light of all this, I suggest the following for dealing with Office 2003 Service Pack 3:

• Wait awhile to install it. The idea being, if something in the service pack causes a lot of grief, Microsoft may have a fix available by the time you need it. Service Pack 3 was first released four months ago, so I wouldn't expect big problems. Still, it will now be installed on many more computers, so something new may crop up. There is no right answer for how long to wait, but considering the service pack is not very new, I'd give it a couple weeks at least.

• To prepare for problems, make a disk image backup of the entire Windows partition before installing the service pack. I'll have more to say about disk image backups in the future.

• To prepare for reinstalling Office, make sure you can find your Office 2003 CD. For good luck, check that the disc is still readable, put it in a computer, and browse around a handful of folders. If Office 2003 was pre-installed on the computer and you don't have a CD, then you've learned a valuable lesson about buying pre-installed software.

Regardless of service packs, anyone running Office 2003 on Windows XP should run it in restricted mode with DropMyRights.

Worst comes to worse, there's always the free OpenOffice.org.

*There is a free and a paid version of the newsletter. This article is in the paid version, which is why I can't link to it.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

[ruminator]

Excuse me, but what valuable lesson is to be learned about "buying" preinstalled software? If I buy a computer and it has software preinstalled, I would be "buying" it in the sense that robably built into the purchase price was the cost of the software. However, unless I buy from a vendor like Dell who customizes (usually), I won't likely be able to "buy" that new computer without that preinstalled software. What choice do I have regarding preinstalled software if I "buy" a computer off the shelf? Are you suggesting I "buy" separate CD versions of all software that are already preinstalled? What exactly is your point?

[mhinnewyork]

My point was to insure you get CDs for any software that comes pre-installed. Some vendors do this, some don't. Without CDs you are missing a valuable option, being able to un-install and re-install the application.

[Dalkorian]

Amazing. You can't trust Micro$loth product in general because they've been all proven to be full of major security holes and you can't trust the patches to the problems because the patches will cause problems and can't be removed easily.

And people like paying money for being treated like this???

[Pabatech1]

Obviously, Microsoft embraces P.T. Barnum's "There's a sucker born every minute..."

[lbzlbz]