Office File Validation (+ KB2464605)

[JorgeA]

Hello,

I'm happy to be back here again after a rather extended session with Real Life.

Microsoft has been trying to push a Windows Update on me, that I would like your opinion of. It's the "Microsoft Office File Validation," in my case for Office 2007 (I use Vista Home Premium x64). When I went to check the KB information on it, the page says that BEFORE I can download this, I ALSO need to download "Architecture updates" for MS Word and Publisher. That's where I stopped in my tracks. This other update (KB2464605) was never offered to me via Windows Update, and this is the first I've heard of it.

My first question was -- why is Microsoft pushing an update that requires ANOTHER update which was NOT sent by the usual channels? What kind of confusion and/or mess is that going to create?

And of you, I ask -- what would you do? Would you download one of these updates, or both, or neither?

Thanks for any insight you might have on this! I look forward to talking about this and many other MS things with my MSFN friends once again.

--JorgeA

[dencorso]

Hi, JorgeA! Welcome back!

You've been missed!

What I'd do would be to make a full backup (an image), then install the updates and see what happens...

And, if it turns out I don't like the result a bit, just fall back to the saved image, and that's that!

But, as you know, I love using full system images like that, and I do admit it's like killing a fly with a Polaris missile.

Oops! I'm really getting old: there are no Polaris missiles anymore, for a long time, already...

But, you've got the idea anyway.

Later edit: After reading the MS KB document you've pointed to, *my* opinion is that this may be completely unneeded, if one has a good antivirus in place and common-sense enough, at least, to previously scan any office document/spread- sheet of unknown origin one receives and decides to open, before going ahead and opening it. I prefer to admit to and to control my own paranoia and to act proactively myself, instead of outsoucing it (the paranoia, I mean). This, then, is my 2 ¢... YMMV, of course.

[JorgeA]

Hey dencorso,

It's great to be back in touch! Thanks for the welcome.

I went ahead and installed the two updates. I have a week-old, full-disk image that I made as things started to get back to normal, but just in case I did create a restore point before each of the updates. Next step is to use MS Word and see what, if anything, changes. Hopefully this won't mean that my large Word files will take even longer to load. If that's the case, maybe I'll uninstall those updates and simply follow your "prudence" advice. Norton 360 does do a good job of scanning e-mails and attachments automatically as they come into Outlook.

I'm going to look around the Forum here and see what's been going on the last few months. Glad to see that the Win98 section is still going strong!

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Just as a follow-up, I used Word extensively today and everything SEEMS to be O.K.

--JorgeA