Latest Outlook WinUpdate Service corrupted my Outlook

[Kewfriend]

I operate Outlook 2003 as part of Office 2003 AND Office 2007. I do NOT USE
Outlook 2007 and altered ensured that my system only has the 2003 Outlook
DLLs. This system has worked well for at least one year.

(Hardware is standard HP kit.

Last night Windows Update Catalog shipped out at 3AM local time an Outlook
updatde that completely corrupted my Outlook 2003 on this HP PC. No other PC
was affected but no other PC has Office 2007 also installed.

System Restore recovered Outlook.

I have no had to turn off the Update Catalog on this HP PC until MS postsd
an explanation of what they did wrong: I suspect that they read that I have
Office 2003 and Office 2007 and over-wrote the Outlook 2003 DLLs with an
updated Outlook 2007 DLL.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Start with telling which update you are referring to and which "corruption"
you encountered.

 

[Kewfriend]

APOLOGIES

Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (KB952142)
This update (KB952142) resolves an issue where Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
behaves unexpectedly in some circumstances.

Shipped 3AM local time

====================================

My symptoms were that Outlook 2003 went into an endless cycle of close and
restart and I had to shut down and restore. My inspired guess is that the
Update Service is unable to discriminate on dual loaded systems. I want the
auto Update Service for all my software but have turned it off till I learn
how exclude all Outlook Updates.

Other PCs not affected.

(Why do I keep Outlook 2003 - some specifice features which were removed in
2007 which I wanted)

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Which version of Windows are you using? On Windows Vista you can set it to
hide the update so it won't apply.
However, the update shouldn't affect a previous version of Outlook. When you
have Office 2007 installed, it will still offer you the update but the
update will be applied to the installation source only if you don't have
Outlook 2007 installed. This is normal and expected behavior.

What is being logged to the Event Viewer regarding those crashes when you
have the update installed?
In some occasions you'll need to run a repair on Office (in your case 2003)
when you have mixed versions installed.
It could also be caused by an already existing corruption on your machine
which only surfaced after installing the update. Cause and effect are not
always too clear on computers.

Of course, now you've made me curious as to which features you were
referring to ;-) I have the missing part the other way around when working
on an Outlook 2003 machine.

 

[Kewfriend]

Thank you for your interest and help.

All my PCs are WIN XP + SP3 - running Office 2003 except this HP PC which
also carries an OEM trial Verison of Office 2007, which I probably should
have uninstalled.

To get Office 2003 to instal correctly alongside Office 2007 - no problems
except only ONE version of Outlook may exist. I opted for Outlook 2003 and
manually copied the older DLLs from 2003 to 2007 as the 2003 instal disk will
not overwrite the newer Outlook DLLs. No problems - everything has worked
fine for nearly a year. I accept that this is NOT an approved MS solution,
but then MS should not have tried to force me to instal, accept and pay for
Office2007 Outlook if I didnt want it.

Because the file names in the update were (I assume) the same as for the
older Office2003 Outlook, the updater applied the update without question or
offering me the option to decline the Oulook2007 update. I was thus skewered
- well and proper - till I rolled back a restore to pre-update. WIN
automatically sent a problem report to MS but I didnt log the details: they
may still be on my PC if I knew where to find them.

No Office2003 repair has been needed.

To stop this happenening again I have turned off Non-security Auto-updates,
which annoys me as I should not have been forced into this by MS. Bizarrely I
cannot uninstall Office 2007 separately from Office 2003 because it will
remove my Outlook2003 and would then force me into a reinstallation (again)
of Office 2003 to get Outlook2003 up again - and anyway I am happy to have
the trial verison just sitting there.

The symptoms of the crash were as I described: Outlook2003 continually
locked in a close/reopen loop with the all the email headers corrupted ....
very odd. Each close/reopen loop also generated the MS reporting. I had to
shut down entirely before a roll back.

Now all works fine again.

AV is CA Security Suite - works fine.

My only real current grumble is that MS didnt write the update in a
sufficiently discriminating way, and has left me having had to turn off
auto-update to stop this happeneing again. Its a minor incompetence by MS,
but really annoying.

All works fine now.

Kewfriend

 

[Kewfriend]

NEW HORROR

AutomaticUpdates Success Content Install Installation Ready: The following
updates are downloaded and ready for installation. This computer is currently
scheduled to install these updates on Saturday, July 19, 2008 at 3:00 AM: -
Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (KB952142)

Updates is trying again to apply this Update - HOW do I tell MS not to apply
this? I do not want this update but seem unable to stop MS applying it except
to turn off auto-updates entirely.

Arrrrgh this is a nightmare.

KF

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You've created this nightmare on your own. Why in the world would you
manually start copying over DLL files? Of course these are not properly
registered then and could get overwritten again by updates of the original
DLL files.
Microsoft didn't force you anything. If at all, it is HP who tried to make a
combined sale. You are still free to uninstall any application they shipped
your PC with. If you don't use the Office 2007 trial, uninstall it. If you
only don't want to use Outlook 2007, uninstall it. Once you've done that,
install Office 2003. This way everything gets properly registered and things
work like they should.

 

[Kewfriend]

Completely fair comment, except that I was following posted advice from
several well known PC Magazines on how to keep both installed and maintain
Outlook2003. There are several MS Postings that explain that the only problem
on dual systems is Outlook, and I had been very careful - as evidenced by a
perfect system for several months. I do still blame MS simply because it took
a working system, and trashed it through my willing subscription to
auto-Update.

Anyway - I shall follow advice and start uninstalling and re-installing.

Your comment is also a little unfair in that on further examination on the
Office Updates Page MS informs that the (KB952142) is only applied if
Office2007 SP1 has been downloaded (it hasnt) but on the actual (KB952142)
info page it says it applies it whether or not the SP1 has been applied. ie
MS actually has not been rigorously and correctly informative.

Anyway thanks for your comments - and as you say to some extent I must
shoulder some responsibility

 

[Brian Tillman]

Updates is trying again to apply this Update - HOW do I tell MS not
to apply this? I do not want this update but seem unable to stop MS
applying it except to turn off auto-updates entirely.

In Windows Vista, configure updates to inform you before installing and when
it does, right-click the update and choose Hide the Update for any update
you don't want installed.