Office 2K SP3 suggested over and over again

[Heinz Wehner]

On a Windows 2000 systems I'm running Outlook 2000, Visio 2000 and
Project 2000 with all available patches applied. Now something
obviously went out of sync so to speak:

OfficeUpdate wanted me to install Office 2K SP3 (147 KB). That was
already a surprise since SP3 has been applied a long time ago. I've
let it install the patch nevertheless and it seemed to install but the
same patch is still suggested upon every start of OfficeUpdate. As a
side effect, I cannot install the suggested Word 2000 security update
KB887977. OfficeUpdate tells me that Office 2K SP3 is a prerequisite.

I suspect this loop to have been caused by the recent update of Word
97 Viewer to Word 2003 Viewer.

Any suggestions how to get rid of this loop?

Heinz Wehner
(Karlsruhe, Germany)

 

[Ryan Asdourian [MSFT]]

The reason you are seeing SP3 show up is because you are missing the Outlook
Security Update that is bundled with SP3. You can try downloading the exe
at
http://download.microsoft.com/download/office2000/SP/3/WIN98MeXP/EN-US/o2ksp3.exe
And extracting just that update to install if Office Update isn't working
for you. If it says it is successful though it should not prompt you for it
the next time you scan for updates. The name of the update inside the exe
you need is called OUTLCTLX.exe

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Heinz Wehner]

Ryan,

running "outlctlx.exe" doesn't change anything.

This is not unexpected since this update is included with SP3 and as
been said, SP3 has been applied a long time ago. I would conclude that
"outlctlx.exe" has already been run at this time as part of SP3.

Any other ideas of what might confuse OfficeUpdate? I still suspect
the update loop may have been caused by the recent update of Word 97
Viewer to Word 2003 Viewer. What do you think?

Heinz Wehner
(Karlsruhe, Germany)

 

[Steve]

Grasping at straws here... maybe try running comprehensive anti-spyware, in
case some nasty app is messing with one or more of the associated DLLs.
If that does not work, a uninstall/reinstall should fix the problem.
Sorry for no better suggestion.

 

[Heinz Wehner]

Steve,

this is indeed grasping at straws because the causes you mention
are very unlikely. It's usually just a waste of time. It is much more
likely that the loop is caused by OfficeUpdate itself. Now what
makes me think so:

o The case that updates are suggested over and over again is not
rare. I've seen many messages here on this and the WindowsUpdate
newsgroup reporting about such loops.

o I personally had a very similar loop on another Win2K system with a
different MS Office 2K installation (almost complete, with some of
newer Office applications namely Visio 2002 and Outlook 2003)
some months ago. OfficeUpdate wanted me to install Office 2K SP3
over and over again. You knwo what happened: After installing the
Outlook 2003 Update KB832333, the issue vanished miraculously!

o I've had problems installing the patch KB839645 on a WinNT 4.0 SP6a
Workstation: The patch could not be installed online via Windows
Update. It failed repeatedly. I've then downloaded the patch
manually and tried to install offline. That worked but still not
all was well. If I run Windows Update again (after at least one
reboot of course) , it still wants me to apply the patch KB839645!
This is nonsense of course since it's already installed. BTW, the
online install continues to fail.

My conclusion is that Microsoft's online update technology is still
suffering from some subtle problems.

Heinz Wehner
(Karlsruhe, Germany)

 

[Steve]

Well, I hope you find a solution soon, and that it gets posted here in case
somebody else runs into the same problem.
Good luck with it.
Steve

 

[Heinz Wehner]

Steve,

the issue resolved as predicted. After installing the latest Junk
E-Mail Filter for Outlook 2003, OfficeUpdate no longer wants me to
install Office 2K SP3...

Regards,
Heinz