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Office 2007 SP1 goes live, Windows XP SP3 RC1 follows along

By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

December 11, 2007, 12:14 PM

As anticipated and without much fanfare, Microsoft this morning made active links for downloads of Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 1, as well as the complete Office 2007 Service Pack 1.

A Knowledgebase article detailing the contents of O2K7 SP1 had also been made available this morning, though BetaNews noticed that just before noon today, Microsoft removed that article, perhaps for editing purposes. The link to the download itself however remained active. The Office service pack is not a beta; it is a complete release.

Early beta testing of XP SP3 revealed new security hardening features were put in place, and at least one group of researchers claims Windows Vista SP1 lags behind XP SP3 in tests involving Microsoft Office workloads. Those tests may not have been deployed using O2K7 SP1. Today's XP service pack download is a release candidate -- past the beta stage, but not yet ready to be declared a formal release for production systems.

Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate 1 and Microsoft Office Suite 2007 Service Pack 1 are now available through our FileForum.

Update ribbon (small)

3:15 pm December 11, 2007 - The Knowledgebase article in question was back online by mid-afternoon Tuesday. In it was a link to a spreadsheet listing the bugs addressed by Office 2007 Service Pack 1.

Of the 455 bugs tackled, a full 104 -- 23 percent -- pertained to the Outlook e-mail client. 87 bug fixes (19%) pertained to Excel, while just 37 (8%) pertained to Word. 63 bug fixes pertained to the complete Office suite.

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By batteryfast

posted Nov 10, 2008 - 10:05 PM

Early beta testing of XP SP3 revealed new security hardening features were put in place, and at least one group of researchers claims Windows Vista SP1 lags behind XP SP3 in tests involving Microsoft Office workloads. Those tests may not have been ibm thinkpad 600 battery ibm thinkpad r32 battery ibm thinkpad r40 battery deployed using O2K7 SP1. Today's XP service pack download is a release candidate -- past the beta stage, but not yet ready to be declared a formal release for production systems.

Score: 0

By 79912Sterne

edited Feb 25, 2008 - 12:12 PM

I had no problem downloading sp 3 for xp, but it will not install: it gets to just over 50%, then announces an installation failure for reason of "ACESS DENIED".
Is there a solution?
The download remains on my desktop as "Updates are ready...."

Score: 0

By VaseMk

posted Dec 17, 2007 - 12:22 PM

Could anyone help me with the xp sp3 key?

Score: 0

By guti

posted Dec 16, 2007 - 12:35 PM

Since the beginings was promised to have native x64 support with SP1 in Office 2007... Now it has been release, but no support yet.

Too bad Microsoft does not believe on its bets.

Score: 0

By djs357

edited Dec 15, 2007 - 9:57 PM

I installed XP SP3. It seemed ok until Trend Internet Security 2008 tried to load its firewall. It could not start. I unstalled the SP and it all works fine again. I think there is a problem here.

Score: 0

By DRDRJAY

posted Dec 15, 2007 - 9:13 AM

OOPS!

By Jove, I think I've got it. In late Summer of 2006, Microsoft made available a program calle IE7 Blocker.exe which, when installed, would block updates to IE 7 from IE 6. I installed it...that's what I think the "access denied " is.

Anyone else agree?

Score: 0

By DRDRJAY

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 8:50 PM

RE: SP3 INSTALL ATEMPT:

Ran install in Admin mode and got this message:

SP3 Setup could not back up registry key

HKCR\.xml\shellx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}

5: Access is Denied

ABORT....RETRY....IGNORE ?

Not sure what this is. Should I try IGNORE ??????????????

Score: 0

By DRDRJAY

edited Dec 13, 2007 - 9:25 AM

I tried to install SP3 a week or so ago using a download from another site and, when it got to the end of the install, a box popped up which said " access denied ", at which point SP3 uninstalled itself.

Not sure what made this happen. ..............???

Score: 0

By deda

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 7:02 AM

No problems. I extracted the files: officesp3.exe /extract:C:\Temp and move the 4 files to the update folder on Office CD Installation. If Office is already installed you can update from Windows Update site, works fine, too!
The backdraw: You have to burn a DVD to store ~800Mb.

BTW: I'm not a English native. Sorry!

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 7:36 AM

Your English is better than half the English-speaking people on this site. Congratulations! :)

Score: 0

By newzat

edited Dec 12, 2007 - 8:34 AM

I have just installed Office 2007 SP1 on our network, it seems that Excel file open problem is still there :(
I had to fix the DDE settings manually after the installation.

Score: 0

By vince_1579

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 5:44 AM

Same here. But I don't know how to fix this. Can you teach me by emailing to my email address: alvin.adducul@gmail.com

Thanks!

Score: 0

By newzat

edited Dec 12, 2007 - 8:51 AM

I've done the following (for each of the 3 filetypes XLS,XLSX and XLSM) to fix the problem :

1- Open : My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types ,
2- select XLS, XLSX or XLSM file type, then click "Advanced" button,
3- select "Open" action, then click "Edit" button
4- Fill in the following values :
( "Use DDE" must be selected. )
a) Application used to perform action = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"
(the /e switch is required on some computers, however, on some other computers it causes Excel to hang, it's just experimental :( )
b) DDE Message = [open("%1")]
c) Application = EXCEL
d) DDE Application Not Running = [rem see command line]
e) Topic = System

Press "OK" button to refresh the file's action.
Close all the property sheets (by pressing OK), then try opening an XLS, XLSX or XLSM file to ensure it's OK.

Best luck...

Score: 0

By yohimbe9

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 10:05 PM

You have Acrobat Pro 6 or 7 installed? Our problem was fixed by removing Office integration from Acrobat or by upgrading to the most recent version.

Score: 0

By SteveJohnSteele

edited Dec 12, 2007 - 1:10 AM

Just installed Office 2007 SP1 (on Vista)

WARNING: well more information!
After reboot the PC showed the [_000__] bar,
then a black screen with just the white mouse cursor ... no desktop ... I rebooted and the same, safe mode still the same

ANSWER: reboot and wait ... after about 20 minutes the desktop appeared and all is well

Score: 0

By philosopher_dog

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 8:39 PM

So what's the word on the street about sp3? Is it stable? Is it worth installing? It is funny that some people are under the impression that only MS products require service packs. Mac and Linux fanboyz will never let up.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 1:23 AM

I had issues on my test system. compalined about bad cab files. I rolled it back to XP SP2 via acronis image. That was my first machine to test, and it's a very stable beast, so I won't be putting SP3 on any of the machines I manage for production until the gerbils test it first...

Score: 0

By morriscox

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 2:41 AM

Do a fresh download and try again. Maybe the download got corrupted.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 1:11 PM

No workie. File CRC's are the same.

Score: 0

By morriscox

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 9:13 PM

SP3 is working fine for me, as is Office 2007 SP1 (which fixed some severe Outlook issues for me).

Score: 0

By DotNet_Coder

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 1:16 AM

I noticed a couple of hiccups (not shutting down correctly, hanging on boot) on XP SP3 with XPize installed. I had to uninstall XPize, reinstall SP3 and then all went back to normal.

Score: 0

By dr_milodog

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 1:49 PM

My system came with Vista but I upgraded to Xp.

Score: 0

By timatl

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 1:49 PM

that is funny

Score: 0

By sdmunoz

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 2:04 PM

lol!

Score: 0

By dr_milodog

edited Dec 11, 2007 - 2:24 PM

Dude im not even kidding, I tried Vista for about 6 months, I have a lot of pictures so Photo gallery was nice, but you can download it for Xp now. I have this new found admiration for Xp. Ounce for ounce for the hardware that I have, Xp hands down is faster. They say Vista wont really be all that until:
A.Vista SP1
B.Solid state hard drives become mainstream
C.who knows??
cheers

Score: 0

By Lawrence01

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 12:41 PM

at least it didnt have the apple tiger massive data loss bug in it, among many other things, like the keyboard freezes etc.
http://tomkarpik.com/art...ata-loss-bug-in-leopard/
Massive Data Loss Bug in Leopard

The bug occurs regardless of the type of destination being moved to (whether it’s local USB, local Firewire, SMB, etc.). Also, I have been informed that this bug goes back all the way to Panther.

Score: 0

By zridling

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 12:23 PM

I feel sorry for Microsoft users, perpetually waiting for the next service pack (not to mention forced(still?) monthly automatic updates) to fix things that should never have been released broken to start with.

Hey, how'd that MS-OOXML thing turn out for Office 2007? Use MS-OOXML only if you like sharing documents with... yourself.

Score: 0

By godofthunder

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 11:50 PM

OMG, what planet are you from.

Score: 0

By Yakumo

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 8:14 PM

what, you think linux enthusiasts don't wait for the next kernel release with baited breath, and OSX fanboys for whatever the next large furry animal is going to be?

Score: 0

By Bogunch

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 3:20 PM

You are definitely very lucky not to have Service Packs and monthly updates. I am sure everybody wished they had...
Version 10.1 $129
Version 10.2 $129
Version 10.3 $129
Version 10.4 $129
Version 10.5 $129

Score: 0

By timatl

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 1:51 PM

now this is the truth. well said

Score: 0

By saint.alpha

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 11:35 PM

Windows 2000 = NT 5.0
Windows XP = NT 5.1

Microsoft is no better than Apple, they just have more creative names, and less reliance on version numbers.

Score: 0

By Banquo

edited Dec 13, 2007 - 11:38 PM

Are you saying that each new version of OS X is as big a change as going from 2000 to XP, because I would really have to laugh at that assertion. You can't compare Windows version numbers and OS X version numbers and say "Look see Microsoft charges money too!"

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 1:42 PM

Good to see after taking some time off, the same trolls are still spamming the forums with their BS.

Hey, how'd that MS-OOXML thing turn out for Office 2007? Use MS-OOXML only if you like sharing documents with... yourself.

....or any of the other millions of Office 2007 users, you mean?

I feel sorry for anyone that thinks (or tries to imply) Microsoft users are the sole owners of updates and service packs. I seem to recall over 80+ updates immediately after installing Ubuntu 7.10.

Score: 0

By Avion Airplane

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 3:24 PM

We thought we had lost ya PC_Tool

:=)

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 3:35 PM

Heh...

You wish. :p

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 1:01 PM

I've heard of F500 companies scrambling to push out format changes to use .doc instead of .docx because their customers preferred it. In time? sure. But even MS's own .docx viewers have issues with the format (I've noticed with Powerpoint files in particular.)

Score: 0

By DJInsomniac

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 12:49 PM

Right, cause Microsoft is the only company that has bugs these days.

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 1:27 PM

You are absolute right, only Microsoft is release free update to fix bugs.

Unlike some other company, who claims perfect, and instead release free SP, they tag it with another name and charge their users for full price OS again.

Score: 0

By mj132

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 8:11 PM

Oh just shut up with the back-and-forth on this, will you?

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Dec 11, 2007 - 10:46 PM

That's the WHOLE POINT of this freakin' website, or haven't you figured that out yet.

Score: 0

By SteveJohnSteele

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 1:13 AM

personally this 'My OS is bigger then your OS' is sooo boring - why dont you put it on the table and measure it :-)

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Dec 12, 2007 - 12:54 PM

Then they'll argue about what to use to measure it.

Market share isn't good enough.

Exploits/vulnerabilities/etc isn't good enough.

Software compatibility isn't good enough.

Hardware compatibility...

You get the picture.

Score: 0

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