There’s no link to a download of the cumulative update (even if you knew what it contained). That’s even stranger because you’re told to “test hotfixes before you deploy them in a production environment” – how can you do that if you’re not told what the fixes are?Ī further recommendation is to only apply the update to systems experiencing ‘these’ specific problems – what problems? Again, there are no problems or fixes listed by Microsoft. There is no description or link to the individual hotfixes included in the update – you have no idea what will be patched. This article looks like someone has copied the text from similar articles in the past and published it without considering if the text is applicable any more.

To call it a ‘description’ in the title is wholly misleading. It’s over 500 words and tells you almost nothing. Which brings us to KB 957023 “Description of the August 2008 cumulative update package for Office 2003 Service Pack 3 ” (Revision 1.1 dated 28 August 2008 is copied below) and it’s very similar cousin for Office 2007. Only then can you tell if the update is relevant to you or might affect existing programs or add-ins.

They are intended as a convenience for larger customers who can push out these updates to their many Office users.īut before you apply such a patch you’d like to know what issues are dealt with in the update. Each cumulative update has all hotfixes since the last full Office Service Pack. Just one exhibit is a recent article about a cumulative update for Office 2003.Ĭumulative updates are a bundling of the interim fixes and security updates for Office into a single download – starting recently they are scheduled to come out every second month. If you get confused by the documentation for Office updates, don’t think it’s your fault, some of the Microsoft’s documentation is very poor.

Microsoft office updates for 2003