New Office:Mac Updates Coming Soon from the Mac BU at Microsoft

As we noted last week, Microsoft inadvertently released updaters for Office v.X and Office 2004 for Mac that weren't ready for release. Then, the updaters were pulled by Microsoft with the advice to uninstall them if one already had installed them but with no advice on how to do so. We advised to sit tight since the updaters appeared to cause no difficulties for us.

Now Erik Schwiebert of the Mac BU at Microsoft on its Mac Mojo blog has advised not to worry since the errant updates are benign, an expert echoing of our empirical advice. They contained tested stability fixes plus some untested "security bits." Schwiebert mentioned that new updaters (10.1.9 new build and 11.3.2) will be issued probably later this week that will remove any untested security bits from the errant updates and retain the stability fixes. This advisory was repeated on the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog.

We laud the Mac BU for being open about what is going on, something that does not ...ah...er... always happen with Apple. And remember, the Mac BU makes great Mac software and they, as a unit, are not responsible per se for policies dictated by their parent, Microsoft. [Bill Fox]