Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be winging its way to users via Microsoft auto update from next month.
Microsoft announced on its update product team blog that it is making Office 2003 SP3 available via automatic distribution. After a 30-day waiting period -- starting on 27 January -- the release will make its way out to users' computers, with the first users encountering the update around 27 February.
The update will become available in a staggered fashion, according to the blog, which said: "Availability will happen gradually and not everyone will see it at the same time."
Office 2003 SP3 was first released in September last year and contains "significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements," according to Microsoft.
Some of the security enhancements inconvenienced users by blocking access to older file formats including Word 6.0 and Word 97 for Windows, and Word 2004 for Mac as well as older versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, Corel Quattro spreadsheet, and Corel Draw graphics package.
Microsoft said its reason for blocking the old formats is that hackers target the "less secure" parsing code for those formats, and if the formats are not being used it is "risk without reward".
However, the software giant underestimated the number of users blocking the format would affect and was forced to provide four downloadable updates that would unblock the file formats -- one update for each of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and CorelDraw file types.
The updates alter the registry settings to allow users to open and to save all file types that are supported by Microsoft Office 2003, including the file types that are blocked by default in Office 2003 SP3.
Microsoft recommends that users only use these updates if they need to. "These steps may also make the computer or the network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses," the company said.
There are also four updates available, which change the registry settings back to the default settings for Office 2003 SP3.
However Microsoft considers the most successful upgrade to be when the user doesn't realise it has happened: "In some cases people probably don't even know that it's working for them, which is just perfect."
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