Replies

Bruce,

As per your last link, I selected “File > Help” in MS Word where the right panel shows the version information. Clicking the “Additional Version and Copyright Information” link does, indeed, verify that I have SP1 installed for Office 2010.

I also verified that I already have the Microsoft Update option checked for the Windows Update control panel. (Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update > Change settings.”)

The Knowledge Base article noted in Susan’s article, KB2460049, does not appear in a search of installed updates. A KB article linked from that page is KB2532118, which begets KB2121559. None appear in a search of installed updates, but the last has a chart showing Office executable versions for pre-SP1 and with SP1, which is helpful.

I understand the Outlook hotfix, KB2597052, has to be a manual install and directly after an SP1 install. I think I’ll just skip it. I don’t have the problem and if one doesn’t, don’t install a hotfix. This has been a fair amount of effort. Thanks for your reply.

Paul

Susan,

I just finished the latest newsletter and attempted to work on the MS Office 2010 patches. I have a couple questions…

1. I clicked one of the links and the MS page notes I should use Microsoft Update (recommended.) I have Windows 7 Pro. I thought I had installed MS Update but only see Windows Update in the start menu. Is there a way to tell if you have the upgrade to MS Update installed? I don’t see it listed under the Programs and Features control panel list of installed programs. (BTW, I tried going to the MS Update page but it continues to crash the page, as it did yesterday. Or, it simply launches Windows Update. Perhaps the two are rolled together in Windows 7 with no name change… I just finished reading the WS article on Windows Defender Offline and its name history.)

2. You always give the patch numbers but it doesn’t appear that one can search the list of installed updates in “View Update History” easily for the KB number. I can sort by update name or click the link at page bottom in Windows Update for “Installed Updates” and scan visually but this seems less efficient.

3. I swear I used to be able to verify if Office was current with updates from a MS Word menu in previous versions. Office 2010 is quite different and see nothing to verify if I am running Office SP1.

Take care,

Paul

I personally use the WOT and LinkExtend add-ons as quick-glance web site rating tools. They are there in the toolbar and you can pop-down a menu in each to read the full site report. LinkExtend uses WOT as one of its rating services, along with Google, McAfee Site Advisor, Browser Defender, etc. WOT is a crowd-sourcing rating tool with all of its problems and perhaps benefits.

A site I knew was great had low numbers of ratings in its WOT report so a few user/raters could swing the rating unfairly, perhaps one of that vendor’s competitors. I rated it well, contacted the vendor, process proceeded where WOT and disgruntled users were contacted, issues resolved, and the rating updated to green.

Similarly, I find many crowd-source folks in the Site Advisor reports complaining about security software company McAfee too easily giving green ratings on its Site Advisor pages. Now, I believe the community resources are not sufficiently self-cleaning and it may be the case that folks see bad ratings, include a comment about bad ratings, padding the bad rating while the vendor may have cleaned their site of risks and truly gained a green rating by working with McAfee. But, I have seen McAfee’s own report details finding trojans on the site and it still gets a green rating, which is a concern.

Both WOT and LinkExtend add-ons, along with our educated browsing behavior, can help to keep us, our family and friends safe and secure.

By the way, the WOT behavior that the original poster referred to is WOT dropping a “WARNING!” screen over the site page when you visit. There are buttons to say something like ‘continue unprotected’ and ‘get me out of here’ and, I believe, a link to a report on the site. You can change this setting. Finding it is not that easy. Here are the steps:

1) in the Firefox toolbar area is the WOT circle icon. Pop down its menu and select “Settings” (top right in my browser.)
2) You will be taken to the WOT Settings page on mywot.com (I don’t know if you have to be a registered user, as I am, for access to this.)
3) Select the “Warnings” tab.
4) At the bottom of the right side under “Customize your level of protection”, you will see a checkbox, “Show only notifications of warnings”, which is unchecked by default. Check it. Scroll down and click the “Apply Settings” button.

Now, instead of getting the scary “drop sheet” for red-rated site warnings, you will see the WOT “ribbon” warning just under your toolbar. (You still need to pay attention, of course.)

Good luck and safe browsing.

Paul