June 1, 2010

The last month or two, there seem to be a lot of issues with Microsoft Windows and Office updates messing things up, so I'd like to use this discussion to delve into the issue.

As I've stated in the past, updates to Windows, and all programs are usually a necessary evil, since most of the updates either fix bugs in the programs, or keep hackers from causing problems.  While well intentioned, some of the updates have caused major problems.

Lately there have been some Microsoft updates which have been affecting some computers.  Why these problems don't happen to every computer continues to be a mystery, but we have to deal with the situation we have.  I even had one computer we had removed the trial version of Microsoft Office which came with the computer, we then installed Office 2003, then after the computer did the automatic updates, which installed the OGA update, the computer said that the 2007 Office version was not genuine, even though it wasn't even installed on the computer.  The update also affected the 3003 Office program.  Go figure.

One big issue I've seen on several computers, including on of my own, is after the Microsoft Genuine Advantage update, all the Microsoft Office programs open with a message that it is not a legal copy of Office.  You can remove most updates through Control Panel or in the Windows update area, but this particular update can't be uninstalled.  For those of you who took my advice and use drive imaging,  this is the ideal time to restore your computer to an image prior to downloading the update.

There have been many discussions on ways to fix this problem, but no sure fire one works.  Click here for some info on possibilities, but be advised these fixes have the potential to disable or seriously affect the operation of your computer. Therefore, you assume any responsibility if you follow any of the procedures. 

You can't uninstall the OGA update, nor will uninstalling then reinstalling Office fix the problem.  If you do a restore, or find a fix for the problem, set Windows update to ignore the update in the future.