FAQ concerning Service Pack 2 and the Cumulative Updates for April 2009 for the 2007 Microsoft® Office System and Microsoft Office servers

Many of our customers have questions on the relationship between the set of hotfixes released in the Cumulative Updates (CU) for April 2009 and Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office servers. This post will aim at answering those questions.

Cumulative Updates are accumulated sets of hotfixes that the Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering team releases to customers approximately every two months.

If you do not use Cumulative Updates, this blog will probably not be interesting to you. If you are only using SP2, please refer to the following blog post for more details.

Throughout this post, we will use the term "April CU" to refer to the set of hotfixes released in the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009.

1. When was SP2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office servers released? When were the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009 released?
SP2 was released on Tuesday April 28th, 2009. Majority of the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009 were released on Thursday April 30th, 2009.

2. Where can I obtain SP2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Office servers?
Please refer to the following blog post on how to obtain SP2. The corresponding KB article is KB968170.

3. Where can I obtain the 2007 Office Cumulative Updates for April 2009?
Please refer to KB968765 on how to obtain these.

4. What should we install to get the latest updates for all Office products?
For our general customer base, we recommend installing SP2. If you have needed updates in the April CU, we recommend installing both SP2 and the April CU. 

5. What hotfixes are included in SP2?
SP2 will contain every hotfix, security update, infrastructure update, service pack or any other update that was released for Office 2007 through February 2009.  Therefore, all hotfixes that were released in CUs prior to the April CU will be included in SP2.

Please refer to KB968170 for a list of all SP2 packages.
 

6. Will we get the latest updates for an Office product if we install only the April CU and not SP2?
The short answer is no. If you want the latest updates for an Office product we recommend installing both SP2 and the April CU.

To explain further, the April CU includes only a subset of SP2 files, those that were updated due to a hotfix request. On the other hand, the service pack contains product improvements and updates to many other files that are not impacted by a hotfix request. The volume and diversity of fixes in SP2 is much greater than in the April CU. If you install only the April CU, you will not get all the latest updates and the benefit of the service pack.

7. What service packs are required to install the April CU?
To install the April CU, you must have installed either Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SP2. Cumulative updates released in April 2009 and beyond will no longer install on an Office 2007 system without a service pack installed.

8. Which one should we install first between SP2 and the April CU? Do they overwrite each other?
You can install SP2 and the April CU in any order. 

The installer checks to see if the environment already has a newer version of the file it is attempting to replace. If not, it replaces the old file with the newer version; otherwise it skips the install and retains the newer version. The April CU version of a file is newer than the SP2 version of the same file and always takes precedence during an install. Therefore, if you install SP2 followed by April CU, the April CU version of the file replaces the SP2 version. On the other hand, if you install April CU first and then SP2, the April CU version of the file is retained in the environment. The April CU version of a file contains all updates to that file that were in SP2 as well. Hence, installation order does not matter.

Below is an example table for a file (microsoft.sharepoint.portal.dll), in various installation scenarios.

For a list of files and file versions in April CU packages, please refer to KB968765 and browse to the KB article for a specific product. 
For a list of files and file versions in SP2 packages, please refer to KB970357 (2007 Microsoft Office System SP2), KB970358 (MOSS SP2) and KB970359 (WSS SP2). 

9. Will server-packages be released for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) in the April CU? How different will they be from SP2?
Yes, the Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering team began the trend of releasing consolidated packages for server products due to a high volume of customer requests for this type of package. This was first done in the December CU.

In the April CU too, there are 2 cumulative server-packages:
(1) WSS server-package - that contains updates for WSS
(2) MOSS server-package - that contains updates for ECM, Project Server, Search, Excel Services, InfoPath Server and MOSS

The server-packages include all hotfixes for server products that the Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering team has ever released. However, there are files updated in the service pack that have never been updated in a hotfix. In order to get all the latest updates, you need to install SP2 and the April CU server-packages.

10. What do I need to install in my environment to get the latest updates for all server products?
You need to install both SP2 and the April CU server-packages (WSS server-package, MOSS server-package) to get the latest updates for all server products. In general, install the latest service pack and the latest CU server-packages to get the latest updates for server products.

11. If I install both SP2 and the April CU and then uninstall SP2, will I lose updates from the April CU, previous CUs or previous service packs?
The 2007 Microsoft Office suite SP2 is the first service pack to support uninstalling updates for the 2007 Office desktop products. Note you cannot uninstall SP2 for Microsoft Office server products.

No, you will not lose updates from the April CU, previous CUs or previous service packs if you uninstall SP2 for desktop products. For example, there are patches from SP1, December CU and February CU installed in your environment. You install SP2 and the April CU and then decide to uninstall SP2. The installer will uninstall everything that is superseded by SP1 and then reinstall patches from the December, February and April CUs (since applying these patches on top of SP1 is a supported scenario).

Please refer to KB954914 for more detailed information on uninstall for SP2.

12. Is it a supported scenario to install a patch from an older CU on top of a patch from a newer CU?
If you attempt to install a patch from an older CU after applying a patch (for the same set of files) from the newer CU, the installer will prevent installation and give an error that says: "This patch or one that supersedes it is already installed." This holds true for both desktop and server products.

Note that since the updates are cumulative in nature, the newer CU patch always contains the latest version of the set of files and encompasses fixes in those files from the older CU as well.

13. Where can I find a list of all fixes in SP2?
KB968170 includes a list of all SP2 packages and the Knowledge Base (KB) articles corresponding to them. Each KB contains a link to an Excel spreadsheet that lists the issues fixed in that package.