When you install Service Pack 1 (SP1) of Office 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010 is installed -- UPDATE

  • Article

(9/13/2011: Updated to add KB link)

Update, March 28, 2012: There is now an update available for this issue. Note that you must apply the update before applying SP1.

 

When you install Service Pack 1 (SP1) of Office 2010 over Office Professional Plus, SharePoint Workspace 2010 is installed automatically, even if it was not selected as part of the originally Office 2010 installation. SP1 provides an Add-In tool API for creating custom tools for Groove workspaces. Due to a bug in the SP1 installation process, the addition of this API and related functionality in Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), triggers an installation of SharePoint Workspace if it is not already present, rather than just upgrading it if it is present.

This isn’t much of a problem for individual users who do not have Office Groove 2007 installed – they can just remove the component. However, it is more of an issue for two types of customers:

  • Enterprise installations that want to maintain a standardized environment 

    The added component may not be initially obvious, as the installation does not add program shortcuts to SharePoint Workspace anywhere. However, the executable files and  all supporting libraries are installed and registered, so if a user manually runs \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\Groove.exe, SharePoint Workspace will start. More obviously, the user will see “Sync to SharePoint Workspace” in the Site Actions menu of SharePoint 2010 sites that support workspaces. 

  • Any user with Groove 2007 installed 

    The SharePoint Workspace  2010 installation will upgrade Groove 2007, and there is no reliable way to regress to Groove 2007 from SharePoint Workspace 2010. 

We are aware of the issue and working to get it resolved.

If you have not yet installed SP1

If you fall into one of the categories listed above, do not install SP1 directly. Instead, download the SP1 package, and then open a Support incident with Microsoft and request escalation to the SharePoint Workspace Support team. The Office Deployment team wrote a script to correct the downloadable SP1 package, and we can provide you with this script and instructions. Reference KB 2612800: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2612800

Install the update described at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598245

If you have already installed SP1

If you have already installed the update and do not want to use SharePoint Workspace, simply uninstall the component.

If you have already installed the update over Groove 2007, there is no supported way to downgrade to that version. However, you may be able to recover. See What to consider when you upgrade from Groove 2007 to SharePoint Workspace 2010 for more information.