Office 2000 and Office Update Site to Retire

As a reminder, Microsoft Office 2000 leaves extended support on July 14, 2009. Office 2000 patches published on or before July 14, 2009 will remain on the Download Center. For more information, please see the Office 2000 Lifecycle policy.

Starting August 1, 2009, Microsoft will discontinue support for the Office Update website. Customers can access the equivalent functionality of the Office Update site via Microsoft Update. This move will allow us to provide a more simplified and consistent experience for users across Microsoft products. At the same time we will also discontinue the Office Inventory Tool. The July Office Inventory Tool will remain available for download on the Download Center, but it will not be updated after August 1, 2009. We recommend that IT admins who use the Office Inventory Tool switch to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) for deploying Office updates within their corporate network.

 

To continue getting the latest updates for Microsoft Office products, use Microsoft Update. For more information see the Office Update FAQ.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  PingBack from http://www.ditii.com/2009/05/20/microsoft-office-2000-support-ending-july-14-2009-alongwith-office-update-site/

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  I am very disappointed to see Office Update retired without Microsoft Update providing equivalent function!  I use Active Directory GPO to deploy Office from an administrative installation point (AIP).  If I applied patches to my AIP and redeployed, only Office Update would correctly detect that the updates were already installed on client PC's.  MS Update & WSUS continue to show the updates as needed, so I would continue to use Office Update to see which updates were REALLY needed.  I keep hoping that the detection logic in MS Update will be fixed to resolve this. What allowed Office update to correctly detect which updates were needed, and why can't MS Update be fixed to provide this same accurate info?

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Hello David, I'm sorry to hear you're encountering this issue. As you mentioned, deploying patches to the AIP to deploy to client systems is no longer supported. To update your clients, the recommended method is to update (or revert) the AIP to the latest service pack level, recache the clients, then update the clients directly using Microsoft Update or a related technology, such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). You may find this webcast about using WSUS to update Office 2003 helpful in making this transition:http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032273703&CountryCode=US. You can find more information about maintaining Office AIPs without using Office Update athttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/FX010402221033.aspx#8. I recognize that this may require you to change the way you update your clients and apologize for any inconvenience. Office Update and Microsoft Update use different technologies for detection of applicable updates. The Office Update technology, although it worked for AIPs, had significant drawbacks for system administrators in resiliency and auditing. Microsoft Update detection is much more robust and we’ve found that customers who have moved to a MU-based technology like WSUS have a significantly better experience. Sincerely, David Seidman Program Manager, Microsoft Office Sustained Engineering Team