Windows 7 - Is MS giving away Outlook?

Asked By Lynda

25-Sep-07 03:01 PM

I allowed some updates to Vista Home yesterday and Outlook 2002 SP3
appeared!  Office has never been on this pc nor any readers or anything else
showing in Programs and Features.  Today I got offered 11 updates for Office
XP and Outlook.  Can anyone think of a cause for this?  If not I'll
uninstall Outlook and hope the updates go away.

25-Sep-07 04:01 PM

Lynda,

First you state that Office has never been on the system and then you
state that you're going to uninstall Outlook, which is a component of
Office. So, which is it ?


MowGreen  [MVP 2003-2007]
===============
*-343-*  FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

25-Sep-07 03:57 PM

Are Readers or Viewers for any Office applications installed (e.g., Excel
Viewer; PowerPoint Viewer; Word Viewer)?

Was a version of MS Works ever installed?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.org/

25-Sep-07 04:15 PM

Hello Mow,
Outlook 2002 appeared on my system yesterday after doing updates.  Never was
there before which made me wonder if MS is now giving it away.  So that's
what it is and I'm not sure what to do with it.  Wierd don't you think?

25-Sep-07 04:35 PM

There is no way that OL 2002 was installed by Office 2003 SP3.
--
~PA Bear

25-Sep-07 04:46 PM

If there were any readers or viewers wouldn't they show in Programs and
Features?  Outlook 2002 just appeared yesterday after some updates.  MS
Works I haven't had for turtles years.  Maybe I'm the victim of MS largesse
cos they have just given me a free Outlook.

25-Sep-07 05:03 PM

Ah PA you may be referring to the notorious update that several in this
group claim not to understand.  I was not offered and do not have this
update.  I must assume that some deamon snuck in at night and gave me
Outlook 2002.  I would have preferred the deamon to have left me a much
later version <g>.

25-Sep-07 05:22 PM

FWIW I tried uninstalling Outlook 2002 and UAC says an unidentified program
wants access to your computer.  Just more occult goings on I suppose.

26-Sep-07 01:09 PM

You first posted the above on 25 Sept-07.  What updates were installed on 24
Sept-07?

How to read the Windowsupdate.log file
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093

Did you upgrade to Vista Home Premium?  If not, was a free-trial version of
MS Office or MS Works preinstalled on the machine when you bought it and is
the machine still under warranty?
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.org/

27-Sep-07 03:27 PM

21 updates installed on 24 Sept (list is below).  Vista was pre-installed on
this Inspiron and I don't think Dell supplied any trial version of Office or
Works.  The computer is still under warranty.

I've removed Outlook and now Office upgrades are no longer being offered.
I'm intrigued about why a functioning version of Outlook 2002 should pop
into program files folder without any other Office component detectable.
This is not my pc so I can't say what might have been done to it but I can't
imagine how anyone could have installed Outlook on its own.  OUTLOOK.EXE was
properly there in Program Files\Office10 folder with all its bits and
pieces.

I've heard about Boltzman brains so I guess in an old enough universe
anything can occur; even a working Outlook appearing out of nowhere.

Thank you for your response and, unless anyone else reports this, I consider
the topic closed.

List of KBs installed on 24 Sept-07 (in reverse order of installation that
date):
937143
936021
905866
938194
933360
939159
933579
935807
938979
936782
938123
938127
929916
935280
937077
929123
931213
932471
936825
936824
931621

27-Sep-07 05:32 PM

If all those updates were installed on 24 Sept-07, the machine was seriously
unpatched and vulnerable.  (Some of them were released months ago.)  How
long had this machine been online in the unpatched state, Lynda?  Was
Automatic Updates disabled?  Is it enable now?

With all due respect, if it's not your machine you can't tell us anything
definitive about the possibility of OL 2002 having been installed on the
machine previously.  If the machine's owner isn't forthcoming, either you'd
have to contact Dell or just drop the "Why?" issue.

Best of luck.
--
~PA Bear