Question of What to do with Some Items offered in Windows Updates

May I ask a few quick questions having to do with updates that showed up in Windows Updates after using that Reset Windows Update History batch file thing suggested by a user in a thread I recently started? I only have Microsoft Office Pro Edition 2003 (because newer versions won't open my old documents, and I haven't adapted to that issue yet). In Windows Updates, it says there is an update for that and an update with the same name except 2007 instead of 2003 that is also the same size. Which confuses me, plus it says there are 3 important updates but 4 are listed, so I'm wondering if I'm supposed to pick 1 of those 2 or something. Do I install both of those? And there is an old Windows Defender definition update there now too. I don't use Security Essentials. Isn't that where Defender went in Windows 7? I use Malwarebytes full paid version. Do I hide that Windows Defender update or install it? Do I install other Windows Defender updates that may appear? I don't usually ever see Defender updates. And there are 28 language pack updates back too. Do I just install all those again? Here is a screenshot.



Thank you for reading this.

I think you are ok installing all of the "Important" updates (not the "Optional" updates).

As far as the Windows updates, some people install only those updates with "Security" in the name of the update. I believe you need to at least install the "Security" updates. I don't think it is a big deal one way or the other on those updates which don't have "security" in their name.

I would install all of the Office updates that are shown on your screen. As for why there is a 2007 update, you may have a trial version of 2007 or a 2007 file viewer installed. Whether that is true or not, it won't hurt to install the 2007 Office update. I suggest that you install it.

I would install the Defender update. There's no harm in installing it, and it may help that Defender is up to date.

I never install any "Optional" update unless I have a specific reason for doing so.

If you install the Office 2003 validation add-in and then run Windows Update again then the 2007 version should disappear. If it doesn't, try and install the 2003 version then the 2007 version.

I still use Office 2007 on one of my older systems and I have occasionally been offered Office 2003 updates. They can sometimes apply to both versions.

Have you checked that Windows Defender is fully disabled? If you don't use it at all, you can disable Windows Defender by opening it and Turning off the option to run the program.



After rescanning again those should disappear.

Thank you for the replies. I reckon those were updates I hid instead of installing along with that daylight savings time for some African countries update from last month that also appeared after resetting Windows Update History. The foreign language packs I wanted a long time ago were not in the list of language packs there now, so I guess this list of 28 language packs was all the ones that had been hidden. When I unticked the update for Office 2007, the update for Office 2003 was also unticked by itself, and when I selected the update for 2003 again, the update for Office 2007 was automatically ticked, so I guess that's why I had four updates listed and it said only three were available. All those updates and other March updates besides March 2018 rollup have installed easily with no problems, so I guess my PC works okay.

Thank you all again for helping me.

Starting with Office 2007 MS made .docx the default for saving Word files. However you can still save them in the older .doc format so they can be read in older versions of Office. You can also install the compatibility pack so that older versions of Office can read .docx files.

Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats from Official Microsoft Download Center

Edit: Just noticed this on the site:

"NOTE: The Office Compatibility Pack is being retired in April, 2018. At that time, it will no longer be available for download and will no longer receive security updates."

So, download it while you still can.

You could try using something like Libre Office to work on documents and spreadsheets. While Libre Office is not 100% compatible with MS Office, it does an excellent job of allowing you to work on documents and spreadsheets which were created in MS Office, whether .DOC or .DOCX.

Libre Office is free.

Thank you for the replies. I have been reading customer reviews at Amazon.com for Microsoft Office 2016 products. Some reviews mentioned that Libre Office. I'm trying to decide whether to use that or purchase Office 2016. Anyway, as far as my old files are concerned, I don't have a lot of different file types and projects saved, only .doc files. And I should be able to open those in both Libre Office and Microsoft Office 2016? Does anyone know if it is the case that Office versions are supported by Microsoft with updates and so on for ten years? That's kind of what it looks like when reading some lifecycle information at the Microsoft website.

Thank you all for the helpful information.