Official Word Starter update?

Anonymous
2014-08-16T15:23:38+00:00

When I opened up my laptop this morning (8/16/14) there was a pop-up on the screen telling me  there was an update available for Microsoft Word Starter 2010 and asking me if I wanted to download it.  It did not look like the typical Windows or Office update notification.  I closed the pop-up and opened Windows update and ran it.  There were some updates available, but none that said they were for Word Starter.  IS there a new Update for Word Starter or is this someone trying to get me to download a virus?

***Office Product moved to Office 2010 by the Moderator.***

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Suzanne S Barnhill 279.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2014-11-20T16:27:28+00:00

Microsoft has posted a Knowledge Base article describing and explaining this popup and providing a solution. Find it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3016799.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2014-08-20T14:23:14+00:00

Hi everyone,

We heard back from the product group. The dialog is expected for a legitimate Office 2010 starter update. It appears for click to run scenarios where the path is missing a piece of information between the build that the user is running on and the latest available build.

The august update that was pulled is a Windows update, not an Office update.

Thanks!

DK - MSFT support

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

206 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-22T00:54:40+00:00

    Because Click-to-Run (a/k/a virtualized) is not the normal distribution method for Office software, I'm not at all confident that "Microsoft would use the usual tool" to distribute a future update to it. 

    My gut tells me that we're seeing side-effects of New And Different distribution method(s) for click-to-run (virtualized) software.

    For future use, I've bookmarked the link from Doug Robbins dated today.  (As a community, we can hope that, although the link's hosted by HP, there's nothing HP-specific in the solution; my own laptop happens to be an HP product.)

    Please also notice the comment (via the HP link) about being careful to NOT uninstall the Microsoft Office Program Manager* ... because uninstalling that component "requires you to perform a recovery to reinstall Microsoft Office Starter 2010."

    1. Complicated by the fact that the do-not-uninstall component is NOT labeled as "Microsoft Office Program Manager," but is "noted by the entry of Microsoft Office 2010."
    2. That "recovery" could be the "factory restoration" that Victoria mentioned (is anyone able to confirm or deny my "educated guess" on that?) ... a "restoration" which has been associated with deleting Office-based documents on customer systems. 

    So, how customer-unfriendly can Microsoft get this month?

    1. The suspicious-looking "click-to-run update" popup (which looks more like malware) ...
    2. Missing KB articles on Patch Tuesday, leaving customers unable to make informed decisions about multiple updates across multiple products
    3. The poorly-documented, non-standard, and clearly risky behavior of the Click-To-Run update deployment
    4. Losing at least some customer documents (many, on some systems) ... which, of course, re-emphasizes the value of always having recent backups.

    The good news?  We still have three weeks 'til the next Patch Tuesday... which opens new opportunities for unexpected behavior.

    In light of this month's activity, I will make sure to run a full backup shortly before January 13!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-12-21T23:32:25+00:00

    See “How to Repair, Uninstall and Re-install Microsoft Office Starter 2010” at:

    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c02981221#N29

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-21T12:55:44+00:00

    I've the same issue again.

    Came across the August "release" and had to download and reinstall Office 2010 starter.

    Ignored the Microsoft popup about updates for Office 2010 for several days from roughly 10th of December, eventhough the popups reappeared about every minute.

    10th of December is the usual date I receive MS updates, so it looked like a MS official update anyway.

    Accidentally clicked the popup two days ago and now am stuck yet again with a non-working Office 2010 starter.

    I really am getting fed up with this.

    Especially as I really need access to my excell and word files 24/7. I now have to download to a USB and access the files on an old Vista laptop. This is also costing me money.

    So I'd like to get a mail with instructions how to fix and solve things right away. Have no time to wade to 20 pages of comments before MS techs finally come up with a bright idea.

    Noticed there are people complaining about the same issue on other places on the web as well.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments