Almost exactly one year after Microsoft first released Office 2007, the latest iteration of its massive office suite, the software giant surprised users by quietly releasing the product’s Service Pack 1 (SP1) nearly a month ahead of schedule.
In November, Microsoft Office product manager Reed Shaffner told attendees at the IT Forum that users could expect the shipment of SP1 sometime in early 2008. But Microsoft’s Office software team apparently had a particularly productive fall.
“Our development team,” Shaffner said in a statement, “was able to deliver the enhancements and fixes earlier than we’d anticipated, so we wanted to get them in the hands of customers as soon as possible.”
Stability, Performance, and Security
Office 2007 users who undertake the download (over 200 MB) and mandatory reboot will not find a significant number of new features. Instead, Shaffner said, the service pack concentrates on making Office 2007 a more stable platform.
“SP1 provides stability and performance improvements across the 2007 Office system, keying in on customers’ leading productivity concerns, and beefs up security precautions to stay ahead of the latest threats from malicious software and other risks,” Shaffner said. “Crashes are one of the most frustrating experiences customers have, and the team worked hard with SP1 to make our products more stable.”
Office 2007 users interested in upgrading their software can visit the Microsoft Office Web site and either download the patch or order a CD-ROM with the new code. In addition, the patch is available as an optional download through Windows Update.
Microsoft’s Hand Forced?
Kyle McNabb, principal analyst at Forrester Research, suggested that Microsoft had at least a couple of reasons for accelerating the release of SP1. “I do think that they are trying to keep their presence first and foremost in the minds of enterprises and individual consumers, particularly those using Office on new laptops…