Now this seems to happen more than once, and I have no idea why..... I just clean installed a Win7 machine. I happen to have my trusty office 2007 SP2 installer around, so that went on next. After checking, Windows Update says I'm missing SP3 (~ 350 MB). No surprise I have SP3 already so I close WU and run SP3 locally, then reopen WU and tell it to check again for updates, expecting to find all the post-SP3 stuff. Instead WU is insisting I need SP3 but at a size of ~84 MB. I click OK but as it starts downloading it changes the size to ~350 MB, like before. Hmm..... I re-downloaded Office 2007 SP3 from MS downloads in case my copy's wrong somehow (~ 350 MB), but that quits out saying SP3 is fully installed. SO I go back to WU and re-check updates and WU insists SP3's not installed (or not fully installed) and wants to download either 84 or 350 MB of updates. I check history and even 'installed updates' lists SP3 as installed. I've seen this sort of thing before but never had such a clear example of it, and I've got no idea what it means. I'd love some ideas what's up or how to troubleshoot this kind of thing!
Stilez, coupla things you can try. One- just install your old office 2007 sp2 (uninstall first), then update ONLY via windows updates, ditch that local copy of sp3. If that doesnt work, try using custom updates instead of automatic.
That's like... um.. not at all my question I'm not really asking how to solve a problem with applying the update. I know I can just use online updates and be done with it. But offline updates are faster if there might be other installs in future and I like to learn. So, SP3. I've applied the downloaded O2K7 SP3, hash checked it, Windows update "installed application" lists it as installed, a re-run says "this update already applied", yet when updates are re-checked WU says resolutely that SP3 needs installing. What's going on? I've had the same with a few other updates over the years so it would be good to have that "ah-ha!" moment of lucidity
C'mon, that doesn't answer the question. If I download and run an update locally, the update thinks it's run, installed updates thinks it's run, but Windows Update thinks it hasn't been installed. It's not corruption or anything like that, it's a clean install all round, and I've seen it before on other updates. Someone who does have an idea what's up? Or should I ask a technical question like this in MS's forums?
Well your windows update components may be screwed for one. Since you dont want solutions, I wont go into the different ways to fix that.
Allow WU to attempt to run whatever updates it think it needs that you've previously installed locally. On several occasions I've had your "problem" and when I ran WU, it immediately saw what had been previously installed and reset itself to indicate so. If Windows is stubborn and refuses to see things your way, you can simply hide the "erroneous" updates in WU as already suggested.
Well, the practical point is this: I often reinstall machines, and downloading a 1/2 GB upwards of updates and service packs is time consuming and sometimes impractical. Plus for some computers it may be undesirable or forbidden that they go online and exposed until updates are complete, and others may not have a net connection available. If offline updates weren't valued they probably wouldn't be provided. I'm strongly in favour of offline updating wherever possible - download once/use endlessly as needed, cuts a lot of time off the install, cuts more time off multiple install situations, allows me to install and update machines offsite/offline or use long train journeys for laptop reinstalls, guarantees they don't go online until up to date, and it's just elegant. But that breaks if I hit something like this where it doesn't matter whether I download the update/SP because WU still insists it's not updated. I'd like to solve it. If it's a bug in certain updates so be it, if it's a bug in registering updates as installed in some situations I'd like confirmation, but mainly I'd like to know what it means? Or do I always have to run these updates online as the only way to get them reliably installed? You can't rely on this. How do you know if they are erroneous or not, if one source says it's installed and another says it isn't. "No idea if it is or not, but let's just hide the error report anyway" ... umm... yeah