Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Microsoft® Office 2003 Service Pack 2 contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. Some of the fixes included with SP2 have been previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines them into one update.


Included in this Service Pack

This service pack includes updates previously released for Office 2003:

• Office 2003 Service Pack 1
• Security Update for Office 2003 WordPerfect 5.x Converter: KB 873378
• Office 2003 Security Update: KB838905
• Update for Office 2003 French Grammar Checker: KB873381
• Office 2003 Tablet PC Update: Improved Ink Recognition
• Update for Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2003: KB887982
• Update for Office 2003: KB887980
• Update for Office 2003: KB885828
• Update for Office 2003 French Spelling Checker and Thesaurus: KB892258
• Security Update for Word 2003: KB887979


SP2 will install even if a publicly available update has already been installed on your computer.

SP2 also includes stability improvements developed as a result of user input from the Microsoft Online Crash Analysis in Office 2003 and from Microsoft Product Support feedback.

You can get specific information about this update in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (887616): Description of Office 2003 Service Pack 2.


Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and Office 2003 SP2

If you are using Office Communicator 2005, you should exit Office Communicator by right-clicking on the Communicator icon in the system tray and choosing "Exit" prior to installing Office 2003 SP2. If you do not exit Communicator, you will be required to reboot your computer after Office 2003 SP2 has been installed. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (905726): You are prompted to restart the computer when you install an update to the Mso.dll file on a computer that is running Microsoft Office Communicator.


Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 Phishing Protection and Junk E-mail Filter

SP2 contains a new Phishing Protection feature to be used with the Outlook Junk Email Filter. Phishing is the luring of sensitive information through e-mail, such as passwords and other personal information, by an attacker masquerading as someone trustworthy. Phishing attacks can result in a user divulging sensitive information, including financial information, that can result in a loss of privacy or money. Phishing e-mail is hard to identify, because attackers make their e-mail appear genuine and often mimic recognizable e-mail sent out routinely by legitimate organizations such as banks and credit card companies.

To enable phishing protection, you need both Office 2003 SP2 and the latest Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update. Once both are installed, Office 2003 SP2 has phishing protection turned on by default.

For best results, we recommend you regularly download the latest version of the Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update. To determine whether you need this update, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (872976): How to obtain the latest Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter.


Request for source

If you have downloaded and run the file Office2003SP2-kb887616-client-enu.exe and are being asked to insert the product CD, the Local Installation Source may have been removed or corrupted. You may need to repair your Local Installation Source. For instructions on repairing the Local Installation Source, see the article Change the Local Installation Source After the Installation. You should also try downloading and running the file Office2003SP2-kb887616-fullfile-enu.exe. Installation of this file may be successful even if the Local Installation Source is missing or corrupt.


To install when using an Office 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack

For complete Office 2003 SP2 functionality if you are using an Office 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI), you will need to install both of the following:
• Office 2003 SP2 (this download)
• Office 2003 SP2 for Multilingual User Interface Pack

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP

This update applies to the following programs:
• Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003
• Microsoft® Office Small Business Edition 2003
• Microsoft® Office Standard Edition 2003
• Microsoft® Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
• Microsoft® Office Basic Edition 2003
• Microsoft® Office Access 2003
• Microsoft® Office Access 2003 Runtime
• Microsoft® Office Excel® 2003
• Microsoft® Office FrontPage® 2003
• Microsoft® Office InfoPath® 2003
• Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003
• Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2003
• Microsoft® Office Publisher 2003
• Microsoft® Office Word 2003
• Microsoft® Office 2003 Web Components
• Microsoft® Office XP Web Components


If you use OneNote 2003, we recommend you install OneNote 2003 SP2, which is available as a separate download. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (887619): Description of OneNote 2003 Service Pack 2

If you use Outlook Live, we recommend you install Outlook Live SP2, which is available as a separate download. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (902848): Description of Outlook Live Service Pack 2

Microsoft Windows Installer

If you have Windows Installer version 3.0 you will need to upgrade to Windows Installer version 3.1. For more information, see the article (906323): The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the windows installer service because the program to be upgraded may be missing, or the upgrade patch may update a different version of the program" error message when you install Office 2003 Service Pack 2, or Setup does not finish and you receive no notification.

Note: If you have installed the Office 2003 Add-in Office Web Components versions 2 or 3 from the Microsoft Download Center or from the SQL Server 2005 CD-ROM, this update does not apply to the version of Office Web Components that you have installed. This update does apply to other versions of Office Web Components, including versions installed using the Office 2003 CD-ROM. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 909074.