Office 14.5.0 update resurrects invisible main window issue

@DCS Get the latest Office 2011 installer from Microsoft Volume Licensing Site or whatever install media you have access to and install Office Update 14.4.9. You can also package the 14.4.9 update with latest Office installer from Microsoft. Refer to these instructions: https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/creating-an-office-2011-14-5-0-installer/#comment-15211

@_Jacob, when I try your commands I get the following:

Delete: Entry, "NSOutlineView Items MailNavigationPane", Does Not Exist

Any ideas ? Would like to do this surgical strike and not lose all my preference settings.

Thanks

@Seagee To identify that array I used BeyondCompare to look at the plist when it wouldn't open and after deleting it and it being regenerated.

The only differences were the already mentioned NSOutlineView Items MailNavigationPane array and and the SelectionMemory array item you can see in the here:

Folks, will rolling back the 14.5.0 patch (uninstalling via Casper) resolve this issue?

Not sure how you can "uninstall" an update. Is that what you're asking? Only way to uninstall it will be to uninstall Office 2011 and re-install it.

Testing rolling the 14.5.0 back w/ Casper. I've indexed it and will assume it can be done. Applying the patch now and see if it can be rolled back.

where exactly is the system going to get the files that were overwritten? I assume when you say rollback you are going to delete the files that the 14.5.0 installed, which I believe will leave your office install lacking a bunch of files and even more broken than just not opening a main window. I think Full uninstall and reinstall as stated above many times is the only proper solution. Or just live with 14.5.0's quirks

Couple things. And this is not to sound like a horses ass, but some good practices for software distribution.

Always keep an iteration or two before deleting your sources. This is not the first, nor will it be the last update that breaks more than it fixes. Having a way to roll back is important for your sanity and the users that need it to work.

Wait until you test new patches or builds a while before deploying. I realize that lots of folks (we have this issue as all users are admins) have to deal with user's mistakes, but it took about three minutes to see that this update was bad - or had a bad reaction with some versions of OS X.

Wait for the fix. It should be here soon enough. Fix the ones that are borked and don't install (and block if you're able) this update.

Yeah, agreed with @nessts You're just going to break Office if you do an uninstall. This isn't Windows. If you index and run an uninstall it will completely remove files that were updated but are needed for the Office apps to work, thus breaking them even worse than before. I'm not sure what the goal is here.

Thanks folks for the rapid responses, and sage advice. It appears from this dialog that MS is aware of the problem and hopefully comes out w/ a fix quickly. We get updates mandated from "above" and have been relatively good about testing, but apparently not so much, on this one. I've halted the update. We don't have a lot of Outlook users, but am sure they'll be screaming if they are.

Even though the fix (hopefully) was just released by Microsoft I was thinking about the roll back scenario. If you uninstalled the indexed 14.5.0 update and then installed the 14.4.9 update would Office still be broken?

I'm just going for the fix after testing it on an unlucky user whose Outlook is not working. If successful, I'll roll w/ it.

So far, three Macs running 10.10.3 and 10.10.4 all working with 14.5.1.

@tomt I would guess that should work, assuming the indexed package is correct. It should amount to the same thing as manually uninstalling Office, but I've never tried it with Office before. Testing would give you the answer more than a guess here...

I went ahead and tested.

Took a 10.10.3 machine and installed Office 14.4.9. Patched it to 14.5.0 using Self Service.
Changed the test policy to uninstall 14.5.0.
Ran the uninstall via Self Service and it removed all the Office applications.
Ran the 14.4.9 update again but it failed since there were no apps for it to update.

So much for that idea.

@tomt Well, that is what should have happened. I thought you meant you did an indexed package with Office 14.5.0 and were going to use an indexed package to remove it, then install it again to version 14.4.9.

Doing what you did removed all the Office apps as it should have. So you either need to just install the 14.5.1 update (no idea if that works as I only tested over 14.4.9) or install 14.4.9 and then the 14.5.1 updater.

You were trying to update Office, and it was removed by the indexed removal you did.

Yeah, I was just doing this for fun. If this was a real issue for me I would have just removed Office and reinstalled the complete 14.4.9.

Looks like 14.5.1 is still not part of the AutoUpdate for Office. Anyone know how long these delays between "Available" and "Pushed through AutoUpdate" are? I don't want to tell my users it's safe to update only to find that it'll only push 14.5 and break everything for them.

Yeah, I believe they usually give it one or two days first as a standalone download before they publish it in the Auto Update application. I suppose this gives a safe buffer. If user's all over see it pop up in Auto Update they will likely just install it, and if there are issues like the one 14.5.0 introduced... problem.
It will show up there soon I'm sure.

For now, it might be best to just download it and then upload as a pkg in Casper Admin and make that available to your users in Self Service. That way you can be sure they are installing the new corrected version.

It seems to be available via AutoUpdate now.

Well looky there. They did update it! Only about a week later, but better late than never. Thanks for the heads up.

called it

Lol, good one @bentoms! You're probably exactly right too. :)

@cdev Now that the patch is being pushed by the auto-updater, can you mark this as solved? No sense leaving it unflagged.