Heads Up: MS Office98 Bug can remove Mac System folder to trash.
from crn.com
Computer Reseller News
>>Bugs Bite Mac Office 98
By Lisa Picarille
Redmond, Wash.
1:41 PM EST Fri., Mar. 27, 1998
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Just days after shipping its long-awaited Office 98 Macintosh Edition, Microsoft Corp. has discovered a bug in the program that could bring down the entire Macintosh operating system.
According to sources close to the software developer, Microsoft last Friday identified a problem with an Administrative Tool called the Remove Office 98 utility.
Matthew Price, group product manager for Microsoft Office and Desktop Applications, called the bug "isolated but serious."
According to documents reviewed by CRN, Microsoft "recommends not using this utility," which is included on the ValuePak CD. The utility is designed to remove the entire Office 98 program by finding and automatically moving a library called Microsoft Office 98 to the Trash.
Glitches can occur when the Microsoft Office 98 library, which normally resides in the Microsoft Office 98 folder, is manually moved to the Extensions Folder, according to Price.
When a user then attempts to launch the program while the Microsoft Office 98 library, which includes the Remove Office 98 utility, is in the Extensions Folder, the operating system mistakenly causes the Systems Folder rather than the Microsoft Office 98 folder to be moved to the Trash. This brings down the Mac OS, the documents said.
Once the user attempts to restart the system, the Mac OS becomes inoperable and a boot disk is required to launch and operate the computer. After the Mac OS has been restarted using the boot disk, VARs can correct the OS problem by retrieving the misplaced system files from the Trash, the document said.
Microsoft officials said the company is "working on a patch and in the next two days will post an updated Remove Office 98 utility to the Web at (www.microsoft.com/macoffice).
Price said it is "fairly uncommon that users will manually move this library;" however, he noted that Macintosh users are used to moving elements of applications and shared libraries to the Extension Folder, more so than Windows users.
There also are a couple of other glitches in Office 98 for the Mac. Ironically, the problem with the Remove Office utility was discovered because Microsoft technical support representatives were directing users and VARs to remove the program in order to deal with two other small bugs.
One of the automated Wizards in Word that helps perform tasks including creating Memos and Resumes was not functioning correctly and causing system freezes. Microsoft said a patch for that problem was posted on its Web site earlier this week.
In addition, moving shared library files to the Extension Folder can impair the performance of the application and cause the elements in that shared library to function incorrectly, Price said.
Office 98 for the Mac is part of the much-hyped renewed partnership between Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft.
Office 98 was touted as a milestone because it includes features that the Windows equivalent will not have and it was available on the Mac before Windows. In addition, the Macintosh platform has up until now not had a counterpart to the popular Office 97 for Windows.
Last August, Redmond-based Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple and made a commitment whereby the two companies would jointly develop future versions of Office and Internet Explorer as well as Mac-based development tools. As part of the deal, Microsoft also said it would continue to upgrade Office for the Mac for the next five years.
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