Microsoft to offer Office SP1 through automatic update Microsoft has announced that it will be offering the Office Service Pack 1 through automatic update from June 16. The early announcement was made because Microsoft promised to give its users at least 30 days notice before releasing any software service pack automatically through the Microsoft Update (MU) channel.

Five months after Microsoft released the Office 2007 SP1 pack as a direct download service on its web site, Microsoft said on its Office Sustained Engineering Blog that it had almost ten millions of downloads. The service pack has elicited a good reaction from customers, prompting Microsoft to release the Office 2007 SP1 through its MU.

The Automatic Update will be pushed to selected users gradually from the 16th. This is to avoid strain on MU’s infrastructure and the channel’s performance.

As to what users should expect from the Office 2007 SP1, one of the most notable changes is the implementation of the new document format called Open Office XML, which was approved by the ISO in April. This controversial document format was approved by the ISO despite allegations from critics saying that Microsoft had influenced the OOXML voting committee into approving the new document format. These allegations were denied by Microsoft.

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