Some of you have recently noticed that your install of the Visio Viewer isn’t working – this is by design and can easily be fixed. Microsoft has recently released Security Bulletin MS09-55 through Windows Update which deactivates Visio Viewers 2002, 2003 and 2007 because of a security issue. With this fix we are retiring Visio Viewer 2002 as well as Visio Viewer 2003. To get your viewer installation back into a working state you have 2 options:

  1. If you can, we recommend that you install the Visio 2010 (Beta) viewer; this version of the viewer has all the functionality of the previous viewers, includes all the required security fixes, and has a product quality that is very close to ship. This build of the viewer can then easily be upgraded to the RTM build of the Viewer when it’s released.
  2. If you can’t or don’t want to download the Visio 2010 (Beta) viewer, you must update your existing viewer by following the steps in the order described below:
    1. If you’re using Viewer 2002 or Viewer 2003, uninstall it and install Visio 2007 Viewer.
    2. Install Visio Viewer 2007 SP1
    3. Install Visio Viewer 2007 SP2
    4. Install the security update KB973709

The patching discussed in method #2 can also be done through Windows Update but may involve multiples runs of Windows Updates to download the relevant patches – downloading these patches directly is the most efficient way of getting the Viewer back into action.

If you have more questions about patching your viewer installation, feel free to leave a comment on our blog.