office 2008 requires registering for every user

[Uraken]

Hi all i am having some trouble installing office 2008 on to our mac network, it seem to install really well i rolled it out using apple remote desktop which went very well (although it didn't ask me for a serial number aat amy time???) now when ever a student logs on it insists on taking them through a registration process which works ok on some macs but not on others?, then it will let some students use office but not others? all have the same active directory/od rights etc so i'm lost? did i use the wrong version ? i thought it was the network version does it make a difference on macs (are they clever enough to know you have a single user licence disk installed multiple times? this is not a cost issue as i am sure its the network version but i am at a real loss.

Notes:
we are active directory integrated and lock the macs down using workgroup manager does this make a difference?

lots of questions foa mac guru (which i ain't!)
thanks in advance
uraken

[jamesmay]

Very easily done using a mcx preference.

Are you using wgm on a workstation or server.

If on a work station, log in on your administrator account and make sure you have word setup.

then run wgm and setup the preferences for the user group (od_managed_pupil etc)

Click on details then the plus button, then navigate to the user/library/preferences folder and look for ones starting com.microsoft.etc etc etc. select these preferences and set as always. I think the one you are looking for is office but there are plist files to edit the other bits of office 2008 such as the default save format, auto update etc. If you edit these plists what you are making sure you have the setting you want, think the specific one you are after is:

com.microsoft.office:
2008\FirstRun\SetupAssistCompleted
Value: 1

This should solve your problem. Where i learnt this from was Managing Office 2008 Managing OS X when i first started administrating osx on our network. There is a lot of handy advice there on locking down osx a la style of gpo.

James

[Uraken]

Thanks James this is brilliant info i am away to check it now and willlet you know how i get on

thanks again
uraken

[gparr]

That method is how ours is also setup. We also have set the default save filetypes also, as we have a OSX/WinXP domain.

[Uraken]

hi james still having a few problems...
do i need to manually enter

com.microsoft.office:
2008\FirstRun\SetupAssistCompleted
Value: 1

as a new key if its not there?
regards
And thanks

[jamesmay]

you can create the key yes, or you can run it once as a admin to generate the settings then import that plist file into the wgm and go through the settings it has generate to see if they are what you want

hope this helps

james

[Uraken]

umm still no joy it seems we stiull have a situation where word works ok for one user on the a articular mac but then when someone else logs on or indeed if the user moves machine it won't work? and goes through the setup again.

I followed the link you posted james and it mentions doinfg this with a script )loginhook) i have saved the script and want to run it to all users via wgm but am not sure what file extension i should use any ideas??

[jamesmay]

just a little background check, you have AD users, ad servers and mac servers and macs? All nicely integrated together, and bound together. AD users in open directory user groups.
For said user groups you have a mcx preference defined (com.microsoft.office). If you double check on that pref file, you should have 3 headings, once, often and always. where are your preferences defined. With this im guessing once. Delete the com.microsoft.office file and reimport, making sure that when you import it, the managed imported preferences drop down box is "always". Does this cause any change???

[mac_shinobi]

If you run into problems with registering MS Project 2008, or for some strange reason it puts you into a product registration loop and you can not actually launch the application, this tip might help you. You will need your serial number ready. First, quit all Microsoft Applications. Then, look for the following file: Applications –> Microsoft Office 2008 –> Office –> OfficePID.plist and throw it in the trash. Next Open: Your Home Folder –> Library –> Preferences –> Microsoft and look for the Office 2008 folder. Throw the Office 2008 folder in the trash. Restart Office and you will be prompted to re-enter your registration information. Your all set.

Greg Brown Blog Archive Fix Office 2008 Registration Problems on the Mac

[Uraken]

just a little background check, you have AD users, ad servers and mac servers and macs? All nicely integrated together, and bound together. AD users in open directory user groups.
For said user groups you have a mcx preference defined (com.microsoft.office). If you double check on that pref file, you should have 3 headings, once, often and always. where are your preferences defined. With this im guessing once. Delete the com.microsoft.office file and reimport, making sure that when you import it, the managed imported preferences drop down box is "always". Does this cause any change???

Thanks James i had it often so have changed it to always will see if that makes any difference.

[jamesmay]

that should in theory push that preference every time and is the way it works on my mac network....
How are you doing the homedirectories? Just using the windows home directory, extended schema or augmented?

[mac_shinobi]

that should in theory push that preference every time and is the way it works on my mac network....
How are you doing the homedirectories? Just using the windows home directory, extended schema or augmented?

whats the difference or how do you tell which one you are using ?

[jamesmay]

Well presently our osx clients are taking the homedirectory attribute from the AD user record. But I'm trying to find out if people are using extended schema (AD with added ODness), which I presently cant get to work on our test network (Adding to our AD record attributes for apple-user-homeurl) or augmenting which i've also experiemented with (AD records which take have additional records on the OD server, again home directory, bit more sucessful, but makes it harder to manage users as unable to add to groups and have to go through and edit every user with additional records.

[Uraken]

that should in theory push that preference every time and is the way it works on my mac network....
How are you doing the homedirectories? Just using the windows home directory, extended schema or augmented?

Windows home directory but thats another oddity the students can't save straight into it although it appears in the dock? when they save a documetn it aappears in their documents folder (again in the dock) and they have to drag it from there along into their network home folder...

[jamesmay]

Active directory plugin? Is create a mobile account at log in ticked?

James