[MS Office - 2007] Deploying via GPO

[Geoff]

I've followed the instructions as per:

Use Group Policy Software Installation to deploy the 2007 Office system

however the machines are complaining they can't find the config.xml. Even though it's in the same folder as the msi. Any ideas what I've done wrong....?

[sparkeh]

Just to check the obvious things.

1) You specified a UNC path to both the msi and config.xml in the GPO.
2) The config.xml is located with the main msi and not a subfolder.

[Geoff]

Using UNC paths. Added the MSI to the GPO. The config.xml is in the same folder as the MSI.

Where do I add the config.xml to the GPO? I thought it just had to be in the same folder as the MSI for it to be picked up?

[sparkeh]

Where do I add the config.xml to the GPO? I thought it just had to be in the same folder as the MSI for it to be picked up?

Ah sorry you are correct, I was thinking of an .mst

[Geoff]

Heres the error message in the Event Log.

Product: Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 -- Error 25004. Config.Xml not specified; A valid config.xml file must be authored when deploying 'ENTERPRISE'.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[sparkeh]

Hmm it could be that your xml is not valid?

Does it conform to the guide here?

Could be something silly like...a space at the end of the file? Spelling mistake in a tag name?

[RabbieBurns]

not what you want to hear, but when I did it (nov 2007) it just worked. 98% of the time. On a number of occasions it would stop a % of the way through with some error I cant remember, and would just refuse to install, and I had to do them from the setup.exe instead.

I copied the entire dvd to a share, edited the xml with the serial number (no - seperating), added the enterpriseww.msi in the gpo, applied the gpo to the relevent OU, and away it went.

I had real problems getting it to upgrade from 2003 though via GPO, I had to run a script to uninstall 2003 first and then install 07. And IIRC, there was a problem with outlook not installing, but we didnt use it anyway so I didnt really pay attention.

(Maybe Try it on a single machine, running the setup.exe file from the share - if your .xml is OK it will install fine)

[Geoff]

OK I've redone my xml file from scratch. Just uncommenting and setting the product key section. When I run setup.exe I get prompted for a product key.

[Geoff]

When assigned via GPO I now get this error:

The install of application Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 from policy Office 2007 SP2 (Install Only) failed.  The error was : Fatal error during installation.

[Geoff]

The machine I'm testing on has Office 2k3 on it. So I had to add the Office 2k3 as a Upgradable GPO using the remove and install option.

[RabbieBurns]

The machine I'm testing on has Office 2k3 on it. So I had to add the Office 2k3 as a Upgradable GPO using the remove and install option.

You sorted?

The machines I was deploying to, 2003 had been installed manually on so I couldnt use gpo to get rid of 2003.

Also I was deploying the rtm 2007 before any Service packs, I just let wsus take care of the updates as I had read that it wasnt possible to slipstream sp1, and I left before sp2 was released

[Geoff]

Possibly. I need to test on a clean machine too, which is currently imaging, so I'll update the thread with those results.

The SP2 update went on fine. Even so, WSUS is madly patching up the machine, there's quite a few post SP2 updates!

[SDM01]

I had real problems getting it to upgrade from 2003 though via GPO, I had to run a script to uninstall 2003 first and then install 07.

I have deployed office 07 via gpo over the summer and would say around 95% worked. I must admit that i didn't remove office 03 first (my bad )

Can I ask Rabbie what script you used to remove office 03?

I have removed a couple of office 03's manually (just to see what happened after the deployment of office 07) and the most that seems to happen is that 07 wants to run the configuration again.

Enough babble from me

Thanks guys n girls

[DrPerceptron]

strApplicationName = "Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003"

strComputer = "."

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colSoftware = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_Product Where Name = '" & strApplicationName & "'")

For Each objSoftware in colSoftware

	objSoftware.Uninstall()

Next

That's what I used to uninstall office when I dabbled with the deployment using XML... - you can get the App name from ARP I think that's where I got mine from, or query the relevant WMI table

In the end, I backed out, built an MSP, stuffed in the updates folder along with SP2 and rolled it out using the EXE as part of a startup script, worked on about 95% and I seem to remember the option to either uninstall or upgrade the existing copy of office when the installer ran.

[sted]

i find scripting it is better and i set the interface to minimal so you see a percentage bar on install

rem @ECHO OFF
REM --- Check for an existing installation of office07
if exist "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\excel.exe" goto _End
"\\serve\office12$\setup.exe" /adminfile "\\server\office12$\Office12.msp"
REM --- End of the script
:_End