[MS Office - 2010] Best way to Deploy Office 2010

[MattDLEA]

Sorry me again.

We are upgrading from open office to Office standard 2010, for those of you who have deployed office 2010 on a sever 2008 r2 and windows 7 enviroment whats the best way of going about it? Is there any pit falls i should be aware of.

This is my first VLK type install

TIA

[sparkeh]

First up what method are you using? KMS or MAK?

Secondly, you will need to customise the install for your environment. Here is a pretty good guide: Customising Office 2010 before deployment | Aaron Parker

Key things (imo):

• You now need to download the office customisation toolkit (its not longer included)
• Run the OCT and make changes you need and generate the .msp file (note that not all the obvious things are not turned on by default, it got caught out with spellcheck!)
• Put the .msp in the 'updates' folder, when the installtion runs it will automatically pick up any .msp files from this location so no need to specify it on the command line

Now for deployment.
I don't know what, if any, deployment tools you have but you can deploy it with group policy: Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts.
We have SCCM so just advertise Office and it runs setup.exe.

[MattDLEA]

Any tips for what to select in the OCT?

[sparkeh]

Any tips for what to select in the OCT?

I would advise combing through the options quite carefully as I got caught out by a couple of things, namely the fact that spell checking is off by default now as is (if I remember correctly) VBA which you need enabling for macros to work.

[Michael]

If you can, deploy it as part of an image. I found this the easiest way. Alternatively users on these forums have been using Startup scripts (if you do a search).

Also, make sure you download Office 2010 SP1, extract the files and copy them to the Updates folder. Office 2010 Setup will then apply SP1 automatically, after it has installed the core Office 2010 files.

I'd also recommend you download the Office 2010 Resource Kit (ORK Tools). This allows you to control Office 2010, just as you would Windows 7.

Extract and then copy the ADMX files into C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions then open Group Policy Management to find all Office 2010 policies ready to 'tweak'.

[MattDLEA]

Right got to the stage now where I have downloaded and Installed KMS on the server.

Its asking for a KMS host product key is this the same as the MAK key supplied to my by our suppliers or will this be a different key?

[Michael]

MAK and KMS keys for Windows 7 and Office 2010 are different in my experience.

Even different flavours of Office 2010 use different keys. It's all about Microsoft clamping down on piracy.

[Hedghog]

Depending on the method of licensing you have chosen you should have both keys we subscribe to the ESS (or EES can never remembers) schools agreement.
With this you get both the KMS and the MAK keys and you use the KMS key to validate your KMS server. Your KMS server when setup shouls modify your DNS to advertise it's presence and then each copy of office will find the KMS server and validate it's self.
Note you may have to manually validate some of the machines as there is a threshold which must be reached before it happens automatically (I think it is around 5). The MAK you only use for machines which cannot reach the KMS server.

[jonnykewell1]

I did this for the entire school during the summer, Create a script like this "

REM --- Check for an existing installation of Microsoft Office 2010
if exist "%systemdrive%\office2010.txt" goto _End

REM --- Deploy to Windows 2000/XP/2003

"\\server\Packages\Office 2010new\setup.exe" /config "\\server\Packages\Office 2010new\ProPlus.WW\config.xml"

copy /y "\\server\NETLOGON\Office2010\Office2010.txt" "%systemdrive%\Office2010.txt"

REM --- End of the script Office TXT should be in C:\ Local
:_End
Exit




configure using the OCT tool make sure to included the key, no matter what happens you will still need to activate the machine afterwards unless you use the Microsoft tool that updates the keys for you. Make sure you enable proofing tools as they are disabled so no spell checker argh! As mention above extract the service pack 1 and move all the MSP files into the updates folder in the office package.

[MattDLEA]

Cheers guys,

Got the script and everything running ok. If I log on as admin.
If however I dont then it does not install. So logging on as a memeber of staff and trying to run the script it comes up with the installer is asking for an admin username and password. when i put this in it installes but again it asked for a admin username and password to activate it.

Is there a way round this?

[Torrevez]

If you run a script to run you office script as a schedule task at login you can make it run from an administrator account. For example

SCHTASKS /Create /SC ONLOGON /TN taskname /TR \\Server\Software\office2010.bat /RU DOMAIN\username /RP password

Then after a few months when all your machines have updated you can remove the schedule task with.

SCHTASKS /Delete /TN taskname /F

Bit of a long way round but it does work.

[MattDLEA]

If you can, deploy it as part of an image. I found this the easiest way. Alternatively users on these forums have been using Startup scripts (if you do a search).

Also, make sure you download Office 2010 SP1, extract the files and copy them to the Updates folder. Office 2010 Setup will then apply SP1 automatically, after it has installed the core Office 2010 files.

I'd also recommend you download the Office 2010 Resource Kit (ORK Tools). This allows you to control Office 2010, just as you would Windows 7.

Extract and then copy the ADMX files into C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions then open Group Policy Management to find all Office 2010 policies ready to 'tweak'.

Michael. Can you help im a bit of a noob with group policys though if amazon is to be belived i will have a book wating for me at home.
I normally only use it to install programs.

I have downloaded that file the 32bit and extracted into the folder you said. fired up group policy manger created a new grouppolicy but where are the settings?

[AngryTechnician]

If the AMDX files are in the right place, they should be in the Group Policy Editor under Policies\Administrative Templates:

office-gpo.png

If they are missing, your domain may be using a central store for your policy definitions, so you might need to copy them to your SYSVOL folder.

[MattDLEA]

right there not in that section here is a screen of the foldergp.jpg if i move the files from the ADMX folder up a level then when i open up gP manager i ger a parse error on them files?

[AngryTechnician]

They shouldn't be in the ADMX folder, they should be in the main folder, with the accompanying ADML files in the en-US folder.

If all those files are in the correct place and you are still getting parse errors, then that suggests there is something wrong with them. Try downloading them again.