[MS Office - 2010] msi or local install?

[TechSupp]

Due to have our PC's changed over to Office 2010 and Win7 this summer, whats the best option, install Office locally or have it installed via MSI? Never done an msi install only ever created an Office XP admin install location on the server and installed from that.

[Michael]

You can't deploy Office 2010 via MSI. Seeing as you're going to deploy Windows 7, you should include Office 2010 as part of the image. This is how I do it.

Just remember to include Office 2010 SP1 and all post security updates.

[jonathon28]

I've always deployed msi with Office 2003 but when we jumped to Office 2010, I'm slowly installing it on the workstations but would like to deploy it as well. Haven't had chance to look into it yet. It's the activation which is a real pain.

[TechSupp]

Well that answers that then, simples.

[sparkeh]

I the absence of deployment software you may want to deploy this as a start up script?
Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts

[DEvans]

I've always deployed msi with Office 2003 but when we jumped to Office 2010, I'm slowly installing it on the workstations but would like to deploy it as well. Haven't had chance to look into it yet. It's the activation which is a real pain.

Hey Jon,

There are a variety of different ways to go about deploying Office 2010, since you are jumping from 2003 the difference is significant.

Good old MSI deployment is no longer the way it works.

There are different reasons to as why it isn't as straight forward anymore like that of Group Policy Deployment but its mainly down to technologies such as Microsoft Deployment Tools (MDT), System Center Essentials and full blown System Center Configuration Manager.

You can either, as Michael said, simply add it into your WIM image and deploy it out with a MAK key installed for activation or alternatively you can follow the "microsoft way" and deploy it out silently and activate it from a central Key Management Server (KMS).

Personally, we use the tools in MDT to push it out as an application which installs it silently while also keeping it seperate from the image itself. It installs silently using instructions from a .MSP file created within MDT OR the seperate Office Customisation Tool (OCT)

Ref: Office Customization Tool in Office 2010

Before the likes of MDT, we used to deploy out XP clients through RIS, so we could of used the OCT and scripted the install, but we actually used the same method we did for Office 2007 and used the "config.xml" answer file to provide the instructions for a silent install.

Yeh, there is yet another way to do it... Microsoft... enough said.

We copied the entire contents of the Office 2010 CD to a designated packages share on the server, i'm sure you have one.

We found the proplus.ww folder (assuming you have proplus edition) found the Config.xml and made a copy of that (for backup reasons) and called it config.xml.old

We took the orginal config.xml file and opened it in notepad and changed the answer file based on the information we got from here:

Config.xml file in Office 2010

We then created a script to check to see if office is installed and if it wasn't to run the setup.exe (which always looks at the config.xml for instructions when it runs)

Personally, if I were you, if you are not using MDT, stick to putting it in the reference image like Michael said. It's far easier.

If activation is still a problem download the Volume Activation Management tool (VAMT), think its on version 2 now. That will scan your network and find the office applications on the computers. You can then install the Volume License Key as well as perform the online activation required to complete the registration with microsoft every computer. Just simply type in your office key once and deploy it out to relevant machines.

Hope this information makes some sense, haha.

[sted]

the problem ive found with scripted deploys is sophos tends to demand attention and stop office installing part way through. I now just build it into my base images or an mdt task

[plexer]

the problem ive found is sophos

There's your problem right there

If it's an issue with your AV then you need to adjust the settings.

We deployed Office 2010 to our machines using the MS tools and provided scripts.

Get your kms setup for it by d/l the Office 2010 kms installer and bob's your mothers brother.

Ben

[Tosh]

I normally add the office 2010 installation into the image, if there is a win 2008 r2 server and win 7 clients, otherwise double clicking the setup file from the server is easiest.

MSI's - dont think you can do that anymore, Last time i tried, i had to uninstall and install again manually!
So i dnt bother with msi installs for Office anymore

[MattDLEA]

TechSupp,

Just a word of warning, but makesure you get it right with your image or msi install or however you are planning on doing it.
We copied the cd content to the server and then used OCT to configure which worked well. However it now appears that macros and some other weird stuff is going on that is causing me all kinds of headaches.

[jonnykewell1]

This is my deploy script for office 2010
@echo OFF

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