Deploy/Install Office 2007

[rush_tech]

I searched but found nothing.

We are upgrading staff reg laptops to office 2007. I've done a bit of reading and just want to see how other people have done it.

I've seen it is frowned upon to deploy it using MSI and that you should use SMS server(not got that) not getting it either.

I would be grateful to know how others have installed it.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Gatt]

I too am curious on how to mass deploy Officw 2k7 now that Microsoft no longer wish us to use MSI's

 

The various ways I have found are

 

Manually - Old Faithfull in that it works

Editing various XML scripts - yet to get this working at all

using SMS - not got this, tried to get my head round SMS and gave up for time being

BDD - again tried this but been unsuccessful with all aspects of BDD - cant get anything to install via this.

 

Gonna see whats available in Windows 2008...

 

In mean time sticking to Office 2003 for the kids and only installing on staff PC's if requested and if their PC can cope with it

[FN-GM]

i have a Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise CD With the MSI Format on

[Geoff]

Yes you need Enterprise edition to create an Admin install point.

[FN-GM]

"Gatt" &"rush_tech" what version do you have?

[rush_tech]

"Gatt" &"rush_tech" what version do you have?

 

Office Pro Plus 2007

[FN-GM]

right so they dont have MSI format? Thats not so good is it. There is a tool that will let you convert it to an MSI im not sure what its called i will ask around.

[rush_tech]

Well i've found an msi in the PROPLUS.WW folder see image would it be just changing the config.xml file to the correct info or is there other files you need to change aswell? :?

[FN-GM]

yes i think so, but i dont have a disc handy to check. Test it out on a spare machine or the test bed (if you have one)

[rush_tech]

Yes i'll give it a go! what could go wrong

[strawberry]

the xml file is one way of doing it, then u can deploy it using group policy.

 

the way i did is it to create an mst file and then run the setup execuatble from the machine, this way has many more options for deployment than the xml file, it cannot however be run easily as a group policy.

[Gatt]

the way i did is it to create an mst file

 

How sdid you create an MST file??

 

it cannot however be run easily as a group policy

 

Ah.. did you mean an MSP file - which is what it creates?

[strawberry]

aye, sorry, was half alseep!

[srochford]

Assuming you've got the enterprise version then copy it all to a network share and run setup /admin from the shared folder.

 

This allows you to customize the install and creates an MSP file (eg myconfig.msp)

 

Now open the config.xml file from the Enterprise.WW folder. Full details of the config.xml file are at

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/e16af71c-fed4-40da-a886-95e596c3999e1033.mspx?mfr=true

 

but the code below is roughly what you need; key bits if you want a silent install are the display level section and the PIDKEY.

 

You can then just run setup:

 

\\server\share\folder\setup /adminfile \\server\share\folder\myconfig.msp

 

There are details at http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/a57c8446-b959-4025-a866-b690ddcaa66d1033.mspx?mfr=true about how to use machine startup scripts to deploy it. What we do is a trivial check to see if (say) winword.exe exists in the right folder; if not, the script runs the setup.

 

I think the reason that SMS is the preferred deployment method is because it can push out the software while a user is logged on; this speeds up the install (which can be pretty slow if lots of machines switch on simultaneously and try and install Office 2007)

 

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