Office Updates and MDT

[berkshireicttech]

Hi Guys

 

I am currently building our MDT server for our summer rollout, and I am having some issues trying to work out the way I can get some of the updates injected into the WIM.

 

I have used RT7Lite to inject all of the MSP updates, however I have a load of updates that come in EXE's. These mostly tend to be Office updates.

 

The options I thought of were:

 

1. Use RT7Lite to install as "applications". However this means that I get a dialogue box after the image has been downed and before MDT kicks in on the OS. I have to select each application to install, so a pain really as there has to be user intervention half way throught the deployment process.

 

2. Try and extract the msp out of the EXE. Microsoft advise againsts doing this as it could cause problems, however I have been unable to do this, using WINRAR and other tools that can extract from EXE's.

 

3. Put them as applications on MDT, and create a bundle that runs them all as dependencies.

 

Has anyone come across this? Any ideas would be very helpful. Please be aware I currently do not have a WSUS server, this will happen after Septemeber.

 

Thanks

[SYNACK]

can't you just use command line switches on the exe's used to be able to use /x or /extract to get the MSPs out unless they have (likely) changed it in their hostile driving of people towards SCCM as the only viable method.

[Davit2005]

We currently have a pause script which we can enable in our build task sequence to install applications.

 

Normal windows updates are dealt with by a step in the Build task sequence that updates from our WSUS server.

 

I hope this helps you out, apart from adding applications, creating new task sequences, drivers and recapturing I haven't had the time to see how everything works in depth. Although in a few weeks I will no doubt be updating the Image for the first time since last year and getting stuck into it again.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Davit2005

[sted]

personally i just use a vm to create a base image will all windows/office updates in and use that as the base os or why not add wsus to the task sequence and let that do it?

[jaminben]

I pretty much do what others have said above... create my task sequence in MDT which includes Windows Update (Pre-Application Installation) and Windows Update (Post-Application Installation). I then 'Pause' the task sequence and make any manual changes and run manual updates. Once this is done you can point your VM machine to boot from \\ServerName\DeploymentShare$\Boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.iso and it will automatically create your reference.wim itself. You will also have to make sure you've setup your MDT Deployment share properties.

[SHimmer45]

Last time i did updates to office you can download the .exe file and then use the /extract and a location after the /extract and this will give you the .MSP.

 

with the MSP you could apply the patch using DSIM or add the MSP to your updates folder in the office install folder and it is processed as part of the install process when it is called by your task sequence or script

 

this might be useful for you as it explains extracting the MSP's and adding then in the updates folder

Using the Updates folder to deploy software updates during an Office 2010 installation - Office IT Pro Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

[berkshireicttech]

Thanks for all your help, I am going with SHimmer45 and extracting the MSP out. It was the extract switch I was missing

 

I would rather keep my WIM 100% vanilla as we have had issues in the past with sysprep causing issues with some of the wonderfully designed and built education software we run.

 

It looks like they are packed in an exe just because they can include a box to accept a Microsoft agreement.