Create MSI from difference

[DanW]

I've had enough of trying to deploy office 2007 via group policy, so what i want to do is;

 

1 - Clean install of Windows XP

2 - 'Take Snapshot' of machine

3 - Install Office 2007

4 - 'Take Second Snapshot'

5 - Create MSI from the difference between

 

 

How would i do this?

 

 

Dan

[Domino]

you'd use winstall le, which is free on the 2000 server disk i believe.

 

However, i've never used it for anything quite as integrated as office - and as such couldn't vouch for it.

[meastaugh1]

It would be a bad idea to try and repackage the Office installation into an MSI, as it already is an MSI.

 

I haven't had the pleasure of having to deploy Office 2007, do the instructions just not work? Use Group Policy Software Installation to deploy the 2007 Office system

What's the problem?

[FN-GM]

Office 2007 is a pig to deploy via MSI

[DMcCoy]

It took 40 MINUTES to install Office from files on the local machine today, no way I'm going to inflict that on anyone via gpo

 

It's going into the base machine image

[StewartKnight]

you're into a whole world of pain. For whatever reason, microsoft NEVER like to make it easy..... or obvious.

 

PLUS.... the upgrade from 2003 to 2007 takes 4 time longer than a clean install.... for whateva reason!!!!

[Osprey]

I have tried this out and it works. I forget where I got it from so apologies and acknowledgements to whoever wrote it. It does have the disadvantage of being a scripted install so if you want to uninstall you will need to use a scripted uninstall, it doesn't uninstall if you remove the machine from the influence of the group policy that you use to install it.

 

- Create a folder on the server called Office2007 and share as office2007$ with autheticated users having read access, Domain Admins and Admins have full control. (or use Office12$ or other suitable share)

 

- Inside this folder create a folder called logs and set it so that authenticated users have write access

 

- Copy the contents of the Office 2007 disc into the folder

 

- Go to the \\gateway\office2007$\ProPlus.WW folder (gateway is the name of the server in this case), rename the config.xml file and replace it with the following:

 

 

 

- Edit as appropriate ie add pid key and school name, alter location if necessary

 

- Use the following script as a startup script (edit the locations) in the top half. This script will work for W2k, XP and Vista, both 32 and 64-bit. It checks to see if Office 2007 is installed by doing a registry query, something you might want to use in scripts in future instead of checking/copying a text file.

 

 

setlocal

REM *********************************************************************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM *********************************************************************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file.
set ProductName=ProPlus

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\gateway\Office2007$

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment REM (required)
set ConfigFile=\\gateway\Office2007$\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\gateway\Office2007$\Logs

echo %date% %time% Setup started with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM *********************************************************************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM *********************************************************************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" SET WOW6432NODE=WOW6432NODE\

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\%WOW6432NODE%Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

 

- if there are problems with the install then check the logs folder and the %temp% folder on the workstation.

 

To restrict which machines Office is installed onto use an AD group and GPO filtering

 

I hope this is helpful to someone out there!

[box_l]

try this

 

InstallWatch

 

makes thing pretty easy.

 

only one drawback tho', it makes an exe not an msi.

 

BoX

[TimJing]

try this

 

InstallWatch

 

makes thing pretty easy.

 

only one drawback tho', it makes an exe not an msi.

 

BoX

 

 

It is much better to repackage to an EXE rather than an MSI. (For self healing purposes) However, I would not do sw deployments through GP unless there is only a few hundred machines in your OU. As for Office 2007, it comes with a nifty automatic deployment tool, maybe you can call it with a batch file in either AD, or let the users self install from a self serve folder on the network.