Office 2003 deployment to Windows 2000 via Group Policy

[Joe Stern]

I have deployed about ten installations of Office 2003 via Group Policy,
half to Windows XP computers and the rest to Windows 2000. The Windows 2000
upgrades have been tricky. The software deployment begins and ends in a
flash for some of them, and the computers remain on Office XP. (In a
successful deployment, the installation takes about ten minutes.)

Yesterday I finally figured out that by re-registering the Windows
Installer, I could get W2K to accept the installation. The steps I followed
are in MSKB Article 315346.

Hopefully, someone else can benefit from this information.

 

[Harrison Midkiff]

Joe:

I am attempting to deploy Office 2003 via a GPO. What steps did you take to
deploy it via a GPO? I have been trying to do it, but have found it to be
tricky. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Harrison Midkiff

 

[Rainer Haessner]

Hi,

I am attempting to deploy Office 2003 via a GPO. What steps did you take to
deploy it via a GPO? I have been trying to do it, but have found it to be
tricky. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

This installaton by no means is tricky. But unfortunately you have
to get some prerequisites.
1. Start with
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/
Install Core SDK and then Windows Installer SDK from this
site. Add http://*.microsoft.com as a trusted site otherwise
you might get strange reponses from the above mentioned URL.
2. After the installation seach for orca.msi and execute this
file. Later you will find the program orca in your program menu.
3. Get ork.exe from
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/tools/ddl/default.htm
and install it
4. Copy the CD 1:1 to your server
5. Look for the .msi (there are three and the correct one is
called somewhat like pro11.msi) and open this .msi file using
the office resource kit toolbox
6. You get 24 forms to modify the whole office suite acording
to your needs. If you are ready you get a .mst file
7. Open the same .msi file as in step 5 using the program orca
installed in step 2. Look for the menu point "transforms" and
open the freshly created .mst file
8. Save your work as a new .msi file
9. Distribute this new .msi file as usual.

This seems to be complicated but isn't. Only a little bit
time consuming due to the large installation requirements.

Hope this helps

Rainer

 

[Joe Stern]

Harrison's situation (determined offline) turned out to be the following:

1) You must use "setup.exe /a" to deploy Office 2003 via a GPO. You cannot
just copy the MSI and push it from there.
2) Only the correct volume license media supports the "/a" switch.

- Joe

 

[Rainer Haessner]

Hallo,

1) You must use "setup.exe /a" to deploy Office 2003 via a GPO. You cannot
just copy the MSI and push it from there.

Sorry, you can. I never made this setup /a and i am very happy. ;-)
Simply try it. Btw. using the ORK you can introduce your serial number into
the
new created .msi file.

Rainer Haessner

 

[Joe Stern]

While there is no arguing with success - congratulations on getting it to
work that way - I must assert that Microsoft says it won't work, and my
experience corroborates this.

I quote from http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/two/ch5/DepC04.htm:

-----

Because Group Policy bypasses Office Setup.exe and Setup.ini, you cannot use
Group Policy to deploy Office from a compressed CD image, nor can you take
advantage of new Setup functionality to create a local installation source
on users' computers.

---



Are you actually pushing a GPO out to computers with the original MSI file?
Are you able to create local installation sources?

- Joe

 

[Rainer Haessner]

Hi,

While there is no arguing with success - congratulations on getting it to
work that way - I must assert that Microsoft says it won't work, and my
experience corroborates this.

I quote from http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/two/ch5/DepC04.htm:

From
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/two/ch3/default.htm



New to Office 2003 is the option to deploy from a copy of the Office 2003 CD
and allow Setup to create a local installation source on users' computers.
The local installation source provides improved resiliency for users to
repair, reinstall, or update Office later on. Alternatively, you can run
Setup with the /a option to create an uncompressed administrative
installation point.



Please note the word *Alternatively*

Regards

Rainer

 

[Joe Stern]

I note the "alternative", but in the context of
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/two/ch5/DepC03.htm:
"Organizations that use Group Policy software installation, advertise Office
applications, or run any Office applications from the network must install
from an administrative image. A compressed CD image does not support these
installation options."

Just so we're on the same page here, you copied the CD up to a network
share, used the CIW to create a transform, and then created a Group Policy
Object assigned to workstations that referenced the original, compressed MSI
file from the CD? And it worked? Do your workstations have local
installation sources? Which install media did you use?

When I did it this way, I saw the software updates applied to the computer
at Windows startup, but Office 2003 never showed up. Only when I read the
instructions about Group Policy requiring setup.exe /a was I able to get
Office deployed.

It's a shame, as I would like my users (laptops especially) to have local
installation sources.

Best,

Joe

 

[Rainer Haessner]

Hi,

I note the "alternative", but in the context of
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2003/two/ch5/DepC03.htm:
"Organizations that use Group Policy software installation, advertise Office
applications, or run any Office applications from the network must install
from an administrative image. A compressed CD image does not support these
installation options."
.....


It's a shame, as I would like my users (laptops especially) to have local
installation sources.

I am not completely sure, if we discuss in two different worlds.
This could be due to my bad english.

Anyway, what I get using the method described is a complete
local copy of Office 2003. After the installation this works
without any server access. Or to me more precise, using the
ork program I defined to get a pure local copy.
BTW: the installation itself after a reboot requires
about 1 minute. And there was one pitfall. We have
english XP and german office 2003. This required the
"ignore language" option, otherwise nothing worked. ;-)

The laptops - and the linux boxes too - are a complete
different problem. I am working in a university environment
and all laptops are private. I would get tremendous
license problems, if i permit a local program installation
for these laptops. I intend to give them access to a RDP
server only, but this actually is not running.

Best regards

Rainer