Topics in this chapter   Creating an Administrative Installation Point     Customizing the Office Installation     Customizing How Setup Runs     Customizing Office Features and Shortcuts     Customizing User-defined Settings     Including Additional Packages in the Office Installation     Customizing Removal Behavior     Distributing Office to Users' Computers     Deploying a Service Release

Customizing How Setup Runs

You can always run Setup interactively to install Microsoft Office XP — or allow users to run Setup interactively. However, by using command-line options or setting values for Setup properties in the Setup settings file (Setup.ini) or in a transform (MST file), you can customize the way Setup installs Office XP throughout your organization.

You can set most properties that control the behavior of Setup in one of three locations, listed in order of precedence:

• On the command line
  
  
• In the Setup settings file (Setup.ini)
  
  
• On the Modify Setup Properties page of the Custom Installation Wizard, which stores your settings in a transform (MST file)

  Note that settings specified on the Modify Setup Properties page override any corresponding settings specified on previous pages of the wizard.

Toolbox   The Office XP Resource Kit core tool set includes the Custom Installation Wizard and Setup INI Customization Wizard. These wizards are installed by default when you run the Office Resource Kit Setup program. For more information, see Custom Installation Wizard or Setup INI Customization Wizard in the Toolbox.

Display settings

When you distribute Office XP throughout an organization, you can determine how much of the Setup user interface is displayed to users. You can allow users to interact fully with Setup and make choices that differ from the defaults you specify, or you can run Setup silently so that your configuration of Office is installed with no questions asked. You can even set different display settings for different portions of the installation process.

The following display settings are available:

• None

  No user interface is displayed; Office is installed silently.

• Basic

  Only simple progress indicators and error messages are displayed. To display only progress indicators, append a minus sign to the command-line option (/qb-).

• Reduced

  Full progress indicators and error messages are displayed, but Setup collects no information from the user.

• Full

  All dialog boxes and messages are displayed to the user, and the user can enter information during the Setup process.

When you run Office XP Setup silently or with only the basic user interface, you can also determine whether users see a completion message when the installation is finished. A completion notice is displayed only when Setup does not have to restart the computer to complete the installation.

You set all these display options on the command line by using the /q switch or in the [Display] section of Setup.ini, as shown in the following table. In the Setup INI Customization Wizard, you select a value for the DISPLAY property in the Default display setting box.

Display settings like the /qoption are passed globally to every installation. For example, if you set this option on the command line or in the [Display] section of Setup.ini, all Office XP–related installations, including chained Office XP Multilingual User Interface Packs and the System Files Update, are installed with the same level of user interface, unless you set a different display setting for just those packages.

Toolbox   You can find detailed information about Setup options and properties in Setupref.doc, which is installed by default when you run the Office XP Resource Kit Setup program. This document also describes the format of the Setup settings file. For more information, see Supplemental Documentation in the Toolbox.

Install Office quietly

By default, Setup installs Office XP with a full user interface and displays a completion notice at the end of the installation. In many large organizations, however, it is more efficient to install Office without any user interaction. In this case, the recommended setting is /qb-, which installs Office as follows:

• Progress indicators are displayed during the installation.
  
  
• Error messages and other modal dialog boxes are not displayed.
  
  
• Setup restarts the computer automatically, if a restart is required (for example, when Internet Explorer is installed).
  
  
• Setup displays a completion notice when the installation is finished.

When you run Office XP Setup with a basic or reduced display, users can still click the Cancel button to stop the installation process. However, if you set the NOCANCEL property to True, then the Cancel button is displayed but is unavailable. Users know that the installation is occurring and they know when it is complete, but they cannot interrupt the process.

You can install Office XP with no user interface whatsoever by using the /qn option or setting the DISPLAY property to None. If you are using a deployment tool such as Microsoft Systems Management Server to run the installation when users are not logged on, then you must use this display setting.

Set unique display settings for other packages

In some circumstances, you might want to specify different display options for different packages installed with Office XP. You must use Setup.ini to override global display settings set on the command line or in the [Display] section of Setup.ini.

For example, if you install Office XP with a full user interface, you can install the System Files Update quietly to ensure that system files and Internet Explorer are updated the same way for every user. In this case, you enter the following in the [SystemPack] section of Setup.ini:

[SystemPack]
DISPLAY=Basic

Similarly, if you install Office XP quietly, but you want users to choose their MUI Packs in the Language Pack Wizard, you can specify a full user interface for each chained MUI Pack package in the appropriate section of Setup.ini. For example:

[ChainedInstall_1]
DISPLAY=Full

You can modify display settings for all chained packages at once by using the Setup INI Customization Wizard. The wizard adds the correct entries to the correct sections of the INI file and helps prevent you from inadvertently specifying conflicting settings.

To modify display settings by using the Setup.ini Customization Wizard

1. Start the Setup INI Customization Wizard and enter information about your administrative installation point, Setup settings file, and packages to include in the installation.
   
   
2. Select the package for which you want to change display settings and select a new value in the Display setting box.

Note   If you specify a display setting on the command line, that setting overrides any display settings specified in any section of Setup.ini.

Customize the Setup user interface

When you run Office XP Setup with a full user interface, you can customize some of the text and buttons that users see by setting properties on the command line, in Setup.ini, or on the Modify Setup Properties page of the Custom Installation Wizard.

For example, if a user selects the Customize option, Setup prompts the user for the installation location and then displays a list of Office applications or a hierarchy of Office features so that the user can select an installation state for each one. You can change descriptive text for the Customize option. For example, if you have omitted Microsoft Access from the installation, but you want to tell users how to install it for themselves, specify the following:

CUSTOMINSTALLDESCRIPTION="By default Access is not installed.
Click Customize to install Access on your computer."

You can also customize the descriptive text for the Typical, Complete, and Run from Network options. Similar properties customize the Install Now and Upgrade Now button labels and descriptive text. All of these properties are defined in the following table.

In Microsoft Windows 2000 only, you can also customize what users see in Add/Remove Programs when they run Office XP Setup in maintenance mode. For example, to prevent users from changing an installed Office configuration, you can set the Setup property ARPMODIFY to True in a transform. When users run Office XP Setup in maintenance mode, the Change button in Add/Remove Programs is unavailable.

Logging options

Both Office XP Setup and Windows Installer generate log files during the installation process. You cannot set options for the Setup log file; however, Windows Installer allows you to set a number of logging options that apply to each package that it installs during Office XP Setup. Note that any logging options you set apply to all log files created by Windows Installer during the Office XP installation.

You set Windows Installer logging options and specify a log file name on the command line by using the /l option. For example:

/lv+ "Office Setup(*).txt"

Note   If your custom log file name includes spaces, you must enclose it in quotation marks on the command line.

You can set the same options by specifying values in the [Logging] section of the Setup settings file. Valid logging options include the following.

The default — and recommended — logging options are piwae. Verbose logging can slow the installation significantly and produce very large log files. Verbose logging is generally useful only to diagnose installation problems during the testing phase or after a failed installation.

In Setup.ini, you specify the same logging options by setting the TYPE property, and you determine a name for the log files by setting the TEMPLATE property. The following example shows the syntax used in Setup.ini:

[Logging]
TYPE= <options>
PATH=<path>
TEMPLATE=<file name>.txt

You must include the .txt file extension when you specify a Setup log file name. Appending an asterisk (*) to the file name results in a unique log file for each installation performed by Setup.exe. The same log file name is used for each Windows Installer log file, with the task number from Setup.ini appended to the file name. For example:

[Logging]
TYPE= v+
PATH=%Temp%
TEMPLATE=OfficeSetup(*).txt

These values create the following verbose log files during the installation process, append any new log files to the existing log files, and store them in the %Temp% folder on each user's computer. (%Temp% is the default location for log files.)

The Setup INI Customization Wizard allows you to specify logging options for the entire installation. (You cannot set unique logging options for chained packages.)

To modify logging options by using the Setup INI Customization Wizard

1. Start the Setup INI Customization Wizard and enter information about your administrative installation point and Setup settings file.
   
   
2. In the Logging mode box, select Default or Verbose.
   
   
3. In the Log file name or template box, enter the name of the template file.

For more information about Windows Installer properties and options, see the Windows Installer section of the MSDN Online Library at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/psdk/msi/pref_9z1v.htm.

Microsoft Office System Files Update options

Unless you are installing Office XP on Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Office XP Setup automatically checks to see whether key system and shared files are up-to-date, based on the file names and minimum versions listed in the [SystemPack_DetectionFileList] section of Setup.ini.

If the computer passes this test, Setup proceeds directly to the Office XP installation. If it fails this test, Setup calls Windows Installer to install the System Files Update and update the files — including installing Internet Explorer 5.01.

If you are installing Office XP on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Microsoft Windows 98, you can control this default Setup behavior by using the following command-line options:

• /nosp

  Setup skips the detection process and does not install the System Files Update.

• /spforce

  Setup installs the System Files Update even if the computer passes the detection check.

• /sponly

  Setup installs the System Files Update but does not chain the Office XP package.

You can also set the NOIE property to True on the command line, in the [SystemPackOptions] section of the Setup settings file (Setup.ini), or on the Modify Setup Properties page of the Custom Installation Wizard. Setting NOIE to True prevents Setup from upgrading the computer to Internet Explorer 5.01, except for required components such as Windows Web Browsing Components and HTML Help.

Note   Because Windows 2000 and Windows Me already have the required level of system files, the System Files Update detection and installation process does not run on these operating systems, nor can you use /spforce or /sponly to trigger the System Files Update or upgrade Internet Explorer.

Installation location

By default, Setup installs Office XP in the Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10 folder on each user's computer. You can change this location by specifying a different path for the INSTALLLOCATION property.

In the Office Custom Installation Wizard, you can specify a default value for the installation location on the Specify Default Path and Organization page. You can also specify the location by setting the INSTALLLOCATION property on the Modify Setup Properties page of the wizard, on the Setup command line, or in the Setup settings file.

Note   Unlike previous versions, Office XP is always installed in a version-specific folder. If you choose to retain a previous version of Office on the computer, you can specify the same custom location without overwriting any files.

Setup error messages and failure reporting

Office XP Setup allows you to customize the error messages that users see when they run Setup with a full or reduced user interface. For example, you can add text to the error message box that refers users to an internal support group. Specify a string value for the SUPPORTERRORSTRING property on the command line, in Setup.ini, or in a transform.

Microsoft Office Application Error Reporting (Dw.exe) also allows you to report Setup failures directly to Microsoft. By default, this feature is turned off when you create an administrative installation point. However, you can turn it back on by setting the SETUPDW property to True. Note that, unlike Application Error Reporting for application failures after installation, you cannot redirect Setup failure reporting to an internal Web site.

For more information on reporting application failures after installation, see Reporting Office Application Crashes.