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

Distributing Office to Users' Computers

After you create an administrative installation point and customize your Microsoft Office XP configuration, users can install Office from the network. You can use any of the following methods to distribute Office to users:

• Have users run Setup from the administrative installation point using the command-line options, Setup settings file, or transform that you specify.
  
  
• Assign or publish Office to users or computers (Microsoft Windows 2000).
  
  
• Advertise Office on users' computers (Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0).
  
  
• Create and distribute a custom CD based on the Office XP CD.
  
  
• Create a hard-disk image and replicate it on users' computers.
  
  
• Use a systems management tool, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server, to install Office.

Running Setup from an administrative installation point

When users double-click setup.exe on the administrative installation point, Setup runs with no command-line options. To apply your customizations, users must click Run on the Windows Start menu and enter the path to Setup.exe, along with the appropriate command-line options. For example, the command line must include the /settings option to specify a custom Setup settings file or the TRANSFORMS property to specify a transform (MST file).

To ensure that Office XP is installed with the correct customizations, you can create in MS-DOS a batch file that runs Setup.exe with your command-line options. Or you can create a Windows shortcut and add options to the command-line box. Users double-click the batch file or shortcut to run the Setup command line that you have defined. You can distribute the batch file or shortcut to users in an e-mail message.

Unless you choose to install Office XP quietly, the Setup user interface guides users through the following steps to install Office on their computers:

1. Update system files
   
   
2. Enter user information
   
   
3. Select installation mode and location
   
   
4. Select installation options for Office features
   
   
5. Select previous versions of Office to keep

Most of the customizations that you specify on the command line, in the Setup settings file, or in a transform appear as defaults in the Setup interface; however, users can modify your choices when they run Setup interactively. To prevent users from changing the configuration during the installation, run Setup in quiet mode. For information about installing Office XP quietly, see Customizing How Setup Runs.

Update system files

On Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0, Setup first checks to see whether the computer has the required versions of key system and shared files. If the computer fails this test, Setup starts the System Files Update installation and displays a list of components that need to be updated.

The next page of Setup gives users the option of upgrading to Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. If users choose not to upgrade, Setup calls Internet Explorer Setup to install a subset of Internet Explorer– and Windows-related components (such as HTML Help) that are required by Office XP applications.

You can install the System Files Update quietly, even if you run Setup with a full user interface. In this case, system files and Internet Explorer are updated based on the settings that you specify on the command line, in the Setup settings file, or in a transform applied to the System Files Update package. After updating system files and installing Internet Explorer, Setup restarts the computer before starting the Office XP installation.

Note   If a computer already has Internet Explorer 5.0 installed, then Setup upgrades to version 5.01 behind the scenes, without offering the user the option of upgrading. If the NOIE property is set to True, then Setup installs only the subset of Internet Explorer– and Windows-related components required by Office XP applications.

Enter user information

User information appears on users' computers in the About box (Help menu) in Office applications. When a user installs Office from an administrative installation point, Setup uses the organization name you specify without prompting the user.

Note   Because you must enter the product key from the Office CD when you create an administrative installation point, users are not prompted for a product key during the installation.

Accept end-user license agreement

When users install Office XP from the CD, Setup displays an end-user license agreement page. When users install Office from the administrative installation point, however, the license agreement that you accepted when you created the administrative installation point applies, and users do not see this page of Setup.

Select installation mode and location

After they enter the required user information, users select the type of installation to perform and the location to install Office on the next page in Setup.

Installation mode

Users can select one of the following installation options:

• Install Now

  Automatically installs the most frequently used Office features in the default installation location and skips the remaining pages of Setup.

• Upgrade Now

Automatically upgrades to Office XP and skips the remaining pages of Setup. This option removes all previous versions of Office applications and installs Office XP features based on the user's current configuration.

• Custom

  Allows the user to configure all aspects of the Office installation on the remaining pages of Setup.

• Complete

  Installs all Office features locally on the user's computer. This option requires the most disk space but ensures that users do not need access to the Office XP CD or an administrative installation point on the network later.

• Run from Network

Installs all Office features to run over the network; only components that must be installed locally are copied to the user's computer. This option requires access to the network to run any Office application.

Note   Office XP Setup does not include the option to run from the Office XP CD.

By using the Custom Installation Wizard, you can create a Windows Installer transform (MST file) that specifies the default features installed by Setup when the user clicks Install Now. You can also change the button labels and descriptive text on this page by setting the properties described in the following table.

For example, if few users in your organization work with databases, you might omit Microsoft Access from a typical installation by setting its installation state to Not Available in the transform. To alert the minority of users who might need Access, however, you can change the description of the Custom option by setting the following property:

CUSTOMINSTALLDESCRIPTION="To install Microsoft Access, choose this option
and select the Microsoft Access check box."

Installation location

On this page of Setup, users can also enter the path to the installation location they want. The default location is Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10.

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

Select installation options for Office features

When users choose the Custom installation mode, Setup displays a list of all the applications included in the suite. Users select the check boxes next to the applications they want, and Setup installs a typical set of features for each one.

Alternatively, users can select Choose detailed installation options for each application to further customize their Office XP configuration. In this case, Setup displays the Office feature tree and allows users to set an installation state for each feature. The installation states you specify in a transform are set by default, but users can modify them. Features that you have hidden or locked or installation states that you have disabled are not displayed.

The following feature installation states are normally available to users during Setup:

• Run from My Computer

  Setup copies files and writes registry entries and shortcuts associated with the feature to the user's hard disk, and the application or feature runs locally.

• Run all from My Computer

  Same as Run from My Computer, except that all child features belonging to the feature are also set to this state.

• Run from Network

  Setup leaves components for the feature on the administrative installation point, and the feature is run from there.

• Run all from Network

  Same as Run from Network, except that all child features belonging to the feature are also set to this state.

• Installed on First Use

  Setup leaves components for the feature and all its child features on the administrative installation point until the user attempts to use the feature for the first time, at which time the components are automatically copied to the local hard disk.

• Not Available

  The components for the feature, and all of the child features belonging to this feature, are not installed on the computer.

For more information about customizing what users see in the feature tree, see Customizing Office Features and Shortcuts. You can also find detailed information about setting installation states in a transform by clicking Help on the Set Feature Installation States page of the Custom Installation Wizard.

For information about using the Custom Maintenance Wizard to modify feature installation states after Office is installed, see Changing Feature Installation States.

Select previous versions of Office to keep

If the user is upgrading from a previous version of Office, Setup displays a list of all the Office applications currently installed — applications that Setup removes when it installs Office XP. Users can choose to keep all or some previous-version applications on the computer.

Because Office XP is always installed in a version-specific folder, users can choose to keep previous versions without overwriting any files. However, Setup does redefine system settings, such as file types and shortcuts, to point to the Office XP applications.

On the Keep Previous Versions page of the Office Custom Installation Wizard, you can specify default settings for this Setup page, or even hide the page from users altogether. The wizard also includes an option to remove obsolete files, shortcuts, and registry settings left over from previous versions.

Assigning or publishing Office

If all the computers in your organization run under Windows 2000, you can use a set of Windows 2000–based technologies known collectively as IntelliMirror to install and manage Office XP by policy. IntelliMirror includes a software installation and maintenance feature that allows an administrator to centrally manage software installation, repairs, updates, and removal.

Note   Before you can use Windows 2000 software installation, you must set up an Active Directory™ and Group Policy structure. You manage Office XP applications within a Group Policy object (GPO), which is associated with a particular Active Directory container – a site, domain, or organizational unit.

There are three ways to install and manage Office XP applications by using Group Policy and Windows 2000 software installation:

• Assign Office to computers

  Office is installed on the computer the next time the computer starts. Users can repair Office applications on the computer, but only an administrator can remove applications.

• Assign Office to users

  Office is available to all users in the designated group the next time they log on. Each Office application is installed the first time a user clicks the associated shortcut on the Start menu or opens a file associated with that Office application.

• Publish Office to users

  Office is available to all users in the designated group the next time they log on. Users install Office through Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel or by opening an Office document. (Under Windows 2000, you cannot publish an application to a computer.)

With any of these methods, Office XP is installed from your administrative installation point; however, Windows 2000 works directly with the MSI files and bypasses Setup.exe and the Setup settings file. To customize the installation you must apply a transform (MST file) when you assign or publish the Office package (MSI file). Note that you can apply only one transform to a given installation of the Office XP package.

Important   Transforms are applied when Office is assigned or published. You cannot reapply a transform after Office is installed, nor can you use the Custom Maintenance Wizard to make changes. If you need to modify a managed Office installation, you must remove and then reinstall Office with a new transform.

For more information about using software installation to assign or publish Office XP, see Using Windows 2000 Software Installation.

Advertising Office

Under Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, you can advertise Office XP by logging on as an administrator and then running Setup with the /jm option. If you also include a Windows Installer transform (MST file) to customize the installation, you use the /t command-line option to specify the MST file. For example:

setup.exe /jm proplus.msi /t office.mst

Note   When you use the /t command-line option to specify a transform, you must insert a space between the option and the transform name to ensure that the transform is correctly applied.

In many organizations, advertising is a quick and efficient means of making Office XP available to users. Advertising is similar to assigning Office XP under Windows 2000, in that all Office applications and features are installed on demand. However, you can advertise only to computers, and advertising does not provide the same management capabilities as Windows 2000 software installation.

When you advertise Office XP in this way, Windows Installer shortcuts for each application appear on the Start menu, and a minimal set of core Office files and components is installed on the computer. When a user clicks a shortcut or opens a file associated with an Office application, Windows Installer installs the feature or application from the administrative installation point. After Office is advertised, users can also run Setup directly from an administrative installation point to install Office.

Windows NT 4.0 does not support Windows Installer shortcuts without the Windows Desktop Update, which is an updated version of the Windows shell. The Windows Desktop Update is included with Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 1 or later, but it is not installed by default. Without the updated shell and Windows Installer shortcuts, core Office files and components are installed on the computer, and users can subsequently run Office XP Setup from the administrative installation point.

Like core Office XP, the MUI Packs in the Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack are Windows Installer packages, and you can advertise them on users' computers. However, the System Files Update cannot be advertised. Advertising Office XP on Windows NT 4.0 fully installs the System Files Update on the local computer when the System Files Update is required and then restarts the computer before advertising other packages.

For more information about installing Office XP and updating the Windows shell on Windows NT 4.0, see Using Windows Installer Shortcuts with Office.

Installing Office XP on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 requires elevated privileges. For more information, see Installations That Require Elevated Privileges.

Distributing a custom CD

If you have users who cannot install or run Microsoft Office over the network, you can distribute a customized version of Office to them by creating copies of the Office XP CD. This option requires that you have the capability to create and distribute CDs.

For example, traveling users who have limited access to the network might install Office XP from a CD. Because many less frequently used features in Office XP are set to Installed on First Use by default, these users might find that they need an additional feature when their Office XP CD is back at the office and out of reach. You can ensure that the source is always available by providing customized copies of the Office XP CD.

Important   You must obtain the proper user licenses before copying, modifying, or distributing a customized version of the Office XP CD. For more information about volume licensing programs, contact your software reseller or see the Microsoft Business Licensing Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/business/licensing.

Copy the Office XP CD

Office XP source files are compressed in a cabinet (CAB) file to fit onto the Office XP CD. You copy the compressed CAB file to a network share before customizing and duplicating it. In this scenario, you do not run Setup to create an administrative installation point; instead, you copy the compressed files directly to the network share.

Unlike the process of running Setup with the /a option — which expands the compressed files on the administration installation point — the files in the CD image remain compressed. Nor does copying the CD enter the product key or accept the end-user license agreement automatically on behalf of all users who install Office XP from this network share.

After you copy the contents of the Office XP CD to a network share, however, the process of customizing an Office CD image is similar to the process of customizing an administrative installation point. For example, you can use the Custom Installation Wizard and Setup INI Customization Wizard as long as you point the wizards to the MSI file on the compressed image. You can also customize files that reside outside the Office XP CAB file, such as the OPC file used by Setup or the Removal Wizard to remove previous versions.

To create a customized copy of the Office XP CD

1. Insert the Office XP CD into your CD-ROM drive.
   
   
2. In Windows Explorer, select all the folders on the CD.

   Be sure to display all hidden files so that you see the entire contents of the Office XP CD.

3. Copy the CD contents to a network share; the complete CD image for Office XP Professional with FrontPage requires approximately 460 MB of space.

   You can reduce the amount of space required by omitting unneeded folders such as the ORK, SharePt, and MSDE2000 folders. If all your users are running Windows 2000 or Windows Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), you can also omit the OSP folder. The CAB file and core Office XP MSI file require approximately 230 MB of free space.

4. Customize the CD image by creating one or more transforms and modifying Setup.ini.

   For example, to avoid making users enter the correct product key from the Office XP CD case, set the PIDKEY property in the transform, and specify the transform in the [MST] section of Setup.ini. You cannot accept the end-user license agreement, but if you specify a quiet display setting, users do not see that page during Setup.

5. Copy the image on your hard disk onto a CD and distribute copies to users.

   The volume label of the CDs you create must match the volume label of the Office XP CD for Setup to run properly from the custom CDs.

The CDs that you create can be used in the same way as the original Office CD, except that Setup runs with your modifications. When users install Office by using your custom CD, however, they cannot use the network as an alternate source for installing on demand, repairing features, or running Setup in maintenance mode. They must use a compressed CD or CD image on the network as a back-up source. Similarly, if users install Office XP from an administrative installation point, then they cannot use the compressed Office XP CD or your customized copy as a source.

If all your users are running Windows 2000 or Windows Me or later, you may be able to omit the OPS folder and create a CD that contains a customized version of the uncompressed Office administrative image, as described in the following section. In this case, users can use the administrative image and your custom CD interchangeably as a source.

Tip   If the original Office XP source is unavailable and you must use a different type of source, you can reinstall Office by running Setup with the /fv option. This option allows Setup to use a new source, but you cannot return to your original source without repeating the reinstallation process.

For more information about customizing the Setup process or your Office XP configuration, see Customizing the Office Installation.

Copy a portion of the Office XP administrative installation point

When you create an administrative installation point, the compressed CAB file on the Office XP CD is expanded. You cannot copy the entire administrative installation point onto a custom CD to distribute to users — the expanded files take up too much space. However, in some cases you can copy a portion of the administrative image onto a CD and distribute it to users.

For example, running Setup in administrative mode does not copy the ORK, SharePt, or MSDE2000 folders to the network share, which reduces the disk-space requirement. If all the users in your organization are running Windows Me or Windows 2000 or later, then they do not need the System Files Update to install Office XP. You can remove the OSP folder from the administrative image, freeing up even more space. After you customize Office XP the way you want it, you can copy the administrative image onto one custom CD, which can then be copied and distributed to users.

In this scenario, the custom CD functions as an interchangeable equivalent to the administrative installation point on the network. Because the files are uncompressed, users can rely on either the custom CD or the network as a source. In addition, users are not prompted to enter a product key or accept the end-user license agreement when they install Office from the CD, because you entered that information for them when you created the administrative installation point.

Creating a hard-disk image

Some organizations deploy a complete user system at one time, including Microsoft Windows software, device drivers, Office applications, and custom settings. In this scenario, you install the entire system onto a test computer, and then you create an image of the hard disk to copy to users' computers.

Installing Office with a complete user system is almost as fast as installing Office by itself. It is a particularly efficient way to configure new computers or to restore a computer to its original state. When you distribute the hard-disk image to users, everything on the computer is replaced by your custom configuration, so users must back up any documents or other files they want to keep.

Customize Office on the administrative installation point

To create the hard-disk image, you begin by running Office XP Setup with the /a option to create an administrative installation point. You can use the Custom Installation Wizard to create a transform and the Setup INI Customization Wizard to modify Setup.ini, just as you do when you customize Office XP in any other network installation scenario. In addition, you must take several steps to exclude user-specific information from the hard-disk image.

To customize Office XP for a hard-disk image

1. Run Setup with the /a option to create an Office XP administrative installation point.
   
   
2. If you are including MUI Packs in your installation, run LpkSetup.exe with the /a option and install them on the same administrative installation point or a different network share.
   
   
3. Start the Custom Installation Wizard.
   
   
4. On the Customize Default User Settings page, specify the name and path of any OPS file you have created.
   
   
5. On the Set Feature Installation States page, set installation states for each Office application.
   
   
6. On the Modify Setup Properties page, set the following properties:
   • NOUSERNAME=True
   • ENTERPRISE_IMAGE=True
7. If you are installing Outlook 2002, choose to create a new Outlook profile on the Outlook: Customize Default Profile page, and configure the profile on subsequent pages of the wizard.
   
   
8. Make any additional customizations and save the transform.
   
   
9. Start the Setup INI Customization Wizard and specify the transform you created, along with any other modifications you want to make to Setup.ini.

   For example, add MUI Packs to the ChainedInstall_n sections of Setup.ini.

10. Save the custom INI file and copy the command line it generates.

Specifying Setup properties

You must set the following Setup properties to ensure that your Office XP configuration installs properly on users' computers:

• NOUSERNAME=True

  Prevents Setup from defining a user name during installation. This setting allows users to enter their own user names the first time they run an Office application.

• ENTERPRISE_IMAGE=True

  Prevents Setup from creating a digital license identification based on the hardware components of the test computer. This setting allows Setup to generate a unique digital license identification on each client computer the first time Office is started, instead of when Office XP is initially installed.

Including an OPS file

You can use the Profile Wizard to configure user settings and add an OPS file to your transform. However, you must install Office XP and the MUI Packs on a separate test computer before you start any Office applications to configure user options and capture the settings. If you start any Office applications on the computer you intend to image, then user- and computer-specific settings are included in the hard-disk image.

To customize users settings on the Office XP image by using an OPS file

1. Before you create a transform, install Office from the administrative installation point to a test computer.
   
   
2. On the test computer, run the Office applications and modify application settings, and then close all the Office applications.
   
   
3. Start the Profile Wizard.
   
   
4. On the Save or Restore Settings page, click Save the settings from this machine.
   
   
5. Enter the file name and path for the OPS file, and click Finish.
   
   
6. When you create the transform, enter the file name and path of the OPS file on the Customize Default User Settings page of the Custom Installation Wizard.

Install Office on a clean test computer

The next step is to install Office XP from the administrative installation point onto a clean client computer — one that already has the Windows configuration you want and one that has never had Office XP or any previous version of Office installed. This installation becomes the model for your hard-disk image.

After you have installed and configured all the system software on the test computer, run Office Setup to install Office from the administrative installation point. If you have not already done so in the transform or Setup.ini file, set the NOUSERNAME and ENTERPRISE_IMAGE properties on the Setup command line.

To install Office on the test computer

1. On the Start menu, click Run.
   
   
2. Enter the name and path to Office Setup.

   You can copy and paste the command line generated by the Setup INI Customization Wizard.

3. If you have not already done so, set the NOUSERNAME and ENTERPRISE_IMAGE properties on the command line; for example:

   \\server\share\admin_install_point\setup.exe NOUSERNAME=True ENTERPRISE_IMAGE=True

4. Unless you want all users who receive the hard-disk image to use your administrative installation point as a source for installing, repairing, or removing Office features, reset the source list to point to the Office CD or another network share.

Caution   To prevent user-specific information from appearing on the hard-disk image, do not start any Office applications on the test computer. After you install Office on the test computer, you can make additional modifications to the configuration. However, starting an Office application writes user-specific information to the Windows registry, which is then duplicated to all users.

Distribute the hard-disk image

Before you distribute your hard-disk image, install it on a client computer and make sure that Office XP applications are installed and configured correctly. Then you can use any one of a number of tools to create copies of the hard-disk image.

The Windows 2000 operating system includes several new or improved technologies for automating installation of Windows 2000 Professional on client computers through hard-disk imaging. Two of these technologies allow you to include Office XP in the hard-disk image that installs Windows 2000 Professional:

• SysPrep 1.1

  Prepares the hard disk on the test computer for duplicating to other computers and then runs a third-party disk-imaging process. SysPrep can copy the hard-disk image to client computers that have different hardware application layers (HALs) and different Plug and Play device drivers. SysPrep is fast — the hard-disk image can be packaged and compressed; only the files required for the specific configuration are included.

• Remote Installation Services (RIS)

Installs both Windows 2000 and Office XP remotely on client computers. You can set up new computers and new users without on-site technical support, and recover more quickly from computer failures. RIS requires adequate network capacity and the Active Directory directory service.

Use Remote Installation Services (Windows 2000)

Remote OS Installation, which is based on RIS, is an optional service in Windows 2000 Server. It provides a mechanism for computers to connect to a network server during the initial startup process, while the server controls a local installation of Windows 2000 Professional.

If all the computers in your organization are running under Windows 2000, you can use remote installation services to copy a preconfigured hard-disk image — with standardized versions of both Windows 2000 Professional and Office XP — to client computers. RIS also requires that you have Active Directory and a Group Policy structure set up.

This method can significantly reduce deployment time. A remote installation of Windows and Office together takes only slightly longer than a remote installation of Windows by itself. When clients download the disk image, Office XP is fully installed on the local computer — and not merely advertised.

Note   If you want users to receive a managed Office installation, you must use the Software Installation snap-in to assign Office to the test computer before creating your disk image.

When used together, Remote OS Installation and other Windows 2000 management services offer the following benefits:

• More efficient and cost-effective setup of new computers
  
  
• Dynamic configuration and repair of both Windows 2000 and Office XP
  
  
• Easier recovery from computer failures

If the computer fails, you can quickly restore Windows 2000 Professional (by using Remote OS) and restore the user's applications, data, and settings (by using IntelliMirror features).

To distribute Office XP by using RIS

1. Install and configure Windows 2000 Professional for your organization on a test computer.
   
   
2. Install and customize Office XP on an administrative installation point.
   
   
3. Install your customized version of Office XP from the administrative installation point to the test computer.
   
   
4. Run the Remote Installation Preparation Wizard (RIPrep.exe) from the RIS server that will receive the hard-disk image.

Note   Remote OS Installation works only in a homogenous Windows 2000 environment — Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Professional clients. You cannot use it to install to clients running under Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 98.

For a detailed outline of the steps necessary to install, configure, and use Remote Installation Services (RIS), see the "Step-by-Step Guide to Remote OS Installation" on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWS2000/library/planning/management/remotesteps.asp.

To find out how to create an installation image by using the Remote Installation Preparation Wizard, search for Creating an installation image in the Windows 2000 Server Help page on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Web site at http://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/help/.

Using Microsoft Systems Management Server

Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 provides a robust distribution model for deploying Office XP to client computers. If you are installing Office XP under any of the following circumstances, consider using SMS:

• You want more control over the timing of your Office XP installation.

  For example, you need to complete the installation during off hours, or you need to coordinate upgrades across multiple sites.

• You need advanced reporting and troubleshooting tools.
  
  
• You are deploying to users over slow network or dial-up connections.
  
  
• You are deploying to a mixture of Windows clients, including Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 98.

Systems Management Server also gives you the flexibility to deploy non-Windows Installer packages and to target collections of users or computers based on advanced resource attributes (such as software or hardware inventory properties).

For a comparison of software deployment features in Windows 2000 IntelliMirror, Remote OS Installation, and Systems Management Server 2.0, see the white paper "Software Deployment Using Windows 2000 and Systems Management Server 2.0" on the Windows 2000 Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/library/planning/management/smsintell.asp.