Customizing How Office Features Are Installed

How to Use a Transform with Office Setup

To customize how Setup installs Microsoft Office on the user’s computer, you can use the Office Custom Installation Wizard to create a Windows installer transform (MST file). The transform contains the changes that you want to make to the installation process. Users can run Setup with the transform to install your customized version of Office.

To create and use a transform, follow these general steps:

1. Create an administrative installation point. This is a location on a server that contains copies of all Office files; users install Office from the administrative installation point.
2. Create a transform. By using the Office Custom Installation Wizard, create an MST file that contains your customizations.
3. Have users run Setup with the transform. Users specify the name of the transform when they run Office Setup.

Top

Create an administrative installation point

Run Setup from Microsoft Office 2000 Disc 1 with the /a command-line option to create an administrative installation point on a network server. The administrative installation point contains copies of all Office files, and users can install Office from this location. By customizing the files here, you can control how Setup installs Office for your users.

To create an administrative installation point

1. Create a network share.

   The share must be accessible by all users who need to install Office, and you must have write access to it.

2. Run Setup from Office Disc 1 by using the /a command-line option. Use the Run command in the Start menu to add the /a option to the Setup.exe command line. For example:

   e:\setup.exe /a

   When Setup prompts you for the installation location, enter the network share that you created.

Setup copies all of the files from Office Disc 1 to the network share.

Top

Create a custom transform

Use the Microsoft Office Custom Installation Wizard to open the Windows installer package (MSI file) for Office. Then use the wizard to select the features you want, and save your selections in a custom MST file.

To create a custom transform

1. Start the Custom Installation Wizard.
2. On the Open the MSI panel, enter the file name and path of the MSI file for Office.

   The package is located in the root folder of the administrative installation point. For example:

   \\Server1\Office\Data1.msi

3. On the Open the MST panel, select Do not open an existing MST file to create a new transform.

   – or –

   To open and modify an existing transform, select Open an existing MST file and enter the file name and path of the transform.

4. On the Select the MST File to Save panel, enter the name and path of the MST file you want to create.

   Place the MST file in the same folder as the MSI file to make it easier for users to find. For example:

   \\Server1\Office\Custom.mst

5. On the subsequent panels of the wizard, customize facets of the installation process that affect your organization, including selecting which features are installed and customizing installation options for Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Microsoft Outlook®.
6. When you have finished making all your selections, click Finish.

The Custom Installation Wizard creates a transform that contains your customizations.

Toolbox   You can customize Office Setup with the Custom Installation Wizard. The wizard includes extensive online assistance that you can view by clicking the Help button on any panel. For information about installing the wizard, see Custom Installation Wizard.

Top

Run Setup with your custom transform

To use your custom transform when you install Office on a user’s computer, you must provide Setup with the file name and path of the MST file. You can do this by including the information on the Setup command line or in the Setup settings file (Setup.ini).

Use the Setup command line

When you run Setup to install Office on the user’s computer, add the TRANSFORMS= option to the Setup.exe command line to specify the file name and path of the MST file.

For example (assuming that the MST file is in the same folder as the MSI file), type the following command:

\\server1\office\setup.exe transforms="Custom.mst"

Use the Setup settings file

Setup uses a settings file (Setup.ini) for installation options. Add the MST1= key to the MST section of the settings file to specify the file name and path of the MST file. For example:

[MST]
MST1=Custom.mst

You can add the key directly to the default settings file (Setup.ini), or you can create a copy of Setup.ini with a different file name and add the key to the duplicate file. If you create a duplicate settings file, you also need to specify the name of the settings file with the /settings command-line option. For example, type the following command to specify a settings file:

\\server1\office\setup.exe /settings newsetup.ini

Top

See also

Creating the administrative installation point on a network server is the first step in deploying a customized version of Office over the network to your users. For detailed information about how to create an administrative installation point, see How to Create an Administrative Installation Point.

You can also customize how Office Setup runs by using the command line and settings file. For more information, see Customizing How Setup Runs.

You can use the Office Custom Installation Wizard to customize many aspects of your Office installation. For more information, see Office Custom Installation Wizard.