jchowland

Yes, one would think that this would be one of the FIRST things that MS would want to keep- It is, after all, its own activation model! I am going to try just using vLite to create the unattended settings and just hope that the XRM-MS file transfers... Otherwise it could end up being a first run item with slmgr. I'll post my results.

I'm still not able to get the $OEM$ to correctly activate- have you been able to do it with a SP1 disc?

I do however run a separate ans file to fully unattend the install. Does this mean that I can ALSO put in an autounattend.xml in the sources folder and the two will co-exist? And have you been able to keep the OEM information with an SP1 DVD (if you have it?)

Hi Everyone, Just downloaded The Vista SP1 Disc off Technet and I'm having trouble installing it with the 'ol $OEM$ Dell Pre-Activation. As I understand it, I just have to add the $OEM$ Folder from my Sources folder on my original Dell Disc to the sources folder on the new disc and it should work. However, when I go to install it on the PC, it asks for my version of vista and product key (which it shouldn't do). Is there any other folder that I need to copy apart from \Sources\$OEM$, or doesn't this work with SP1? Just on a side note, does this $OEM$ folder have unattended installation info in it- would it be \SOURCES\$OEM$\$$\SETUP\SCRIPTS\DELL.XML? There isn't an autounattend.xml in the sources folder yet it is unattended (insofar as product key and version) My apologies that this is probably a double post- I had a quick search for pre-activation but couldn't see it.

Hi Everyone, I am trying to install Office 2007 Enterprise through Group Policy, but with little success. As you can see from the attached image, Office says that it is installed but all the different MUIs show up in add/remove programs. If I go to the Office12 folder, all the programs are there, but do nothing when I double-click them. It's not clear whether I was supposed to use the xml file or a custom msp in the updates folder to install Office, so I did it in both. Below is my xml: <Configuration Product="Enterprise"> <PIDKEY Value="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" /> <INSTALLLOCATION Value="%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office" /> <Display Level="Basic" AcceptEULA="Yes"/> <AddLanguage Id="en-us" /> <OptionState Id="ACCESSFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //access <OptionState Id="EXCELFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //access <OptionState Id="WORDFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //access <OptionState Id="OUTLOOKFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //outlook <OptionState Id="CAGFiles" State="Local" Children="force" /> //Clip Organizer <OptionState Id="OsaNonBoot" State="Local" Children="force" /> //new,open office docu lnks <OptionState Id="WISPFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //handwriting <OptionState Id="DocServicesFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //docu update util <OptionState Id="DocumentImagingUtils" State="local" Children="force" /> //scanning,ocr,indexing <OptionState Id="OneNoteFiles" State="local" Children="force" /> //onenote </Configuration> Anyone have any suggestions?

That looks great! One suggestion though - would it be possible for you to add join domain to the script? Apart from that, it makes the 1gb WAIK seem useless!

Ok, The problem that I am having has been (sorta) resolved. It is actually a bug with how the Installer executes and installs itself. The issue lies in the fact that Office 2007 installed straight through the MSI at the first install of Windows (through Group Policy) has to compete with other products that are also installed at this stage (i.e. Acrobat, Windows Defender, Zune Theme and so on). The Problem is two-pronged and is as follows (with the workaround below, different colour) 1. Installing Software which auto-reboots the system after installation (Adobe Acrobat 8, in my case) If your Machine's installers are set to reboot the machine after they are installed, Office 2007 will not be correctly configured or installed, as the Office 2007 installation runs as a 'All Users' account at the logon prompt and then on top of the interactive logon and restarting the machine naturally prevents this from executing (and the Office 2007 MSI IS NOT self-healing. Solution: The Office 2007 installer MUST be run AFTER all other installers for it to correctly function, as it does not call a restart (i.e. if you are creating a new Software Installation GPO, be sure to add Office 2007 last 2. Installing Software which runs after the logon (such as the Zune Theme asking to be set, or Windows Defender running a scan) When software installs normally (as the logged on user), it may call a window, such as the Zune theme asking to be set or Windows Defender running an update and scan. When software is installed from Group Policy, these windows or applications are called at the First Interactive logon. It happens that the installer for Office 2007 also wants to be executed here as well, but will fail if any other applications are already running (such as these called windows.) As a result, the installer will show that another 'installation' is in progress, becasuse applications/windows have been called by the other installers- another installation in the eyes of Office 2007, and will 'Roll-Back' changes, and ask for you to press 'Retry' after the install (which does not show). Because the Office 2007 MSI installer is not self-healing, the subsequent restart will not recognise any problem and Office 2007 cannot be installed. Each program (e.g. Word 2007) will show in Add/Remove as "Word 2007 MUI en-us" but will not be in C:\Program Files\office12\winword.exe. Solution: Installers which call an application after installation CANNOT be installed using Group Policy if Office 2007 is to be installed. Essentially what it boils down to is a sloppy MS Engineer who didn't test Office 2007 installing with other applications at the first system install, rather only as an additional install to an existing GPO and existing computers, not new, GP installed computers. The only way around this problem is to use BDD 2007, and even then some of these programs will not install correctly (such as PowerDVD) which check for other installed software (e.g. DirectX) which they will not find in Windows PE.

As far as I know, no- WMP has been doing this for years. and BTW, MS is trying to push this 'Ribbon' and theming to other programs by distributing it for free to programmers, so get used to it!

Hi Everybody- I posted this in the MS Communities but I'm not expecting any response... I thought I'd probably get a much better strike rate here! I have a specific question about how Office 2007 installs itself when it is deployed from Group Policy. At present, my setup is to have the machines automatically installed with XP using RIS and then applications installed automatically through the use of Software Installations and Group Policy. If I install the software normally once the machines have been installed with XP, the notice "Configuring Microsoft Office 2007" comes up and modifies what is installed through the config.xml- adding and removing components as I need them. My problem is that this process ONLY occurs if NOTHING else is running at the time. If it cannot run, then the software that I specify to NOT install with show in the start menu, and the other apps are not installed. In my setup, I am using the DriverPacks from driverpacks.net so that the video drivers and hardware on all of my machines are kept up to date. Unfortunately, it uses RunOnceEx to finish this process and add the drivers to the system folder, meaning that the Office 2007 Customisation never seems to run. What SHOULD happen with this type of installation is that nothing should conflict- using RIS, RunOnceEx only runs after the first interactive login, hence the conflict and non-installation. My Question is this- is there either a way to postpone the customisation of Office 2007 until after a second or third reboot, or manually begin this 'customisation'? Whilst this is the wrong place to ask, does anyone know whether RunOnceEx can be postponed or if there is a place even before the first logon which could run this 'finisher' or other installers? Thanks in Advance!