Unattended upgrade from office 2000 to XP

[Tinywoods]

Now I'm facing a problem again.

I have two office CDs, one is office 2000 personal, anther is office XP pro UP-GRADE version. Normally, I need to install one apps of office 2000 before I install Office XP Upgrade.

Now I would like to install Office XP pro Upgrade with Unattended install DVD. I used 2000 reg file to support Office XP installation, but it does not work.

Is there anybody who has experience about "Office Up-grade install" ?

[Astalavista]

nihon jin des ka?

[Tinywoods]

Yes, I'm Japanese. You speak Japanese well !

[Astalavista]

check your pm

[Tinywoods]

All,

Will you give me any ideas?

[stebro]

Hi Tinywoods,

I have a working solution for this using AutoIT.

I have the Office 2000 program files Excel.exe, Powerpoint.exe and Winword.exe (get these from your Office 2K disk) in a folder that I map to B: drive then when Office XP fails to find a previous version in my AutoIt script I direct it to look in B: and it then installs. The might be a more elegant solution to this but my way does work. If you are interested the script is attached. Since I install from a DVD the script uses a folder on my DVD as the B drive, I also copy over an activation file from a previously activated office XP to automatically activate after installing.

Cheers

SteBro

InstallMSOffice.au3

[Tinywoods]

SteBro,

It’s a nice idea. Though I failed in office XP installation in the first try, AutoIT seems to be a good solution for me. I did not know AutoIT remembers everything not only Enter-key action but also mouse action, so that my modified script was corrupted. I may need to modify it again in a clean condition.

Anyway, your idea and your script help me very well.

In addition, many people are interested in your idea because they downloaded your script file !

Many thanks

Tinywoods

[Tinywoods]

I found another problem. I have 3 PCs, and now I’m trying to make one unattended DVD for my PCs. So, DVD-ROM drives of 3 PCs are not always same drive letters. The 1stPC has F&G-drive as DVD drives. The 2nd PC has D&F. the 3rd PC has D only. I intend to install XP UPGRADE to #1&3 PC. For the 2nd PC, I would like to use 2k. So, I can not use any tool that can simulate key actions. Or I have to use 2k on two PCs and office XP on the rest of one PC. Purpose I’m wrong!?

[stebro]

Hi Tinywoods,

The different drive letters in not a problem, the script checks all the cd/dvd drives for the file uADVD.here, this is an empty text file placed at the root of the unattended DVD. When the script finds the file it uses the drive letter where it finds the file for the install.

If you want to sometimes install Office 2k and other times Office XP you would need a software selection tool how are you planning to do this?

Cheers

SteBro

[Astalavista]

WPI method!

[Tinywoods]

OK I understand.

I'll try this week end. Thank you stebro and Astalavista.

[ArmyDoc]

So, if I understand correctly, the upgrade version of Office XP checks for some application exe files.

Question 1) does it have to be all three or will for example winword.exe suffice?

Question 2) do the exe file(s) need to be on some local fixed drive or floppy? Or could it\they be placed on the unattended CD\DVD? Because that's what I'm doing now: inserting the old CD until setup continues.

Question 3) if the file(s) need to be on a systemdrive as opposed to the CD\DVD, wouldn't it be enough to include them on the DVD so they would be copied over during text-mode setup? Or, if you're installing from CD, to have them copied over using a batchfile called from RunOnceEx or some other method? Sounds to me that this would be even easier

[stebro]

Hi ArmyDoc,

1) If you are trying to install all the OfficeXP applications then you would need all the previous office exe files, if I remember correctly I tried to remove some and it failed. However I didn't need access or outlook from the previous version even though I am installing OfficeXP professional, I guess 3 is enough for MS .

2) I use autoIT to install OfficeXP so when the install fails because it cannot find the previous office I have mapped a drive on my unattended DVD to B: drive so autoIT then tells officeXP to look in B: for the files. As long as you can tell OfficeXP where the previous version files are you can put them anywhere you want but this method was easiest for me.

3) See above, files don't need to be on the system drive.

Cheers

SteBro