Office2003 Unattended: Outlook Problems

[greywolf83]

So...after many hours of working on an Unattended DVD, I finally deployed it on a computer here at work. I have it installing a custom installation MST of Office2003 Pro (volume liscence) during RunOncEx.cmd. The cleanup.cmd deletes the installation source afterwards.

The problem is, I deployed the computer to a user. I logged on to thier domain user account, and opened Outlook. It popped up with the installing MS Office crap...instead of its usual dialog asking you for settings it gave me an error and said it couldn't find the network installation source. A box with only one option "C:\install\Applications\Office2003" came up. All of the crap in the install folder was deleted during cleanup.cmd. So I copied the Office2003 disc off of our network (should have been the same exact MST and everything) to that directory. It gave me some sort of error and quit out. I tried this as an Administrator and it didn't even do the install thing, it went directly into Outlook. I eventually uninstalled Office 2003 and reinstalled it via a networked drive.

Any ideas on how to avoid this?

My only thought is to hold off on the automatic deletion of the install folder until the computer is deployed. Or maybe switch to RunOnceEX from DVD.

[InTheWayBoy]

Or just leave the files on there...with 20GB+ drives a few hundred MB's shouldn't be too much to sacrifice.

I know this isn't a fix, but in my opinion it's best to leave a local copy of Office handy for repairs. In fact, if you install it from a CD it already offers the option to copy several files to the machine to accomplish that same goal. If you install it from a HD, it doesn't copy the files, as they are already on the HD. But if you remove it, then you might get caught with your pants down when it want's to repair itself.

Sounds like you have the install files on the network. I would think it would be a simple registry setting that points to the location of the source files...one which you could edit to point to a UNC containing the files. However, it sounds like it's not that easy. I find it's best to install from where the files will stay...meaning if they stay on the HD then install from the HD, but if they stay on the server then install over the the network. Of course, this poses issues in regards to network bandwidth usage.

[InTheWayBoy]

And from what I've seen, it does that mini setup thing every time a new user opens an Office application for the first time. Probably something to do with the user profiles, but none the less it runs that mini setup thing asking for the name and initials. Problem is, it needs to access the source at some point in that process.

The reason it doesn't do it with your Admin account is probably because that's what you installed it with originally, and the mini setup has already been done...probably before the source was deleted.

Edited September 27, 2005 by InTheWayBoy

[greywolf83]

I think I'm going to leave it on the drive (by removing the cleanup.cmd entry). I just have the network installs for on-demand deployment, mostly of other Office apps like Visio and Project, but the suite is up there too for reinstall purposes.

Thanks. Anyone have a more realistic fix, let me know. Custom Installation Wizard should have SOMETHING.