Office 2007, Unattended Setup & Fine-tuning

[lol69002]

It is possible to remove auto-reboot process after silent install ??

"start /wait setup.exe /adminfile custom.msp"........no reboot!!!

[grunz]

I'm trying to install Office Enterprise 2007 in my AD environment via Group Policy.

Office 2003 was manually installed before I got here, so I don't have a Group Policy to upgrade.

On some test machines, when I push Office 2007, it installs next to Office 2003, not over top, or as an upgrade. This is totally not the desired affect.

I'm experiencing exactly the same issue when installing through group policies. i've even checked the option to remove the previous version before installing the new one, and used the gpo-option to replace a previous package (office 2003) but that doesn't seem to work at all. all office 2003 shortcuts remain active, and after clicking one of them, it starts the windows installer to reinstall or repair office 2003. after that process finished, the coresponding application, e.g. word 2003 starts up normally, but word 2007 is also available.... any idea how to get rid of office 2003 during the upgrade?

Edited December 14, 2006 by grunz

[savage1]

Unattending or silently installing MS Office System, has now become easier than ever.

First, you fetch yourself the version of Office that you want from Microsoft Connect. Two versions are available currently, both being Beta1 Technical-Refresh - either the ProPlus (core apps only, 441 MB) or the Enterprise (core+other+server, 1.08 GB).

Then, there are two ways to unattend your setup. Option A (use it only if you got Office12 thru SoftwareAssurance, which comes with activation stripped out). Option B is for all the others (retail/OEM/academic/etc). Both are colored differently below.

Option A:

1. Ensure you have WindowsInstaller 3.1 already installed.

2. Ensure you have an actual enterprise/corporate CD & CD-key (which wont need activation).

3. Notably, o2k7 uses setup patches (*.MSP) rather than transforms which previous versions used (*.MST). The below instructions will give you an MSP file, which is not accepted by non-corporate versions of o2k7. If you ignored point2 above, then you will end up wasting 15 minutes of your life which I'm not responsible for.

4. Now at the command prompt, type: setup.exe /admin

5. Choose the product for which you want to make a customization-patch.

6. Then go through all steps in the customization wizard (to install the reqd apps & remove junk & change default settings).

7. Be sure to have "completion notice" turned on & "suppress modals" turned off (this is to get to see errors, if any exist). Once you're done with testing, go thru the customization again to modify the MSP to disable completion notice & enable suppress modals.

8. Save the resulting patch file in the same folder as o2k7 setup files.

9. Now just execute this command (thru any method) for silent install: setup.exe /adminfile CUSTOM.MSP

NEWS-FLASH!

If you have the final Enterprise release of Office 2007, then Option A works flawlessly.

You could even drop the CUSTOM.MSP file in the "Updates" folder & setup will pick it up automatically (without any switches being used).

I was wondering if this method works for Proplus. I have put the .msp file in the updates folder and when I go to deploy it to a test machine it starts to install office but quickly comes to the ctrl-alt-del then when I log in to check it only installs the office folder. No word excel etc. jsut like image scanner and one other office tool. any thoughts on this?

[ajua]

I was wondering if this method works for Proplus. I have put the .msp file in the updates folder and when I go to deploy it to a test machine it starts to install office but quickly comes to the ctrl-alt-del then when I log in to check it only installs the office folder. No word excel etc. jsut like image scanner and one other office tool. any thoughts on this?

have you tried to launch the setup with setup.exe /adminfile yourfile.msp?

im using this way and is working great. i have now deploy it to about 5 machines and all went fine.

Edited December 16, 2006 by elajua

[CranialBlaze]

I almost successfully completed the unattended install, but am wondering what option i need to set to make it completely silent, i still have the option window were it says install and customize.

Thanks for the info and assistance

[patronu]

every evaluation version form microsoft gives me the error from the image I posted . why? is this a feature?

[prathapml]

if I have a .msp file in the updates folder, does that get applied when installing from the Enterpriseww.msi file via group policy?

Yes, as long as MSI version 3.1 is installed & available on destination PC.

any idea how to get rid of office 2003 during the upgrade?

When you make the MSP, specify that you want to remove all previous versions.

I was wondering if this method works for Proplus. I have put the .msp file in the updates folder and when I go to deploy it to a test machine it starts to install office but quickly comes to the ctrl-alt-del then when I log in to check it only installs the office folder. No word excel etc. jsut like image scanner and one other office tool. any thoughts on this?

This method works only on VolumeLicense (known in warez as "Corp. editions"). If you try with retail/oem/trial versions, this functionality is blocked.

Also, if you use the MSP, just check that you have an updated WindowsInstaller version (=MSI 3.1).

And also, maybe setup is running into some errors - test the setup manually first, with modals (error boxes) allowed, & with full display level.

am wondering what option i need to set to make it completely silent, i still have the option window were it says install and customize.

Once you're sure that your unattended setup is flawless, modify the MSP to make it silent.

Or set these values in config.xml:

<Display Level="basic" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

every evaluation version form microsoft gives me the error from the image I posted . why? is this a feature?

Yes.

Evaluation editions (and some others too) dont allow using MSP.

In such cases, use the config.xml instead.

[LeveL]

MSP file?

what MSP file?

Is it an MSP file or an XML file?

Does it suddenly auto reboot these days (Office 2007 Professional Enterprise) with the original XML file in the first post?

Eeeeeeeeh dear.

Well thanks for this vital info prathapml you are such an asset to this forum

Edited December 28, 2006 by LeveL

[patronu]

but it's much more simple to use OCT instead of config.xml. why they do this?

also I suspect that Office 2007 standard doesn't support msp files. is this true?

[LeveL]

but it's much more simple to use OCT instead of config.xml. why they do this?

also I suspect that Office 2007 standard doesn't support msp files. is this true?

So now theres OCT, MSP and XML.

Sorry to have to say this but no, this isn't "more simple" than it used to be.

To install Office 2003 silently all you had to do was use this switch:

SETUP.EXE TRANSFORMS=Unattended.MST /qb-

Now with Office 2007 we have to mess around with XML files, or is it MSP

files, or is it OCT.... next someone will be saying theres another way.

[patronu]

but it's much more simple to use OCT instead of config.xml. why they do this?

also I suspect that Office 2007 standard doesn't support msp files. is this true?

So now theres OCT, MSP and XML.

Sorry to have to say this but no, this isn't "more simple" than it used to be.

To install Office 2003 silently all you had to do was use this switch:

SETUP.EXE TRANSFORMS=Unattended.MST /qb-

Now with Office 2007 we have to mess around with XML files, or is it MSP

files, or is it OCT.... next someone will be saying theres another way.

i think you don't know what oct and msp are and the difference between xml and msp files and how to create them

[LeveL]

i think you don't know what oct and msp are and the difference between xml and msp files and how to create them

I think it doesn't matter now, because I have sorted it out the MSP way

Now I also want to stop it creating that huge MSOCache folder on the systemdrive,

that folder is 555Mb Almost as big as the Office installation itself!

There doesn't seem to be anywhere in the "Office Customization Tool" that

mentions any ability to disable the creation of the MSOCache folder.

The fact that its a hidden folder is annoying too... there will be people all over

who are thinking WHY have I "lost" half a gig on my C drive?! Microsoft are

experts at knowing how to anger people. They make it easy to silently install

Office 2007 but then when it comes to really customizing it, EG stopping the creation

of a pointless 555Mb folder oooooooh no its different then - they don't tell you!

Excuse the French but.... w4nkers! Just total w4nkers! The whole of the Office 2007

setup is there on the CD okay... so then theres no need to dump 555Mb of baloney

on your drive! Why do it? Apart from to deliberately annoy people?

Someone prove to me that Microsoft are NOT trying to annoy people! Prove it!

Edited December 28, 2006 by LeveL

[ajua]

Someone prove to me that Microsoft are NOT trying to annoy people! Prove it!

i think microsoft is always tryng to improve some things but always leave something behind.

maybe there is something to disable the creation of the MSOCache folder but we have yet to find it.

and BTW, the documentation on Microsoft XML files for office 2007 didnt explain a lot of things, they almost take for granted that you know the Properties names and all, so you really "cant" customize all in the xml way unless you are an office 2007 xml files guru...

[LeveL]

the documentation on Microsoft XML files for office 2007 didnt explain a lot of things, they almost take for granted that you know the Properties names and all, so you really "cant" customize all in the xml way unless you are an office 2007 xml files guru...

Funny because thats exactly what I thought when trying to do the Vista Unattend.xml

without the WAIK = impossible. How stupid it is to even use XML files, why not just

use HTML or INI or something thats (almost) in plain English and far more people

will understand?

Because its Microsoft....

"How annoyed do you want to be today?"

[ivicav]

Well, I made MSP file for unattended install, but there is no way to splitstream it in WinXP successfully. Any time started install there is a message that I miss windows installer 3.1. I made a script to install installer before I start setup for office, but it didn't work. Just popup that it can't restart program. I know I made mistake but WHERE? It's really annoying thing. Anyway, is there any way to add WinInstaller 3.1 BEFORE I start Office setup file?