Office 2007 and Group Policy

[joestern]

The majority of the users I support have Office 2003 installed by Group Policy to their computers. They do not have admin rights on their computers.

My goal this summer is to update Outlook to version 2007 first, and then eventually provide 2007 alongside 2003 through a transition period. I don't want to have to pay for SMS.

First of all, I discovered that although the default upgrade options place 2007 and 2003 in the same root folder (%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Office) that causes problems with Access text import. MS PSS told me that the official MS recommendation is to install Office 2003 and 2007 in completely different folders, despite what its default action might be.

Aside: all of you with Software Assurance - and I know you're in this forum because you're installing Enterprise - do you know that you get unlimited PSS Web support? Take advantage of it!

My next discovery is that GFI's LANGuard product http://www.gfi.com/lannetscan/ will install Office 2007 with its MSP customizations on client computers. I already own LANGuard so this is a no-brainer for me. You should compare the cost/functionality to SMS.

I have created a new Office 2003 GPO that installs all programs but Outlook to %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Office 2003 and have this GPO set to update my previous Office installations. After it runs, I deploy Outlook 2007 (and Windows Desktop Search, and Save As PDF) using LANGuard. I use WSUS to push the Office 2007 patches, which someone already noted so far only includes Junk Mail Filters.

- Joe

[PreviousPoster]

The easier way to deploy Office 2007 using GPO. After a lot of research for tring to find a way to deploy Office 2k7 I came across a way that worked exactly the way I wanted it to. I wanted to copy Office folder down to the local machine and then run the install from there, but I also wanted to use the MSP file for the settings. Most of the stuff I saw said you had to edit the config.xml to deploy a custmized office with GPO, but not all of the settings are avaible in the xml file. This how I plan to do it and what I have tested thus far.

Create an MSP file and place it in the updates folder.

Edit the config.xml with only the following options:

<Configuration Product="Enterprise">
<Display Level="NONE" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="no" AcceptEula="no" />
<Logging Type="standard" Path="%temp%" Template="Microsoft Office Enterprise Setup(*).txt" />
<LIS CACHEACTION="CacheOnly" />
</Configuration>

Then create a Computer Startup Script with the following:
Script Name: \\server_name\Office_2007\setup.exe
Script Parameters: /config \\server_name\Office_2007\Enterprise.WW\Config.xml

Now when the computer boots up it will run the setup BUT it won't acutally install anything it just copies everything in the share to the local machine. By default it is stored in "C:\MSOCache\All Users" and makes the folder hidden.

Here's the best part, now that' it's local and it copied everything, including the MSP file, all I need to do is create another computer startup script (I tested the install with a startup script, but I would acutally like to do the install through a shutdown script) to launch the install locally and it will grab all the settings from the MSP file.

I used this startup script to launch the local install:
"C:\MSOCache\All Users\{940120000-0030-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}-C \setup.exe"
The folder labeled with all the numbers is auto generated and you can see more about it in the links below.

One important thing to note, in the GPO that actually does the install you will also want to change the Maximum wait time setting in "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Scripts" to something higher than the default 600 secs (10Min). If you leave the default setting, the install will run but after it completes, everything will go back to the way it was. When it happed to me it would take like 45mins to run, I could see it remove the Office 2003 icons but at the end they were right back. Therefore, I set the maximum time to 45mins and it ran a lot faster. Plus it never gave me the option to login it just said "running startup scripts" and when it was done it rebooted.

Here is the question I have. What might be the best way to add some logic to my very very basic script and what might be the best logic to add? I'm not very good at programming or scripting but my thoughts were something along the lines of the following:
I would use a .cmd file because it's the easiest for me

<<The script to copy the installation source>>
IF %Program Files%\microsoft office\office 12 EXISTS
THEN end
ELSE \\server_name\Office_2007\setup.exe /config \\server_name\Office_2007\Enterprise.WW\Config.xml
IF C:\MSO\ EXISTS
THEN end
ELSE \\server_name\Office_2007\setup.exe /config \\server_name\Office_2007\Enterprise.WW\Config.xml

<<The script to launch the install>>
IF %Program Files%\microsoft office\office 12 EXISTS
THEN end
IF C:\MSO\ EXISTS
THEN "C:\MSOCache\All Users\{940120000-0030-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}-C \setup.exe"
ELSE \\server_name\Office_2007\setup.exe /config \\server_name\Office_2007\Enterprise.WW\Config.xml
THEN "C:\MSOCache\All Users\{940120000-0030-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}-C \setup.exe"
(I know some of lines are wrong, but I hope can see what I'm trying to accomplish...)

Also it would be really great if I could find a way to write the log file specified in the xml file to a central location by computer name.

Thanks

References

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/7897ccea-d9e2-4cdf-bb63-53090da8fd0d1033.mspx?pf=true

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/ff0a01a5-33d8-407c-ac52-50edccb327861033.mspx?pf=true

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/e16af71c-fed4-40da-a886-95e596c3999e1033.mspx?pf=true


**I apologize for not doing futher research before posting. The link that Manning provided looks like it might be the script I was looking for. I think can modify this sample to accomplish what I'm trying to do.



[code:1]setlocal

REM ************************************************** *******************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM ************************************************** *******************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file.
set ProductName=Enterprise

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\share\Office12

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment REM (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\share\Office12\Enterprise.WW\c onfig.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\server\share\Office12Logs

REM ************************************************** *******************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM ************************************************** *******************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="&qu ot; SET WOW6432NODE=WOW6432NODE\

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\%WOW6432NODE%Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
:DeployOffice
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /config %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

[/code]

[Manning]

EDIT I'm afraid to post another comment because I don't want anybody to get on me about double posting, so I'll just edit this.

I don't know what changed over the weekend but whatever did it is really p-ing me off. On Friday I was able to install Office 2003 via GPO onto a clean PC, then upgrade to OPP 2007 with another GPO. Now EVERY time I try to do so I get the same error listed at the bottom of this post. I don't get it. Why is it returning an error that no config.xml is specified? I even made sure Domain Computer has full rights to the distribution point and all of its subfolders as well as the GPO installer package. I didn't have to worry about that on Friday, why now? What gives?

So what happens prior to the logon is I get the message:

Removing Managed Software Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003

that runs for 2 to 3 minutes, then:

Installing Managed Software Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007

which runs for like 8 seconds, then:

Applying Software Installation Settings

which runs for about 2 minutes and then the logon comes up. And when I log on, Office 2003 is still there and functional but no 2007. And that error is in the Application events log.

And not only that, but if I try to install OPP 2007 by running the install manually, that succeeds, but as soon as I restart the computer the GPO installer runs and uninstalls it. ?????




<Original post starts here

So I have run into most of the issues a lot of the other who are messing with the Office 2007 install have run into.

A lot of the info in this thread has kind of pushed me in the right direction, though I still have some issues that need hammering out.

I ran into the same problem that other did with Office 2007 not replacing the existing Office 2003 install. I think I have it worked out that I was configuring my GPO incorrectly. I misinterpreted what I had read about this and was trying to create the 2007 install package in the same GPO as the 2003 install package it was supposed to be upgrading. It then dawned on me that I needed to create a seperate GPO for the 2007 install pointing to the GPO for the 2003 install package. Then I had to link the 2007 GPO to the appropriate OU. That worked and Office 2003 unistalled and 2007 sort of installed...

...When 2007 sort of installed the 'pre-install' appeared to run prior to logon, then I had a ton of drive activity after logon. I looked under Start, Programs, Microsoft Office and it looked like everything was there. I clicked to open Excel and the windows installer started running, appearing to be finishing the 2007 install. Good! When it was finshed Excel opened. Good! But the mods I had done in the .MSP file had not applied. No surprise. So based on this article:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/a99b682c-b3b7-448e-8280-0ce2e9a942291033.mspx?mfr=true

...I decided to just launch the .MSP file manually and let it configure everything after the install. And low and behold it worked. So I figure I should be able to run a script at logon that will point to the .MSP file in my distribution location on the network, kind of like how aquateen wants to run the local install. But sadly I am not sure how to script it. I am guessing I will need the script to look and see if Office12 exists and if so determine if the .MSP has already been applied. If the .MSP has not been applied it should run it, if it has been applied it should end.

So the questions are - will that work? How will the script determine if the .MSP has already been run, or will the .MSP figure that out on its own? Is anybody willing to point to a script template that I can modify for this purpose? I've just found this article, and am wondering if this has worked for others:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/a57c8446-b959-4025-a866-b690ddcaa66d1033.mspx?mfr=true

Much thanks in advance. Seriously.

EDIT So much for my earlier success. I thought I would try to go through this whole install/upgrade process again and so far it isn't working. I keep getting an error in the application even log that there is no config.xml file specified:

Product: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 -- Error 25004. Config.Xml not specified; A valid config.xml file must be authored when deploying 'PROPLUS'.

I don't get it. It worked sort of OK last week and now it doesn't. I can't find anything about this that is helpful by googling.

[Manning]

Has anybody worked out how to get around the ose00000.exe error when the GPO tries to install Office 2007?

I may just give up and manually install the product if somebody doesn't come up with a way around the various issue people have been running into.

[PreviousPoster]

I'm not familiar with the ose00000.exe but I am having an issue that may help you as well, I'm not sure.

I used the office 2007 Customization tool to create an MSP file that included just an install of outlook, as I didn't want to update the entire suite yet. I have the office installation and MSP file on the remote file server. I also have the following script saved on the remote server:

setlocal

REM ************************************************** *******************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM ************************************************** *******************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file.
set ProductName=ProPlus

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\installdirectory\Office07Pro Install

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment REM (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\installdirectory\OfficeCustomF iles\Outlook07.msp

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\server\installdirectory\OfficeCustom Files\Logs

REM ************************************************** *******************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM ************************************************** *******************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" SET WOW6432NODE=WOW6432NODE\

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\%WOW6432NODE%Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
eployOffice
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /adminfile %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

I created a GPO to run that script on computer startup. I was successful in installing Outlook 2007 on the machine.

The problem I'm having is that every time the machine reboots, it runs the setup again. Any clue why?

[Manning]

I see the reinstall attempts you mentioned as well, depending on how I try to run the install. I am not sure why it does that other than to assume it has to do with the fact that the install doesn't run prior to logging into the shell, it only schedules the install. So maybe not everything is installed and the ploicy detects this and trys to finish???

I have tried a bunch of different installs and nothing works 100% how I would like it to work. The script to launch the MSP was my big hope, but I can't get that to work correctly either. I think if all I was doing was installing 2007 it would work just fine, but I need to remove 2003 first, then install 2007, then apply the MSP.

The OSE00000.EXE error occurs when you have the GPO for the Office 2007 install attempt to unistall the Office 2003 suite. I think others have described it in this thread or on another forum, but basiscally you will see the GPO unistall 2003, then attempt to install 2007 and then you get a memory error that has to do with OSE00000.exe. It has something to do with the 2007 install attempting to use the version of the file from 2003, which is locked in memory.

I wish MS has left the install the way it was. :cry: I'm to lazy, err, busy to have to learn a whole new process for running this software out to my users.

I'm not familiar with the ose00000.exe but I am having an issue that may help you as well, I'm not sure.

I used the office 2007 Customization tool to create an MSP file that included just an install of outlook, as I didn't want to update the entire suite yet. I have the office installation and MSP file on the remote file server. I also have the following script saved on the remote server:

setlocal

REM ************************************************** *******************
REM Environment customization begins here. Modify variables below.
REM ************************************************** *******************

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file.
set ProductName=ProPlus

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\server\installdirectory\Office07Pro Install

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment REM (required)
set ConfigFile=\\server\installdirectory\OfficeCustomF iles\Outlook07.msp

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\server\installdirectory\OfficeCustom Files\Logs

REM ************************************************** *******************
REM Deployment code begins here. Do not modify anything below this line.
REM ************************************************** *******************

IF NOT "%ProgramFiles(x86)%"=="" SET WOW6432NODE=WOW6432NODE\

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\%WOW6432NODE%Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\%ProductName%
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto DeployOffice) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the product was not found. Run setup here.
eployOffice
start /wait %DeployServer%\setup.exe /adminfile %ConfigFile%
echo %date% %time% Setup ended with error code %errorlevel%. >> %LogLocation%\%computername%.txt

REM If 0 or other was returned, the product was found or another error occurred. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

I created a GPO to run that script on computer startup. I was successful in installing Outlook 2007 on the machine.

The problem I'm having is that every time the machine reboots, it runs the setup again. Any clue why?

[PreviousPoster]

I, too, can't seem to get past the ose00000.exe error. I didn't have the issue when doing my initial deployment testing....but what do you know, right when I put the GPO into production...there's the error. (A quick rollback saved me there!)

With 900+ computers I'm deploying this to, manual installation just isn't an option. Anyone learned anything else lately?