Office 2007 and Group Policy

[joestern]

I've been deploying Microsoft Office with GP since Office 2000. It's still possible with version 2007, but greatly reduced in functionality. I can't use the customization wizard, or even set our company name.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/9df1c7d2-30a9-47bb-a3b2-5166b394fbf51033.mspx?mfr=true

I feel hurt, bewildered...betrayed. Do I really need to upgrade to SMS to get what I've always had before?

:cry:

[Eric]

You could upgrade to SMS, or you could always try Microsoft Softgrid as well. We use both here, and I would always choose deploying applications via Softgrid over SMS.

My .02 worth....

Eric

[AdamV]

I haven't tried to do a custom network install of Office 2007 yet, but have done lots on 2000 and 2003

That said, most of the concepts seem to still be supported - when and how to install features, locations to install from, organisational info, additional files and registry keys etc.

This page seems to cover it:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/5e377afe-3c09-447d-82b9-06400fbf11381033.mspx?mfr=true

[joestern]

Adam -

The page you cite describes how to use the customization wizard like we've done with versions 2000, XP and 2003. Unfortunately, the page I linked to earlier states:

Applying customizations to the Office installation
Because of the way Setup runs when Office is installed, there are some limitations on the number of installation options that you can customize when you deploy the 2007 Office release with Group Policy.

• All customizations must be made in the Config.xml file. Setup does not apply Setup customization files that you create using the Office Customization Tool (OCT).

It goes on to say that the only things you can customize in a GP deployment are the Product ID number, the language, the installation state and the installation source location.

I'm probably going to touch every machine to install the software from a customized installation point, then use something like GFI's LANGuard to install patches with borrowed administrative credentials. I won't be using GP at all.

I am, as previously mentioned, bitterly disappointed about this.

[AdamV]

Sorry, but the page you linked seems to only be a jump-off page for lots of other Office 2007 info and does not contain any specific information as far as I can see.

Can you give a URL for the actual page you get that quote from?
I think it must be this page:
http://tinyurl.com/utaf4

As far as I can see this may be simply a misunderstanding.

You use the customisation tool (OCT) to create a MSP file. This is used for 'interactive' installations or ones you run from scripts.

To deploy using group policy you have to make changes to the config.xml file. It says this quite clearly here:
http://tinyurl.com/umxoc

You can define which features are / are not installed.
What you can't do is also roll in extra files, reg keys (which you could ADM anyway) or non-Office program installations.

What level of customisation do you require? What options specifically do you wish were included that are no longer there?

I agree the OCT (or OCW as was) is a nice interactive way to make these choices rather than editing a raw xml file, but in terms of end functionality it seems to fit the bill for most medium-sized deployments.

[mikepiet]

Adam-

Joe is absolutely correct in his findings with Office2007 and group policy deployment. It is easily apparent that MS no longer wants admins to deploy office via gp's any longer.

Not only do you have to kludge through the XML file to get your "custom" installation working, but you also now have to be a local admin to be able to run the install.

The install also does not run completely before boot (should you choose that option in your software deployment GP)

Finally, as was not the case in 2003 gp deployments, unless your Office 2003 install was a previously "managed" deployment via gp's, you have no option to install over the existing office install. The damn thing will install Office 2007 along side the other and you have to uninstall any previous versions by hand. Again, this was not an issue in 2003 as I could install a GP deployed version over ANY other previously installed version.

MS really dropped the ball on this one.

Michael

[Brainded]

I agree completely. I work in an academic setting, and we need several different permutations of Office (no Outlook on some, no Publisher on others, etc). The only way I've found to deploy these is to have a separate copy of the entire CD for each configuration, since you can't have multiple CONFIG.XML files. What a joke!

[jdobiash]

I've managed to get an Office 2007 product to install via Group Policy. Strangely enough, even though Microsoft Says that COMPANYNAME isn't one of the 'used' variables, I put it in my custom.xml and after the product was installed the Company Name was there. You might want to just try it out and see it if works.

I do wish it would fully install before the Login prompt shows up, but at least it does finish the install with SYSTEM rights even if a non-admin user logs in (assuming you Assigned it to the Computer instead of to the User).

Also, it can be removed sucessfully too (assuming you have "Uninstall this application.." checked), but it takes an additional reboot. First you remove the policy (or the computers membership from whatever group you assigned to the policy), reboot the computer, it will throw up a quick blip about "Removing Managed Software...", then go right to the login prompt. At this point nothing has actually been done, it simply queues the uninstall process, which occurs shortly after the login prompt shows up (or even after the user logs in, which may be a pain). One word of warning, make sure you don't shut off or reboot the computer until it gets done uninstalling it (which occurs in the background so you can't see it's progress if you are at the Login Prompt still), otherwise it may get stuck in limbo and won't be able to uninstall it even by hand. Once it finishes uninstalling it, it then initiates a restart of the computer, at which time it will be fully removed.

Has anyone here really done any work with Office 2007 deployment using GPSI?

I'm writing up my lashup for the new book and need a reviewer or two.

If you've DONE IT..

config.XML and custom.msp files,
I want to hear from you.

Let me know via personal email.

Thanks, guys.

[charlie]

I tried upgrading an Office 2003 deployment to Office 2007 using Group Policy and here is what happened:

The Vista machines in my test environment took the Office 2003 install and then the Office 2007 upgrade with no problems (though it was weird to see how 2007 didn't finish installing until after I logged on).

The XP machines took the 2003 install just fine (as they always have for me), but when it tried to upgrade to 2007, it did the uninstall of 2003 (or at least it said that was happening). It then said it was installing 2007, but it would then give errors regarding the ose.exe being held in use and then fail. Once I log on I still have Office 2003 installed.

I posted to a MS NG and someone else responded pretty quickly that he had the same problem. He also pointed out that the article from Technet2 that described how to do the deployment appears to have been taken down. Interesting, huh?

On the other hand, I saw a post about a month ago from someone saying that he had no problem deploying in the same scenario using the same method. He said he did it to around 50 machines, so I can't understand what is going on.

Just a response to a few posts above:

jdobiash, I also put the company name in the XML file and it took, but that may have been because Windows has our company name as the owner. Could that have been the case for you?

AdamV, the link you provided doesn't relate to a Group Policy deployment. And the MS article that did give instructions for a GP deployment clearly said that you can't use the OCW.

Brainded, good point. I was thinking that you could just have multilple config.xml files, but that is because I was so used to being able to have multiple MST files. Of course, you are right.

So, if anyone has had success upgrading Office 2003 to 2007 using Group Policy, let me know.

Thanks.