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Deploy Microsoft Office 2010

I am working on deploying Office 2010 through the EminentWare system. My question is, what is the best way to go about this. I've tried to setup a package where the main file is the setup.exe from the install folder, then added all the other files as additional files. I then put a command line argument in that calls the setup.exe, config.xml and a custom msp file so I can do an admin install. The creation of the package then failed on me.

I know the command line argument works as I've installed locally on a couple machines. I just need to know the best way to setup the package itself.

Before I try this again, I basically want verification on whether I should be adding all these 'additional' files through the package creation screen, or if there is another way. It's hundreds of files adding up to roughly 500mb.

I'm also having the same type of issue with Adobe Reader being grouped in with a transform file. If there is any documentation on creating 3rd party apps with additional transform files, can you point me to it?

Also, I saw on another post referring to Office 2007 that creating an EXE through Chiklak EXE maker was recommended. I tried this, but when I run it locally I can't get the initial unzip dialog box to be silent. Do you happen to know if EminentWare forces this box silent, or do I need to worked more on the command line of this exe?

Thank you in advance for any help I may get.

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solarwinds-admin

That is the correct way (adding setup as main file and adding other files as additional).

There is a video on applying transforms on our website (Third Party Updates: How to add a MSI transform (MST) to a package) that may be of help to you.

On the last item, EminentWare won't force the unzip dialog to be silent; that would need to be 'forced' by the executable

-Kelly

solarwinds-admin

bwilson_conticorp:
I am working on deploying Office 2010 through the EminentWare system. My question is, what is the best way to go about this. I've tried to setup a package where the main file is the setup.exe from the install folder, then added all the other files as additional files. I then put a command line argument in that calls the setup.exe, config.xml and a custom msp file so I can do an admin install. The creation of the package then failed on me.
I know the command line argument works as I've installed locally on a couple machines. I just need to know the best way to setup the package itself.
Before I try this again, I basically want verification on whether I should be adding all these 'additional' files through the package creation screen, or if there is another way. It's hundreds of files adding up to roughly 500mb.
I'm also having the same type of issue with Adobe Reader being grouped in with a transform file. If there is any documentation on creating 3rd party apps with additional transform files, can you point me to it?
Also, I saw on another post referring to Office 2007 that creating an EXE through Chiklak EXE maker was recommended. I tried this, but when I run it locally I can't get the initial unzip dialog box to be silent. Do you happen to know if EminentWare forces this box silent, or do I need to worked more on the command line of this exe?
Thank you in advance for any help I may get.

I am deploying Office 2010 as well. I cannot seem to get the default transform to work from the Updates directory and the config.xml does not seem to pick up either. Basically, the automatic registration part of office is not working.

I am working on a command line for setup to grab the config.xml and the *.msp from the network and hoping this will solve my dilema about the automatic product activation. Let me know if anyone else has some better ideas.

Good luck.

solarwinds-admin

Just wondering how your Office 2010 deployment ended up? I'm working on that myself right now and am running in to the same problem, where setup.exe starts, but then never seems to call the .msp file from the Updates directory.

solarwinds-admin

I am still in the process of finalizing the package via eminentware. It seems I can run the package from a network share and it seems to install fine without command line switches. When I publish the same package from eminentware it seems to not read SOME of the .msp file. The shortcuts show up just fine and other items included in the MSP, but the automatic activation does not seem to work.

I did try calling the MSP from another network share and that did not work at all. I am going to attempt ot use the .vbs script for automatic activation of the product AFTER it gets installed. There is a place in the OCT for creating the MSP that will let you run a script after the program gets installed.

I am currently using an MAK volume license key to install Office 2010.

There are several articles that I am using as reference to set up the automatic product activation from Microsoft's tech net.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624357.aspx

NOTE : if we had a KMS server it would make product activation much easier.

I will let you know after I do more tests on the Eminentware package of Office 2010 and post the results here.

akohler40

Hello,

I know this post is a bit old but I figured why not because Solar Winds support was zero help on the issue and the reason they gave is they don't "really" support custom packages. Anyway the issue I am having is the Office 2010 install seems to go fine on the workstation but in patch manager the install task stays at 0% and eventually it will go from a status of Success to a status of Aborted. (takes about 2 hours) My prerequisite rule is processor type x86 (my test WS is x86) and my installed rule checks for the reg key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0. I am running EminentWare Version 1.73.221.4 and WSUS 3.0 . I use a MAK key and a Custom.msp in the Office install. I choose package type of ,exe and select the setup.exe file. I then add the additional files from the install. I would greatly appreciate any help from some patch manager alpha geeks. Thanks in advance!
"

LGarvin

When launching the install task from Patch Manager, is the Office 2010 CAB file already downloaded, or does this installation task include the download activity? What is the physical size of the CAB file for the Office 2010 update.

If the WUAgent is trying to download the Office 2010 CAB file from the WSUS server, and the Patch Manager server is waiting for that download to complete, it's quite possible that the task will be aborted as it does not complete in the time expected.

I would suggest letting the WUAgent download the Office 2010 CAB file from the WSUS server as part of the normal update download activity -- depending on the traffic on the network, and the number of machines for which the Office 2010 package is approved, it could actually take several days for the download to complete! (You'll likely also want to avoid doing this around the regular monthly patch cycles, as the download of the Office 2010 CAB file could also interfere with other monthly updates.)

Once the client reports the Office 2010 update as Downloaded, then try running the installation task as an Install Only task.

antwesor

I remember when I created my custom Office 2010 install that it clocked in at about 1 gig. And that was the DVD plus service pack 1 squished into the Updates directory. I was going to include SP3 but that would have even added to that 1 gig package and I was fearful of making a package that large. Just thought I would let you know what I did. Office 2010 with service pack 1 .msp's in the updates directory was about all our network could handle.

jbaits

For my Office 2010 package I made an exe package and added setup.exe. I then uploaded all the additional files that are required in the setup directory including a customized config.xml. The only modifications made to the installer were in that config.xml. I had much better results with the package installing once I removed SP1 from the updates directory. Now Office 2010 installs reliably and WSUS takes care of applying any required updates.

LGarvin

The other methodology to consider is installing Office from the network, but using the package as a delivery mechanism to run the setup.exe from the share.

The package definition has an option to allow the WUAgent to validate that the machine has a good network connection. Ensure that the network share is READ-ONLY to EVERYONE (The WUAgent has no network privileges by default). This would preclude the need to transfer a 1GB CAB file to every client.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff521767.aspx for more information on installing Office 2010 from a network share.

antwesor

Yes, that would be the preferred method to install Lawrence. Our network admin's do not give us the rights to set up such a system so I had to come up with using Patch Manager instead. -sigh-. I am glad that it did work though. Putting Office 2010 on the image and making a fat image seems to be a much smoother method at this point.