Administrative Installation of Office 2000

[MrTBC]

OK - I am trying to create an Administrative Installation of Office 2000 Pro on our Windows 2000 Server for Windows 2000 Pro Clients.
I have read the "Deploying Microsoft Office With Group Policy " FAQ on this but still have a few questions...

1. The FAQ says to use "Start>Run> D:\Setup.exe /a" but the instructions from Microsoft say that you need to specify an MSI file at this point (e.g. D:\Setup.exe /a filename.msi" Do I need to do this? There is an MSI file called "Data1.msi" on the Office CD - do I use this file?

2. What are the Administrative patches mentioned in point 3? - these links no longer work. Are these just patches released since the last Service Pack (i.e. SP3)?

3. The details given in the FAQ for installing a Service Pack on to the Administrative Installtion point also differ from the Microsoft ones, which seem to be "msiexec /p \\server\filename.msp /a \\server\officeinstallation\filename.msi". Which are correct please?

4. Should Microsoft be immediately closed down until they provide decent instructions on how to actually get stuff done?;-)

Many Thanks for any help you can give on this.

 

[FredNoB]

Create a folder eg Applications on your server. Share this folder. Give full permissions to Admins and read and execute permissions to Domain Computers. Copy the contents of your Office CD to Applications. On Active Directory create an OU eg Workstations. Create a Group policy for the Workstations OU. Go to Computer Configuration -> Software Settings -> Software Installation. Right click New -> Package. Browse to the server path \\servername\applications\data1.msi. Select the assigned option and the package should appear on the Right hand policy window. Close the GP. Move the workstations which are to receive Office into the Workstations OU. Restart the workstations. The package should be installed on the computer just before the login window appears. Be warned though, it might take a couple of restarts to pick up the package but it does work.

 

[MrTBC]

Thanks FredNoB. Sorry if my question wasn't very clear but I am struggling with completing the actual Administrative Installation of Office to an Administrative Installation point.

 

[mwiner]

MrTBC,

are you using a Volume License version of the CD or is it just a retail version?

 

[MrTBC]

Thanks mwiner - I believe it is a Volume License version.

 

[mwiner]

Interesting. Because it should work fine then. Retail versions do not allow the setup of an administrative point.

Check out this site and see if it helps. I know that It says Office 2003 but the process is the same.

http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/office2003_advanced.htm

Good luck.

-Matt

 

[MrTBC]

Thanks very much mwiner - that looks just the job!