MSI deployment for Office apps gone - What do I do now?

[JordanCN]

We have made extremely heavy use of deploying most of our apps to computers using AD and GPOs. We now have it so all we have to do is boot of the nic on a new computer and use RIS/WDS to deploy Windows and whatever AD OU the computer is in it will get 90% of its apps automatically.

We are looking into upgrading to Office 2010 and other MS apps, but they are not supporting MSI GPO deployments any longer. There is something about using a startup script to do a silent install, but I can tell you a dozen things that can go wrong with that method.

What methods are people moving to in order to fully deploy most of their apps?

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

There are a number of software solutions for managing applicaton deployment that will more than get the job done. Microsoft's System Center solutions provide very robust toolsets for deployments among other things. System Center Essentials is designed for the midsized business and software deployments are one of many functions this solution will provide. If all you are looking for is software deployment capabilities, then System Center Configuration Manager would likely be overkill. But, you may still want to take a look at it as it could quite possibly benefit your organization with its many features. Symantec's Altiris solutions are good products to look at as they are feature rich solutions as well. Below are links to each of these products for further information on their capabilites.

- System Center Essentials

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/essentials.aspx

- System Center Configuration Manager

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/configuration-manager.aspx

- Altiris Products & Services

http://www.symantec.com/business/theme.jsp?themeid=altiris

I am including another link to Microsoft's site that links to several different articles that provide information on various deployment scenarios with Microsoft Office 2010 that might give you some ideas on how to handle this deployment.

- Deploy Office 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee656739.aspx

Joey
CCNA, MCSA 2003, MCP, A+, Network+, CWTS

 

[mrmovie]

its a shame MS has dropped ADS, it was an awesome product, only supported on server 2003 though.

SCCM blows, its huge, is prone to failure and is a royal pain. i should know i have almost 20 years experience with it.

i prefer to write my own installation engine and task sequence engine. its not hard to do, windows service to query central repository of assigned tasksequences...run them, report back progress blaa blaa.

I Hear, I Forget
I See, I Remember
I Do, I Understand

Ronald McDonald