Software Deployment

Hello,

You could always use the /modify qualifier with setup.exe. The following is an extract from a Technet article

[font="courier new"]/modify [ProductID]
Used with a modified Config.xml file to run Setup in maintenance mode and make changes to an existing Office installation. For example, you can use the /modify option to add or remove features. Look up the value of [ProductID]in the Setup.xml file for the product you want to modify.

The Setup.xml file is located in the core product folder on the network installation point. In Setup.xml, [ProductID] is equal to the value of the Id attribute of the Setup element. For example:

- <Setup Id="Pro" Type="Product" ProductCode="{30120000-0011-0000-0000-1000000FF1CE}">
Example
\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /modify Pro /config \\server\share\Office12\AddOutlookConfig.xml

where Office12 is the root of the network installation point.

So all you need is a modified config.xml to instruct setup.exe to add the desired feature. For example, to add Publisher at a later stage, you would modify the config.xml in the Publisher.WW folder on the installation point and create an OptionState element in this file as follows :

[font="courier new"]<OptionState Id=”PubPrimary”
State=”Local”
Children=”force”
/>


Regards

Spartacus

Thanks for the reply Spartacus.

It seems the problem was that when you make an update MSP to change the installed applications you need to make sure they show up with a [F] symbol beside them. This denotes those applications will be forced to install. Without the [F] the patch ignores them. The same patch installed as the initial configuration installs the specified applications...

Very annoying

to change the installed applications you need to make sure they show up with a [F] symbol beside them. I'm guessing that you're talking about your deployment mechanism here?

No, I'm talking about making a MSP in the "Office Customisation Tool" that is displayed when you run setup /admin to configure your Office 2007 install.
If you make no change to the application selections (or reset them to default) then nothing shows up beside the selection and when you install an MSP later to try and change the installed applications it ignores the selected applications, presumeably because they are set to default settings even they they are differnt to those selected in the initial install (In my case only Outlook).

If you change the selected application options you will see a [F] symbol beside that application and when you install the MSP it forces that selection ot be installed.

OK, good. I obviously wasn't paying attention during my recent toying with Visio 2007 :)

Did you get the opportunity to try the alternative method I suggested, and if so, did it work for you ?

Regards,

Spartacus

See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179141.aspx for "changing user configurations after installing the 2007 Office system"