Software Deployment

Heinz,

I suggest you use the technet articles to find out how to deploy MS Office 2003 SP3 in a managed environment.
[hr]From: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e25b7049-3e13-433b-b9d2-5e3c1132f206&displaylang=en

Administrator resources
Administrators working in managed environments can find complete resources for deploying Office updates in an organization on the Office 2003 Resource Kit.

When you double-click the executable package, installation begins. To extract the patch files (.msp files), you must use a command line. The command line and instructions are included in the Knowledge Base article (197147): Command-Line Switches For IExpress Software Update Packages.

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article (923618): Description of Office 2003 Service Pack 3 for further information about this update.
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Thank you a lot!


It only needs to customize the ini-file, which comes with the msp files and the ohotfix.exe [;)]

Really a beginner-question [sm=rolleyes.gif]

I have some questions regarding this. Using SMS 2003 SP3 and a chained install of various Office 2003 Suites and individual apps and SP3.

First of all, when using a chained install of the Pro Suite + Front Page + One Note + SP3, this works fine, or when doing the same thing with any individual app + SP3, this also works fine, but, I cannot do a chained install of multiple apps unless I start with the suite (IAW, Front Page + One Note doesn't work). I've tried using the different named setup.exe's and the different ini files, without success.

Second, with using OHotFix either in a chained install or by itself to just deploy SP3, I need to show the progress bar (so users know something is happening, and don't just reboot because "the computer got slow"), but, would like to get rid of any Cancel Buttons, and, especially the OK Button at the end of the install.

Getting rid of the Cancel buttons is self-explanatory. On the OK Button displayed at the end, at least in my SMS installs, if that is NOT pressed, even if you set SMS to reboot the computer, the install will show as unsuccessful, as without pressing the button, the error code is not 0.

Any way to display progress bars, but, nothing else, or, to do a chained install of the individual apps without the suite?

Thanks!!

gmouse

We launch a formatted Internet Explorer window to display progress to our users during lengthy installations. We use 2 files in total:-

1) Animated gif 'progress bar' to simulate a real progress bar.

2) A VBScript that create an formatted Internet Explorer window, complete with text and animated gif 'progress bar' to provide on-screen feedback to users:-

----------------------------
On Error Resume Next

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("Winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_DesktopMonitor")
For Each objItem in colItems
intHorizontal = objItem.ScreenWidth
intVertical = objItem.ScreenHeight
Next

Set objExplorer = CreateObject _
("InternetExplorer.Application")

objExplorer.Navigate "about:blank"
objExplorer.ToolBar = 0
objExplorer.StatusBar = 0
objExplorer.Left = (intHorizontal - 350) / 2
objExplorer.Top = (intVertical - 200) / 2
objExplorer.Width = 403
objExplorer.Height = 310
objExplorer.Visible = 1
objExplorer.document.ParentWindow.document.body.style.backgroundcolor = "White"
objExplorer.document.ParentWindow.document.body.scroll="no"
objExplorer.document.ParentWindow.document.body.style.Font = "10pt 'Arial'"
objExplorer.document.ParentWindow.document.body.style.borderStyle = "outset"
objExplorer.document.ParentWindow.document.body.style.borderWidth = "4px"
objExplorer.Document.Body.Style.Cursor = "wait"
objExplorer.Document.Title = "Installing XXXX"
objExplorer.Document.Body.InnerHTML = "Installing XXXX. <P><B>PLEASE DO NOT OPEN ANY APPLICATIONS UNTIL THE INSTALLATION HAS COMPLETED AND THIS WINDOW HAS DISAPPEARED.</B><P>" _
& "<img src='\\server\share\XXXX\progress.gif' WIDTH=345><P><B>Please wait...</B><P> "
----------------------------

You just need to amend the VBScript to your environment then call it in a batch file or how every you want to. There is a sample script on Scripting Guy website that talks you through how to create a 'real' progress bar if you prefer but a 'simulated' progress bar is good enough for our purposes.

I've been meaning to disable the Mininise/Maximise/Exit buttons from the Internet Explorer window to prevent users prematurely closing the window, but as yet have not found a way to do so. Answers on a postcard....

Hope this helps.

Scott

EDIT: Oops! Just seen how old gmouse reply is, oh well, it may come in handy for other people.