Updated: 2009-04-16

In this article:

This article contains information about how to use Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 to deploy the 2007 Microsoft Office system. System Center Essentials 2007 is a management solution that is designed for IT system administrators in medium-sized organizations that include up to 30 servers and 500 client computers. Administrators can use the System Center Essentials 2007 to help secure, update, monitor, and track their IT environment.

With System Center Essentials, you can perform the following tasks:

Administrators can use System Center Essentials 2007 to deploy the 2007 Office system. For more information about System Center Essentials, see the following resources:

What this article includes

This article contains an example of how to use System Center Essentials to create a package to deploy Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007. It provides information about how to use an Office Customization Tool (OCT) Setup customization file (.MSP) and a custom Config.xml file to customize the installation to include additional languages and chain an Office product. The OCT is part of the Setup program and is the recommended tool for most customizations. The OCT saves your choices in a Setup customization MSP file. The Config.xml file is used to perform installation customizations.

This article focuses only on deployment of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. System Center Essentials documentation is beyond the scope of this article. For more information about System Center Essentials, refer to the product documentation on the System Center Essentials 2007 TechCenter (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105101).

Preparing to deploy the 2007 Office system by using System Center Essentials

This example assumes that the administrator has basic knowledge about System Center Essentials concepts, especially software deployment.

To learn about installing and configuring System Center Essentials 2007, see System Center Essentials Deployment Planning and Installation (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105093).

To learn about all functions related to software deployment by using System Center Essentials, see Software Deployment in System Center Essentials (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105094).

In preparation for deploying the 2007 Office system by using System Center Essentials, you must complete the tasks described in these sections:

System Center Essentials tasks you must complete before you deploy the 2007 Office system

This example also assumes that the administrator has already performed the following System Center Essentials tasks prior to 2007 Office system deployment:

  1. Install System Center Essentials 2007. For more information, see How to Install the System Center Essentials Management Server (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105095).

  2. Create groups of computers to which you want to deploy the 2007 Office system. For more information, see How to Create a Computer Group in System Center Essentials (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105096).

  3. Install System Center Essentials 2007 Agent on the managed computers. System Center Essentials installs agents automatically during the process of computer discovery. For cases in which a computer is not discoverable, administrators can manually install an agent to manage a specific computer. For more information, see How to Configure a Manually Installed System Center Essentials Agent (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105097).

2007 Office customization tasks you must complete before you deploy the 2007 Office system by using System Center Essentials

Before using System Center Essentials to deploy the 2007 Office system, you must perform the following tasks to customize your deployment for a multiple language installation and to configure the installation for users.

  1. Create a network installation point for your primary 2007 Office system product. For instructions, see the "To create a network installation point" section of Create a network installation point for the 2007 Office system.

  2. Specify the languages to install and any feature and settings customizations that you want to apply. For instructions, see Customize and deploy multiple language versions of the 2007 Office system.

    ImportantImportant:

    Make sure that you copy all the files and folders from the source media for each language pack that you want to install to the same network installation point created in the previous step. For example, copy all the source files to \\server\share\Office12.

    You use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to customize an installation of the 2007 Office system and create a new Office setup customization MSP file. You run the OCT by running Setup.exe with the /admin switch from the root of the network installation point; for example, type setup.exe /admin on the command line. After you complete all the customizations that you want to deploy to users, save the MSP file to the Updates folder. This is the recommended location for setup customization MSP files. When Setup runs, it searches the Updates folder on the installation point for a customization file specific to the product that is being installed.

    If you do not put the customization file in the Updates folder, you can use the Setup command-line option /adminfile to specify the fully qualified path of the folder in which you store the custom MSP file. In such cases, you would type the following on the Specify Installation Parameters screen of the New Software Package Wizard in System Center Essentials console: /adminfile \\server\share\myNewUpdatesFolder. For more information, see Deploying the 2007 Office system with System Center Essentials.

    For more information about the areas that you can customize by using the OCT, see Office Customization Tool in the 2007 Office system, and Customize the 2007 Office system.

    To customize the Config.xml file to add languages (or set feature installation states or other customizations), you edit the copy of Config.xml located in the product folder in the network installation point. For example, the product folder for Microsoft Office Professional 2007 is Pro.WW. For more information about the Config.xml file, see Config.xml file in the 2007 Office system.

    To configure a silent installation of a 2007 Office system product that requires no user interaction, prevents prompting users to enter information, and prevents the installation from waiting for any user interaction, modify the Config.xml file for the product that you are installing as follows.

    1. Open the Config.xml file for the Office product that you are installing by using a text editor tool such as Notepad. Locate the line that contains the Display element:

      <!-- <Display Level="full" CompletionNotice="yes" SuppressModal="no" AcceptEula="no" /> -->

    2. Modify the Display element entry with the following silent options:

      <Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

    3. Save the Config.xml file.

      For more information, see Configure a silent installation of the 2007 Office system by using Config.xml.

    As with any software deployment, you must confirm your Office customizations in a test environment before you deploy them to users in your organization.

Deploying the 2007 Office system by using System Center Essentials

After you configure your Office customizations, you can create a package to deploy the 2007 Office system by using System Center Essentials. This section provides information about the installation schedule of an approved update and about how to create and deploying a package.

ImportantImportant:

You must enable Automatic Updates on the managed computers to enable System Center Essentials to deploy software to the managed computers. To view the status of Automatic Updates on the target computers, open Automatic Updates in Control Panel.

You can configure the installation as mandatory (that is, not as published). In this scenario, the installation time depends on how Automatic Updates is configured on the user's computer:

  • If Automatic Updates is configured to automatically download and install at a specific time, the software is installed at that time unless the user has already manually installed it.

  • If Automatic Updates is configured for automatic download and manual installation, the user can install the software at any time.

  • If Automatic Updates is configured to notify users about updates, the software is installed immediately upon the user's approval of the notification message.

You can also configure a package as optional by selecting the Publish program(s) to 'Add/Remove Programs' option in the Approve Groups for Deployment screen of the New Software Package Wizard when you create the package (in step 9 in the following procedure). In this case, the software is added to Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel on the managed computer, and the user can install it at any time. A notification icon is displayed in the computer's notification area when the new software becomes available.

NoteNote:

Users must have administrative credentials on their computers to install applications from Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

The System Center Essentials Agent on approved managed computers checks for new software deployments every 22 hours. After the administrator approves software for deployment, the next time that the agent runs, it detects that new software is available. The agent determines when the software needs to be installed and displays a notification icon in the computer's notification area.

Deploy 2007 Office by using System Center Essentials

  1. In the System Center Essentials console, click Software.

  2. In the Results pane, in the Actions area, click Create and deploy a new software package to start the New Software Package Wizard.

  3. Browse to the network installation point that contains the 2007 Office setup files, choose Setup.exe, and select the Include all files and sub-folders in this location option.

  4. Enter "Office 2007" as the name of the software package, and specify the description that you want to display to users when the product is being installed.

  5. On the Specify Installation Parameters screen, specify the following command to reference your customized Config.xml file:

    /config \\ server \ share \Pro.WW\config.xml

    NoteNote:

    If you placed the custom MSP file in a location other than the Updates folder, you would use the following command to reference the location of the folder that contains the MSP files:

    /adminfile \\ server \ share \ myNewUpdatesFolder /config \\ server \ share \Pro.WW\config.xml

  6. Click Next to view a summary and confirm the package name and the command-line parameters that you have specified.

  7. Click Next to create the software package. Note that because the Office package is large (greater than 450 MB), it might take up to two hours to complete the packaging and signing process.

  8. After the package is created, select the Show deployment options when this wizard closes option, and then click Finish.

  9. In the Approve Groups for Deployment dialog box, select the computer groups on which you want to install the Office products, and then click OK.

The package is downloaded to target computers within 24 hours.

To install an additional application, you can repeat the previous procedure to create and deploy a new package.

You must instruct users to install the Office package on their computers if you deployed the package as published through Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel (that is, if you used the Publish program(s) to 'Add/Remove Programs' option in the Approve Groups for Deployment screen), or if Automatic Updates is configured for automatic download and manual install.

See Also