Stage deployment of applications in the 2007 Office system
Applies To: Office Resource Kit
This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Topic Last Modified: 2008-10-14
If you are installing a product that contains multiple applications, such as Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, you might choose not to install all of the applications at the same time. For example, you may prefer to add Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to user installations of Office Enterprise 2007 in a separate step.
You can use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to select the applications in the product that you do not want to install initially. Later, you use the OCT again to select those applications that you want to add to user installations. This is the recommended way to stage deployment of Office applications, rather than purchasing and installing individual products separately.
To prevent Setup from installing specific applications
From the root of the network installation point, run the following command line to start the OCT: setup.exe /admin.
Select the product that you want to configure
Click OK.
In the left pane, click Set feature installation states.
In the right pane, set the installation option to Not Available for each application that you do not want to install. The application name is set to bold to show that you have changed its installation option. To prevent users from installing this application themselves, select the Hidden and Locked options. The symbols [H] and [L] are added to the application name to show that these options are set.
For example, to not install Outlook, expand Microsoft Office and change the installation options for Microsoft Office Outlook to Not Available, Hidden, and Locked. The application name displays as [H] [L] Microsoft Office Outlook.
Make other customizations, and on the File menu, click Save As.
Specify a path and file name for the Setup customization file, and click Save.
On the File menu, click Exit.
Copy the Setup customization file to the Updates folder in the network installation point.
On the user's computer, run Setup.exe from the root of the network installation point.
When you run Setup to install Office, Setup uses the customization file in the Updates folder that you created and installs Office without the applications you set to Not Available.
To add applications to the installation
Run the OCT as in the previous procedure and select Open an existing Setup customization file. Click OK.
Find and select the Setup customization file that you created in the previous procedure.
Click Open.
In the left pane, click Set feature installation states.
In the right pane, find the applications that you set to Not Available in the previous procedure. Each application name appears in bold to show that it was changed. For each application that you want to add to the installation, set its installation option to Run all from My Computer or Installed on First Use.
For example, to install Outlook, expand Microsoft Office and change the installation option for Microsoft Office Outlook to Run all from My Computer.
Make other customizations, and on the File menu, click Save.
Click Exit.
Deploy and apply the Setup customization file (MSP) to users' computers.
Tip
You do not have to modify your original Setup customization file to add applications to an installation. Instead, you can create a new customization file with the appropriate installation options and apply that customization file to the users' computers.
How it works
When you apply the Setup customization file to the user's computer, the existing Office installation is modified to add the specified applications. Because the Setup customization file is a Windows Installer package (MSP), you can apply it to users' computers just as you would a software update, using whatever deployment method you have available. For example, you can use a deployment management program such as Microsoft Systems Management Server.
Note
You cannot apply the Setup customization file to existing installations by putting the file in the Updates folder and running Setup again on the user's computer, or by running Setup with the customization file specified in the command line. You must apply the MSP file directly to the user's computer.