Create a network installation point for the 2007 Office system
Updated: November 16, 2006
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: 2016-11-14
Typically, the first step in a corporate deployment of the 2007 Microsoft Office system is to create a network installation point. To do this, you copy all the source files from your Office CD to a shared location on the network. Users run Setup from the network installation point, or you use the installation point as a starting place to create a hard-disk image or a custom CD or to distribute Office by using a deployment tool such as Microsoft Systems Management Server.
To create a network installation point
Create a folder for the Office source files at an accessible location on the network server. For example:
\\server\share\Office12
Note
Do not create the network installation point at the root of the server.
Insert the Office CD into your CD drive.
In Windows Explorer, select all the files and folders on the CD. Copy the CD contents to the folder on the network. This location becomes your network installation point.
If you are deploying multiple language versions of Office, copy each language pack you want from the source media to the installation point. When you are prompted to overwrite duplicate Setup files, click No.
In the 2007 Office system, core Setup files are shared among all Office products and language packs. Because these files are identical, there is no reason to overwrite the files. Additionally, by not overwriting Setup files, the network installation point remains online and available to users while you add files.
If you are deploying multiple Office products, copy those files from the CD to the installation point. When you are prompted to overwrite duplicate Setup files, click No.
If you create a Setup customization file (MSP file) for the installation, store the file in the Updates folder at the root of the installation point.
Alternatively, you can use the /adminfile option to specify a Setup customization file on the command line.
If users are installing Office after product updates are released, store those MSP files in the Updates folder.
The amount of space required on the network installation point varies by product and by language. The following table shows space requirements for English versions of the 2007 Office system suites that are typically installed in enterprise organizations. These figures account for both the installed product and the installation files stored in the local installation source.
Microsoft Office Standard 2007 |
660 MB |
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 |
980 MB |
Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 |
1 GB |
The installation point contains only one copy of the language-neutral core product. Each language that you add requires additional space only for the language-specific components.
For example, the U.S. English and the French versions of Office Enterprise 2007 require approximately 1 GB of space each on the server—more than 2 GB in total. Because the language-neutral components are not duplicated, however, a network installation point that includes both languages requires only about 1.75 GB of space. The amount of disk space that you save increases as you add more languages.
For detailed system requirements for all the products in the 2007 Office system, see 2007 Microsoft Office release system requirements.
Note Unlike previous versions of Microsoft Office products, in the 2007 Office system you do not create an administrative installation point by running Setup with the /a command-line option to extract compressed source files. In the 2007 Office system, all installations occur from the compressed source.
Replicate the network installation point
In most enterprise organizations, the network installation point is the location from which users initially install Office. After Office is installed, users do not typically need to rely on the network source for tasks such as updating, modifying, or reinstalling Office. Setup automatically creates a local installation source on each user's computer. If the local source is corrupted or deleted, however, Setup returns to the original network source to recreate the local source on the user's computer.
Replicating the network source to multiple locations is recommended for the following reasons:
Availability. Creating multiple network installation points (which may or may not be in the same physical location) helps ensure that users always have access to a network source. Ideally, the duplicate network installation points are managed by Distributed File System (DFS) technologies and are transparent to users.
Proximity to users. Many companies have high-speed LAN networks that are connected to other subsidiaries or branch offices by much slower WAN connections. Setting up a duplicate network installation point at the remote locations means that Office source files travel over the slow network connection only once; thereafter, users have access to a network source closer to them.
Consistency. By creating one network installation point with all the customizations you want and then duplicating that installation point as needed, you help ensure that the same configuration is deployed throughout your organization.
Flexibility. If the primary network installation point installs a standard corporate configuration of Office, regional offices can apply additional customizations to the replicated network installation points and customize Office for their unique region-specific requirements.
To specify additional network sources
Start the Office Customization Tool (OCT) by running Setup with the /admin command-line option.
On the Additional Network Sources page, click Add. Enter the path to the location to which you plan to copy the network installation point.
You can add as many additional source locations as you need.
Save the Setup customization file (MSP file) generated by the OCT in the Updates folder at the root of the network installation point.
Copy the entire folder structure of the network installation point to the locations you specified in the Setup customization file.
Users who install Office from any of these network installation points have access to the backup network sources. Setup checks these sources automatically when an alternate source is required.
Secure the network installation point
Follow these recommended best practices to help make the network installation point for Office secure:
Make sure that access to source files is read-only.
The Setup.xml and Package.xml files are digitally signed and cannot be modified.
Save all customization files that you create, including Setup customization files and custom Config.xml files, as read-only.
If you are centralizing log files on the network, make sure that users have read/write access to that location.
Make sure that all users have administrative rights before installing Office; you can accomplish this by using your existing software deployment infrastructure.