OFFICE 2003 NETWORK INSTALLATION

Running Setup to create an administrative image
To distribute Office from a network server, you must first install Office on an administrative installation point by running Setup.exe with the /a command-line option. Then you can customize your Office configuration before running Setup on users' computers.

To create an administrative installation point for Office

Create a share on a network server for the administrative installation point.
The network share must have at least 550 megabytes (MB) of available hard disk space.

On a computer that has write access to the share, connect to the server share.
The computer must be running a supported operating system: Microsoft Windows® 2000 Service Pack 3 or Windows XP or later.

On the Start menu, click Run, and then click Browse.
On the Office 2003 CD, double-click setup.exe and add /a to the command line.
Note that if you are using the Office 2003 Select CD, type the name of the Setup program for the package you are installing. For example, if you are installing Office 2003 Professional from the Select CD, type SetupPro.exe /a on the command line.

Enter the organization name that you want to define for all users who install Office from this administrative installation point.
Enter the server and share you created as the installation location.
Enter the 25-character Volume License Key and click Next.
You must enter a valid Volume License Key when you create the administrative installation point; users who install Office 2003 from this administrative image do not need to enter the product key when they install Office 2003 or start an Office 2003 application for the first time.

Accept the end-user license agreement and click Install.
By accepting the agreement here, you are accepting on behalf of all users who install Office from this administrative installation point.
Setup copies the files from the Office 2003 CD to the administrative installation point, extracts the compressed cabinet (CAB) files, and creates a hierarchy of folders in the root folder of the share.


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Note When you install Office 2003 and you set features to run from the network (Run from Network or Run All from Network), you must create your administrative installation point in a subfolder on the share; for example, \\server\share\admin_install_point\setup.exe. If Setup.exe is stored at the root of the share, Office 2003 features do not run properly.


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The following table identifies the location of key files on the Office 2003 administrative image.

File Location
Setup.exe Root of the administrative image
Setup.ini Files\Setup
Office 2003 package (MSI file) Root of the administrative image
OPC files used to clean up previous versions Files\Program Files\MSOffice\Office11


Setup also modifies the Windows Installer package for Office, identifying it as an administrative installation package and setting the ProductID and COMPANYNAME properties accordingly. After you create the administrative installation point, you make the share available to users by providing them with read access.

When users run Setup to install Office, any Office features that are installed to run from the network use this administrative installation point as the source of Office files, and Office runs the features over the network from this server. Similarly, for features that are set to be installed on first use, Office copies files from this server when needed. If you install features in one of these two states, then you must keep this network server available to users. You can copy the administrative image to one or more backup servers to help ensure that users always have access to the source.

When users install Office from the administrative installation point, Setup uses the organization name that you specify as the default. With the Office 2003 Custom Installation Wizard, you can create a Windows Installer transform (MST file) that modifies the organization name during installation. This flexibility allows you to create different organization names for different groups of users in your organization.

You can specify the organization name on the Setup Properties in the Office Resource Kit Reference.


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Toolbox The Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit (ork.exe) includes the Custom Installation Wizard as part of the core tool set and is available as a download. You can find this downloadable file on the Office 2003 Resource Kit Downloads page.