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Office XP deployment gone wrong


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new2msi

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Posted 14 August 2002 - 01:49

We have used the office xp reskit to create several transforms for office xp for our different business units.  Our new SMS admin deployed the wrong transform to the wrong unit, and we cannot resolve the issue.  We tried completely uninstalling the deployed package / transform, even used MSICUU and MSIZAP, but no matter what after we uninstall, then try to  install the correct MST configuration, is is not being applied fully, althought the product is being installed.
Our MST chnages the icons to point to a CMD instead of the executable to launch a thrid party profile generation tools prior to launching the exe.  After the install the CMD files are not being copied down, hence the custom icons are not there.  The only thing that is there is the deafult namespace icons.

Any suggestions??
Thanks.

hambone

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Posted 14 August 2002 - 12:53

which operating environment are you installing to ? ( 95/98/ME or NT or 2K/XP )

you say that you have used the reskit to create the transforms.  i expect that you used the C.I.W. to access the MSIs from the Office CDs and created the transforms from there ?

the ms office uses a slightly different method for deployment then that of a regular MSI.  the deployment strategy we used was similiar i think...  we created an admin install on a server ( consisted of the MS Office Pro XP, the System Files Update, and the Office Proofing Tools ).  we then used the C.I.W. to create the required transforms for these items.  

from here we used a SetupPro-XP.INI file to tie it altogether.  this allowed for the used of 'chained installs' and the application of specific settings to the process.

you say that the MST changes the icons to point to a CMD instead of the EXE but that the CMDs are not being copied down.  how have you implemented the copying of the CMDs ?

what did you use to make the changes to the MST to modify the icons ?

sorry about asking more questions then providing you with answers.... i have done XP deployments but not in quite the manner you have....

new2msi

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Posted 16 August 2002 - 01:11

Hambone,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.  Your input is appreciated.  I wish this whole MSI technologyn was a little more admin friendly for people who do not have a development backround..

Anyway, I will try my best to answer your questions and I apologize for not being more specific.

We are deploying the XP package to Windows NT 4.0 SP6a macines.  You are correct in that we used the CIW from the xp reskit after we created the admin share on a file server.

We then created our custom CMD batch files to be used in lieue of the default for Outlook and added those cmd files to the share.  Within the MST which we created, the CIW allowed us to add files to the installation.  So essentially the transform has the execute sequent to copy the files down to the local harddrive.  Within the same transform, we then modified the shortcuts to point to the CMD, while still using the EXE as the icon.  All the MST changes were made with the CIW.  We did not use anything else but the defualts that come with Office and the reskit, incuding the setup.ini file you referred to.

I hope this answers your questions and provides more insight.  We have tried numerous things to rectify the situation, wihout luck.  the only option on the table at the moment is to rebuildthe pc's, which my boss isn't thrilled about.

Thanks again.

P_Sinclair

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Posted 16 August 2002 - 23:17

I've never done a deployment in that manner either, but one thing which may or may not help is to check to see if the msi has been cached on the user's system.

look under the winnt\installer

you'll see a bunch of MSI files in here...one of them may be an older cached version of your XP deployment, and when you try to redeploy the msi, rather than using the server version, the system may be using the cached version on your HDD instead. If this is happening, your changes would not take place and the exact same install would keep happening.

Again, I have no idea if network installs have this issue. I've only done installs from CD and HDD, and I've had similar issues as yours, and that was how I fixed it.

Hope this helps, sorry if it doesn't

new2msi

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Posted 17 August 2002 - 18:26

Thanks for the post.  Unfortunatley ourging the cache didn;t help either.

I thought I read somewhere that one of the benefits of this technology is simple complete rollback, which is supposed to ease administartor headaches...

hambone

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Posted 19 August 2002 - 12:01

just wondering if you changed the package and product code of the failed package ?  

i am hoping that this would tell us if the msi service on the  system is corrupt of if the installation package is at fault...  it sounds like you spent a bit of time cleaning up the os though...

is it possible that you have a corrupt mst ?  have you tried deploying to the test bed with another ?

as well, have you checked to ascertain that the tool has placed the code in all of the execute sequences.  there are six of them ( three for the different levels of install: basic, admin, advanced and the same three with UI ).  mind you i think there is also the _ICESequence and _Sequence tables but...  

i have seen where third party tools only add the custom actions to the basic ui sequence and not to the others.  this resulted in differing behaviour when launched with the /qb or without....