Other posts in this series:

Deploying Windows 7 + Office 2010 Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 – Part I

Deploying Windows 7 + Office 2010 Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 – Part III

After completing the first post of this series where we’ve installed and configured MDT 2010 Update 1, added a Windows 7 clean image to the Deployment Share and created the Task Sequence to deploy it; in this second part of “Deploying Windows 7 + Office 2010 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010” we are going to work with Microsoft Office 2010 application.

In this post we will add Microsoft Office 2010 as an application in our Deployment Share, and configure the environment to achieve a silent and unattended installation for this suite.

The unattended possibilities for deploying applications in MDT always depend on the application we are using, fortunately Microsoft Office is highly prepared to accomplish this unattended installation, and with the possibility to customize it by easily selecting the features we would like to install in Config.xml answer file.

Adding Microsoft Office 2010 to MDT

Adding applications to Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 requires only running a simple wizard which should not be any problem.

Note

We do need of course the Microsoft Office 2010 binaries, and since we would like to use the unattended possibilities complemented with MDT 2010, we are going to need the installation files we can find in the Office 2010 DVD.

The stand alone installer (for example: en_office_professional_plus_2010_x64_515489.exe) can be used but we cannot edit the properties in MDT console.

Let’s start with the wizard:

1. In the MDT console, expand the Distribution Share we’ve created right-click “Applications” and select “New Application”.

2. Select “Application with source files” and click on “Next”.

3. Complete the information for this new application and click on “Next”.

4. Select the source directory where we can find the “setup.exe” file.

In my case I’m using the DVD which contains the x86 and x64 versions, since we can only add one architecture at a time, you must select one sub folder. And considering we are deploying a 64-bit operating system, I’m going to install the 64-bit Microsoft Office 2010 version.

5. Specify the directory name to be stored, in my case “Microsoft Office 2010 x64”. Click on “Next”.

6. In “Command Line” type “setup.exe” for the installer file to be executed, the “Working directory” can be left with the default option.

7. In “Summary” review the options selected and click on “Next”.

The importation process will start and should not take much longer.

8. Once completed, click on “Finish”.

With the application added we can double click it to access its properties.

As you can see importing a Microsoft Office product includes a tab in the MDT properties called “Office Products” which contains options to simplify the unattended process.

Configuring Office 2010 Unattended Installation

Now that we have the application imported, we can configure a silent, unattended and customized installation of Microsoft Office 2010 within a few steps:

1. In the properties section, select the “Office Products” tab.

2. Select the following options and click on “Apply”:

“Office product to install”: The version you are using, in my case Professional Plus “ProPlus”.
“Office languages”: Language available, in my case “en-us”.
“Product Key”.
“Customer Name”.
“Display Level”: “None”. With this, in the installation process we won’t see any window running.
“Accept EULA”: Enabled.
“Always suppress reboot”: Enabled.

All these options are stored in one file: Config.xml; which is used of course as an answer file for the unattended installation for Office 2010. In this file we must also set the features we would like to install, and the type of installation.

For more information, take a look to this link: Config.xml file OptionState ID values for Office 2010.

3. Click on “Edit Config.xml” to view and edit the unattended installation file. You will see something like this:

We are going to edit this adding the features we would like to install. Here’s an example of the Config.xml file I’ll be using in this series, download it in this link.

I’m ignoring the lines with “<!—” since they are used for comments and examples.

<Configuration Product=”ProPlusr”>
<Display Level=”None” CompletionNotice=”No” SuppressModal=”No” AcceptEula=”Yes” />
<COMPANYNAME Value=”Augusto Alvarez” />
<Setting Id=”SETUP_REBOOT” Value=”Never” />
<AddLanguage Id=”match” />
<AddLanguage Id=”en-us” ShellTransform=”Yes” />
<PIDKEY Value=”xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx” />
<OptionState Id=”AccessFiles” State=”absent” Children=”force” />
<OptionState Id=”ExcelFiles” State=”Local” />
<OptionState Id=”GrooveFiles” State=”Absent” Children=”force” />
<OptionState Id=”OneNoteFiles” State=”Local” Children=”force” />
<OptionState Id=”OUTLOOKFiles” State=”Local” />
<OptionState Id=”PPTFiles” State=”Local” />
<OptionState Id=”PubPrimary” State=”Absent” Children=”force” />
<OptionState Id=”WORDFiles” State=”Local” />
<OptionState Id=”XDOCSFiles” State=”Absent” Children=”force” />
<OptionState Id=”SHAREDFiles” State=”Local” />
<OptionState Id=”TOOLSFiles” State=”Local” />
<OptionState Id=”EXCELFiles” State=”Local” />
</Configuration>

In this example the following features are being installed: Word, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Office Tools (like Office Picture Manager, HTML source editor, etc.) and Shared Files. All of this is using the “Local” type of installation, which in this scenario is usually a better choice than “Install on first use”.

Adding Office 2010 to the Task Sequence

With the application imported and the unattended file in place, we just need to edit the Task Sequence we’ve created in the first post to use this application.

1. Expand the Distribution Share, “Task Sequences” and double click on the task sequence we’ve created earlier “Deploy Windows 7 Clean Image”.

2. In the last phase of the task sequence, “State Restore”, click on “Install Applications” and select “Install a single application” where you can select Office 2010 using the “Browse…”

With that, we have Microsoft Office 2010 64-bit added to MDT 2010 and configured for a customized and unattended installation within our Windows 7 deployment process.

In the next post, we will not only deploy this Windows 7 + Office 2010 but we will also prepare for an automated capture of this image and upload it to our MDT 2010.

Other posts in this series:

Deploying Windows 7 + Office 2010 Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 – Part I

Deploying Windows 7 + Office 2010 Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 – Part III