Customising Microsoft Office Suite installations for Terminal Services or Citrix
In the Citrix and Microsoft Terminal Services world of today you no longer need a special transform (OST file) to install the Microsoft Office Suite on a to a Microsoft Windows 2000 or 2003 server with Terminal Services enabled,
or then on a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server computer (If there are still an out there).
Microsoft Office setup now recognizes that it is running under Terminal Services, and therefore setup pre-configures all the correct options. There are however some limits as to be expected, you cannot install a Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 suite on servers running Windows NT 4.0. Microsoft Office 2007 suites will also not install on servers that are running Windows 2000.
In addition to these easy requirements, Microsoft Office 2007 suites also require an Enterprise Product Key when you install the product. If a Retail Product Key has been used, an alert that is similar to
"This copy of Microsoft Office Excel cannot be used on Terminal Server. Please contact your local authorized Microsoft retailer for more information"
Microsoft Office on Terminal Services installations because of the multi-user nature of a Microsoft Terminal Services Server and of users' restricted access to the server, Microsoft Office Setup installs all features to one of the following installation states by default:
1. Run from My Computer -- Most features are set to this state because they work well in a Terminal Services environment. Features that typically default to Installed on First Use are set to Run from My Computer.
2. Not Available -- A few features are set to this state. These are features that do not perform well in a Terminal Services environment, typically because they use additional animation that generates too much data traffic
between the Microsoft Terminal Services computer and the Terminal Services client computer. Leave these features set to Not Available so that they are not installed.
If you do not want an Office feature installed on the Terminal Services server you can, use the Custom Installation to configure the feature state as Not Available or Not Available, Hidden, Locked. These are outline as below.
Customizing an Office XP or Office 2003 installation
To customize an Office XP or Office 2003 installation, use the Custom Installation Wizard in the Microsoft Office Resource Kit to create a custom transform (.most file). When you install Office with this transform, the Office features set to Not Available are not installed.
- Start the Custom Installation Wizard.
- On the Set Feature Installation States page, select the feature that you do not want to install.
- Set the installation state of the selected feature to Not Available, Hidden, Locked.
- Click to select the Do Not Migrate Previous Installation State check box. Note The Do Not Migrate Previous Installation States check box must be selected for each feature that is set to Not Available, Hidden, Locked
- Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each feature that you do not want to install.
- Click Next, and then set the options that you want in the remaining pages of the wizard
- Click Finish. Note the sample command line that is provided, and then click Exit
- Install Office XP with the transform
Customizing a 2007 Office installation
To customize an Office installation, use the Office Customization Tool to create a customization patch (.MSP). When you install Office with this customization file, the Office features that are set to Not Available are not installed.
- Start the Office Customization Tool (OCT) in Setup /Admin on the Office CD.
- Select Set Feature Installation States in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen, and then select the feature that you do not want to install in the tree on the right
- Set the installation state of the selected feature to Not Available, Hidden, or Locked. If more than one of these settings is needed, the menu must be accessed again to select the additional setting
- Repeat steps 2 through 3 for each feature that you do not want to install
- Set any additional options that you want in the OCT
- Select Save As on the File menu to create the MSP file. It should be saved in the \Updates folder unless another location is specified in the Config.xml file
- Install the 2007 Office suite with the .MSP file. Note The Office Customization Tool requires that Windows Installer 3.1 be installed
Charles Aunger
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