ACC97:How to Install Wizards Locally [OFF97 SR1 Network Setup]

• Microsoft Access 97

SUMMARY

Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability, and multiuser skills.

This article discusses how to modify the Setup Table File (STF) of Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 1 so that Setup installs Microsoft Access 97 wizard files on users' hard drives during Run From Network Server installations. The information in this article is based on Acwizard.doc, but the STF changes apply specifically to Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 1.

Acwizard.doc is one of nine advanced Office documents contained in Document.exe, a downloadable file on the "Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit Tools and Utilities" page on the World Wide Web. To view a description of the other Office documents or to download Document.exe, please see the following Microsoft World Wide Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/appa/appa.htm#ORKappaC3

   http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/appa/appa.htm#ORKappaC1

   http://www.microsoft.com/

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: ANY USE BY YOU OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS ARTICLE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Microsoft provides this information "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. Modification of the Setup Table File (STF) is not supported by Microsoft Access Technical Support Engineers.

If you open, edit, and save the STF file improperly in Microsoft Excel, you may receive a "Setup Error 932" error message. To resolve this error, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q162796
   TITLE     : OFF97: Setup Error 932 After Modifying STF File

   http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/

Modifying the STF File to Run Microsoft Access from the Network

To make a Run from Network Server installation from an administrative installation point work more smoothly, administrators can modify the Microsoft Office 97 Professional Edition or Microsoft Access 97 Setup Table File (STF). These modifications are described in the following sections.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 WARNING: The modifications that are described in this paper should only be
 used with Run from Network Server installations. Do not use an STF file
 with these modifications for Typical or Custom installations.

 To use a modified STF file to change a Run From Network Server
 installation, make a backup copy of the Setup.lst file (typically this
 file is located in the Msoffice folder of your administrative installation
 point); then open the file in Notepad and search and replace all
 occurrences of the names of STF and INF files with the names of the files
 you create using the procedures in this paper. Save the modified LST file
 to a name of your choosing.

 You can use the following example command line when you run Setup:

    Pathtosetup\Setup /l filename.lst /b3 /q1

 These command-line options perform the following functions: /l points to
 the LST file that you modified to point to the correct STF and INF files
 for this installation, /b3 performs a Run from Network Server
 installation, and/q1 runs Setup in quiet mode.

 If you use Network Installation Wizard version 2.1 or later, you can use
 the following command line when you run Setup:

    Pathtosetup\Setup /l Netinst/Netinst.lst /b3 /q1

 In this example, /l points to the location of the .lst file created by
 Network Installation Wizard. The first instance of Netinst is a
 subdirectory of Pathtosetup; you specify the name of this subdirectory in
 the Choose Setup Files Subfolder screen of the Network Installation
 Wizard. The Network Installation Wizard then creates the subdirectory and
 also creates a custom .lst file with the same name in this subdirectory.
 In this example, the file is named Netinst.lst. If an .lst file with the
 same name as the subdirectory already exists in that subdirectory, the
 wizard appends a number to the directory name in order to create a unique
 name for the custom .lst file.

 Network Installation Wizard version 2.1 or later also suggests a command
 line based on the preferences you supply, such the installation type
 (Typical, Custom, or Run from Network Server) and the Quiet Level that
 you specify in the Select Quiet Mode screen.

 For more information about command line parameters used with
 Microsoft Office 97 setup, please see the following article in the
 Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q158503
   TITLE     : OFF97: Setup Switches for Microsoft Office 97

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Installing Microsoft Access Wizards Locally

After performing a Run from Network Server installation, Microsoft Access runs wizards directly from the Workdir folder on the network server. This works properly as long as users are given Change permissions (the set of Read, Write, Execute, and Delete permissions) in the Workdir folder, as described in "Creating the Administrative Installation Point" in Chapter 4, "Installing Microsoft Office," in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit.

However, a user cannot run certain wizards, such as the Table Wizard, from the network if another user is running the same wizard at the same time. Instead, an error message is displayed. To avoid sharing conflicts when running wizards, or if you don't want to give users Change permissions in the Workdir folder, you can modify the STF file so that Setup installs Microsoft Access 97 wizard files on users' hard drives during Run from Network Server installations.

NOTE: The following instructions are recommended only for administrators who are familiar with administrative installations and editing of the STF file. All of the procedures in this paper assume that you have already created an administrative installation point. For more information, see "Creating the Administrative Installation Point" in Chapter 4, "Installing Microsoft Office," in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit.

WARNING: Off97Pro.stf and Acc97.stf are tab-delimited files that rely heavily on positional parameters, and they can easily be damaged by modifying them using a method other than the one described here.

The best way to make complex edits to an STF file is by using Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel opens the tab-delimited data in an STF file as separate columns so that you can easily view and modify the data. However, if you do not follow the correct procedures when opening an STF file, you can damage the format of the STF file. Some of the tab characters used to delimit data in the STF files for Microsoft Office 97 and Microsoft Access 97 are followed by a single space. Before editing the STF file the first time in Microsoft Excel, you must remove these trailing spaces as described in the following procedure.

To remove trailing spaces from an STF file

1. Make a backup copy of the STF file (Off97pro.stf or Acc97.stf) in the MSOffice folder of the administrative installation point.

2. Open the STF file in Microsoft Word (version 6.0 or later).

3. On the Edit menu, click Replace.

4. In the Find What box, type ^t followed by a single space.

5. In the Replace With box, type ^t with no space following.

6. Click Replace All.

7. On the File menu, click Save As, and save the file as Text Only. Microsoft Word saves the file with a .txt extension.

8. In My Computer or Windows Explorer, rename the file to remove the .txt extension and restore its original name (Off97pro.stf or Acc97.stf).

When you open an STF file in Microsoft Excel, it starts the Text Import Wizard to specify how data is formatted. You must make the correct selections in the Text Import Wizard to make sure that all columns of data in the file are opened using a Text format.

To open an STF file using Microsoft Excel

1. Before opening an STF file the first time, remove trailing spaces as described in the preceding procedure.

2. Start Microsoft Excel and open the STF file. The Text Import Wizard starts automatically.

3. Click Next twice to proceed to Step 3 of 3 in the wizard.

4. In the Data Preview window, scroll down until ObjID is displayed at the top of the first column.

5. Click the first column to select it.

6. Scroll all the way to the right until the last column is displayed. The data at the top of the last column should be Install Directory.

7. Hold down shift and click the last column. All of the columns in the Data Preview list should be selected.

8. In Column Data Format, click Text, and then click Finish.

To modify the administrative installation point for Office 97 to install

Microsoft Access wizards on users' hard drives

1. Open Off97pro.stf in Microsoft Excel as described earlier in this paper in the procedure "To open an STF file using Microsoft Excel."

2. Scroll down to the row that contains 133 in column A (ObjID ). In column F (Object Data ), change the value 160 to 161. The values in column F for this row should now read:

         137 134 161 163
   

3. Scroll down to the row that contains 134 in column A and delete the value 140 in column F. The value in column F should now read:

         139 607 136 154 144
   

4. Find the rows with the following values in column A and change the values in column K (Destination Directory) as specified in the following table.

       Column A  In column K, change this value     To this value
       ----------------------------------------------------------
   
       822       %d,%d\Office                      %161,%d\Office
       831       %d,%d\Office                      %161,%d\Office
       2116      %d,%d\Office                      %161,%d\Office
       2120      %d,%d\Office                      %161,%d\Office
   
   

5. Find the rows that contain 832 and 2117 in column A. For both rows, locate the string %s within the value in column F and change it to %161. The values in column F for each row should now read:

       Column A  Column F
   

       832       "LOCAL","Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Access\Wizards
                 \Data Files", "Wizard Data File", "%161\wzdat80.mdt", ""
       2117      "LOCAL",
                 "Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Access\Wizards\Replication
                 Conflicts", "Path", "%161\Wzcnf80.mda", ""
   
   

   driveletter:\foldername\

Do not change anything else in the file. Save the file with the changes you made back to the MSOffice folder of the administrative installation point.

Sharing the Same Workgroup Information File

The changes described in the previous section copy only Microsoft Access wizard files to users' hard drives. The workgroup information file, System.mdw, remains in the Workdir folder on the network server and is shared by all users who run Microsoft Access from the network. This arrangement works as long as all users running Microsoft Access from the network have at least read permissions and have the same level of security permissions for the Workdir folder.

If a user needs to add or modify Microsoft Access user-level security account information (which is stored in the System.mdw file), that user must log on with at least Change permissions. However, if a user logs on with Change permissions or higher while other users have only Read or Add & Read permissions, problems can occur. For example, if a user with Change permissions starts Microsoft Access when no other users are running Microsoft Access, the System.mdw file is opened for exclusive access, and no other users can open the file or start Microsoft Access. You can avoid this problem any of four ways:

• If no users need to make changes to user-level security account information, make sure all users who run Microsoft Access from the network have the same level of permissions in the Workdir folder.
• If one user needs to change user-level security account information, have that user log on using an account that has Change permissions in the Workdir folder and then exit Microsoft Access as soon as the changes are finished.
• Alternatively, if a user needs to change user-level security account information, have that user use the Workgroup Administrator or the /wrkgrp command-line option to specify a copy of the System.mdw in a different folder. After making changes to that System.mdw, the user can copy the modified file back into the Workdir folder after all other users have exited Microsoft Access.
• You can modify the STF and INF files before users install Office 97 or Microsoft Access 97 so that Setup installs a copy of System.mdw in the Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office folder on users' hard drives during Run from Network Server installations, as described in the following procedures. In this scenario, if a user needs to change user- level security account information after Office 97 or Microsoft Access 97 has been installed, that user must distribute copies of the updated System.mdw file for other users to copy to their hard drives.

To modify the administrative installation point for Office 97 to Install

System.mdw on users' hard drives

1. Open Off97pro.stf in Microsoft Excel as described earlier in this paper in the procedure "To open an STF file using Microsoft Excel."

2. Scroll down to the row that contains 133 in column A (ObjID ). In column F (Object Data ), change the value 163 to 165. The values in column F for this row should now read:

         137 134 161 165
   

3. Scroll down to the row that contains 161 in column A. Add 574 to the end of the value in column F. The value in column F should now read:

         829 2115 2119 818 183 574
   

4. Scroll down to row that contains 574 in column A. In column E (Object Type), change the value from CustomAction to CopyFile. In column F, change the value from "msacccah.dll, SyncEXECalloutCAH, %s\OS\System\wrkgadm.exe /sil %s\Workdir\system.mdw" to User Files, system_mdw. The beginning of this row should now read:

         574        CopyFile User Files, system_mdw
   
   

5. Also, in the row that contains 574 in column A, add %161 in column K.

6. In the row that contains 2163 in column A, locate the string %s within the value in column F and change it to %161. The value in column F should now read:

         "LOCAL", "Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Access\Jet\3.5\Engines",
         "SystemDB", "%161\system.mdw", ""
   

The Off97pro.inf file also needs to be modified.

To modify the Off97pro.inf file

1. Make a backup of the Off97pro.inf file.

2. Open the file in WordPad or another text editor that does not alter tabs and spaces.

3. Search for system.mdw and insert Workdir\ in front of system.mdw. The line should now read:

          "system_mdw"= 1,Workdir\System.mdw,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
   

For more information about copying the wizards locally, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q174742
   TITLE     : ACC97: How to Install Wizards Locally Rather Than on Server

   ARTICLE-ID: Q178330
   TITLE     : ACC97: How to Install Wizards Locally [Standalone Network Setup]