SMS: Running Office as a Shared SMS Application

• Microsoft Systems Management Server versions 1.1 and 1.2

SUMMARY

It is possible to install Microsoft Office 4.x, Microsoft Office 95, or Microsoft Office 97 as a shared application to be run with Program Group Control (PGC). However, each of these versions of Office are somewhat unique in installation and behavior when used as a Systems Management Server shared application. This article highlights some of the similarities and differences to expect between the Office versions.

This article assumes a good working understanding of Systems Management Server shared applications. Please refer to the Systems Management Server product documentation for information, instructions, and examples of shared applications, sharing packages, and Share Package On Server jobs.

MORE INFORMATION

The following setup procedures are consistent across all versions of Office:

1. Run Setup.exe with the "/a" parameter to perform an administrative installation when creating the source directory.

2. Use the latest package definition file (PDF) from http://www.microsoft.com/smsmgmt/. If the PDF has not been updated, use the PDF supplied with Systems Management Server 1.2, located in the Primsite.srv\Import.src\Enu directory, or the PDF included on your source media.

3. Check the product documentation and Readme.txt files for comments about shared installations in general, and Systems Management Server in particular.

4. Create a separate package and job to send out the Msapps components of Office (such as OrgChart, Microsoft Graph, WordArt, and so on).

   NOTE: The Msapps and MSOffice source and destination directories cannot be the same.

5. You must perform a one-time initial installation. This is specified by the ConfigurationScript entry in the [Program Item Properties] section of the PDF, or the Configuration Command Line in the Program Item Properties dialog box, when setting up the package. If you are installing Office on a computer running Windows NT Workstation, the user must have Administrator rights to run the one-time installation. The one-time installation will make appropriate .ini file and registry changes on the clients, and may copy some files locally to the Windows directory.

6. Any customized modifications to the Office .stf files are not supported by Microsoft.

7. The source media must be a full, unrestricted license version. Limited license versions (such as OEM or MSDN versions) will fail to install correctly.

8. To use the Office toolbar and OLE functions, you must install all of the Office applications.

9. Click to check the Run Local Copy If Present option in the Package Properties.

Microsoft Office 4.2x and 4.3

PDFs are available for Office 4.2a, 4.2c, 4.3 and 4.3c. Use the Msapps.pdf file for the Msapps package.

Office 4.x requires the appropriate Smsproxy directory (located in the Primsite.srv\Import.src\Enu directory) to be copied to the source of the administrative share. Smssetup.exe runs the configuration command line.

Program Group Control (PGC) creates an icon for each Office application when the user's User Groups are enumerated. As the user clicks on each application, the application runs its own one-time installation as described above. You must run the one-time installation for each Office application (that is, once for Microsoft Word, once for Microsoft Excel, once for Microsoft Access, and so on).

Microsoft Office 95

PDFs are available for Office 95 and 95a. The Office Standard PDF is Ofs95.pdf. The Office Professional PDF is Ofp95.pdf. Use the Msapps32.pdf for the Msapps package.

Office 95 does not use SMSPROXY. Smsacm32.exe runs the configuration command line for Office 95.

Program Group Control creates a single MSOffice icon when the user's User Groups are enumerated. When the user double-clicks the icon, the one-time installation runs for all Office applications at once and creates the program items for each application.

Microsoft Office 97

You must download the Office 97 Professional PDF (Of97prof.pdf) and the Msapps PDF (Msapps97.pdf) for sharing from http://microsoft.com/smsmgmt/pdfs.htm. the Office 97 Resource Kit includes additional PDFs for specific applications and the Office 97 Standard version.

Office 97 does not use SMSPROXY. Smsacm32.exe runs the configuration command line for Office 97.

A white paper called "Using Microsoft Systems Management Server to Install Office 97" is available at http://www.microsoft.com/smsmgmt. Download this paper and read it for step-by-step instructions.

Running Office 97 as a shared application requires Systems Management Server 1.2 Service Pack 1 or later.

With client computers running Windows NT, the one-time Office 97 Setup installs the icons in a global (All Users) group. This means that the program items are not generated dynamically for each user, and it is up to you to monitor your own Office license usage. Also, the shortcuts for the program items point to the UNC name for the distribution share from which the one-time installation was run, and the applications will always run from that share. Load-balancing will not be performed (as it is with Appstart in Office 95 or Office 4.x), and if the distribution server is unavailable for some reason, the Office 97 shared application will fail to start.

In Systems Management Server 1.2, Windows 95 introduced the Network Naming Provider (NNP) to dynamically choose a distribution server. If the distribution server is unavailable, another distribution server will be chosen.

The following list contains additional articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base that may be of interest:

Q168599: SMS: Brief Overview of PGC for Windows 95 clients in SMS 1.2 Q135690: SMS: PDF For Office 4.3 Does Not Support Office 4.3c Q140055: Installing Office 95 using Systems Management Server Q140144: SMS: Clipart Gallery Must be Downloaded Every Windows Session Q159477: SMSLS or PGC Stop Responding When Programs in Startup Group Q161920: SMS: Program Group Control Fails to Set Up Localized Office 95 Q157819: SMS: Windows NT Cannot Run Office 97 as Shared Application Q161604: SMS: PGC Application Is Reset with a "Configure" Status