microsoft.com Home
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork |
|
microsoft.com Home
|
|
|
|
||
|
http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork |
|||
Users are able to travel easily between computers when their documents and application preferences travel with them. This requires both configuring the Microsoft Office 2000 installation to make it easier for users to travel and configuring the operating system to support users who travel.
A uniform configuration of operating system and application software throughout your network simplifies the task of supporting traveling users. In addition, it helps to install Office 2000 to the same place on each computer.
Flexible application shortcuts with the Windows installer
Standard shortcuts to an application contain a path to the program file. With the new Windows installer, however, you can take advantage of a more flexible type of shortcut. Windows installer shortcuts use a globally unique identifier (GUID) to point to the application, so they are not dependent on a particular application path.
Windows installer shortcuts make it easy to support traveling users. When you use Windows installer shortcuts, you don’t have to worry about installing Office to the same place on each computer. When users click a Windows installer shortcut, the shortcut tracks down the Office application. If the application isn’t installed, the installer automatically installs the missing application, and users can resume their work.
Windows installer shortcuts work with Office 2000 running on Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 98. You can also use them with Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95 including Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 and Active Desktop turned on. Windows installer shortcuts are created automatically when you install Office 2000 on one of these operating systems.
The following guidelines can help you make your environment work well for traveling users:
Install Office 2000 to the same folder on each computer If users travel from a computer that has Office installed on drive C to a computer that has Office installed on drive D, their shortcuts and customized settings might not work correctly.
Install Office on a per-computer, rather than per-user, basis Traveling users rely on user profiles to transfer their individual settings. However, you can save both hard disk space and download time by installing Office 2000 on a per-computer basis. For Windows NT, log on as an administrator of the computer and then install Office 2000. For Windows 95/98, install Office before you turn on user profiles. Installing on a per-computer basis ensures that the installation information is shared between all users on that computer, so it does not need to be stored separately for each user.
Note Installing Office 2000 before enabling user profiles on Windows 95/98 gives you a per-computer installation of Office 2000. Be aware, however, that using this method for Windows 95/98 can cause Windows installer shortcuts to display a generic image, rather than the application icon. The shortcuts continue to function correctly; only the image is affected.
Install Office applications to run from the network If you install the Office applications on the network, these applications are always available to traveling users, as long as your network is running. With the applications on the network, you also cut down on the number of files and other objects that must be copied to each hard disk when users travel to a new computer.
Install crucial Office applications to run from the local hard disk You can install the Office applications that users need most to run from the local hard disk. For example, if everyone uses Word on a daily basis to work on reports, memos, and other documents, you can ensure that their work is not interrupted by server problems by installing Word on the local hard disk.
Store user information on the network When you configure a user profile to roam, it is copied to the network, and then downloaded when a user travels to a new computer. To make roaming even easier, you can also store other information, such as your users’ My Documents or Personal folders on a server, so that users can open their documents from the server, no matter which computer they are using.
Tip If you store user information on a file server, rather than your Primary Domain Controller (PDC), you can also balance the load on your servers more efficiently. For more information about load balancing, see your network documentation.
Create a default Office user profile Office 2000 includes the Profile Wizard that you can use to save a set of Office options. This set of options is called an Office user profile. You can start all of your users off with the same configuration by creating and deploying a default Office user profile when you deploy Office 2000.
Set system policies You can protect or enforce important settings through system policies. For example, if you want all users to save files in a particular format, you can set the file type to use through a system policy.
Tip Do not lock down the system entirely if you are supporting traveling users. Make sure that user profiles and system policies allow users to install the applications they need when they travel to a new computer. You can also set the Always install with elevated privileges policy for the Windows installer. This policy allows any user to install Office 2000 features as if the user were an administrator for that computer.
You can use the Profile Wizard to create an Office profile and give your traveling users a standard environment to start from. For more information about using the Profile Wizard, see Profile Wizard.
You can set system policies to control which options are available to your traveling users. For more information about system policies and Office options, see Managing Users’ Options with System Policies.
Traveling users rely on roaming user profiles to track their user information. For more information about roaming user profiles in Windows NT 4.0, see the "Guide to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Profiles and Policies." To find the guide, search for Windows NT 4.0 Profiles on the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/.
Top Friday, March 5, 1999 © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of use. | ||
|
License
|