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When you select modifications in the Office Custom Installation Wizard, the wizard alters the behavior of Office 2000 Setup to install Microsoft Office the way that you choose. The wizard can do this because Office 2000 Setup uses the new Windows installer to install and manage Office components.
The Windows installer uses two types of files to install Office:
The package, or MSI file, contains a database that describes Office files and configuration information, plus instructions that determine how Setup installs the files.
The transform, or MST file, contains modifications to be applied to the package as Setup installs Office.
The Custom Installation Wizard creates a new MST file based on your customizations. Setup reads the information in the MSI file, applies the changes specified in the MST file, and installs Office by using the combined set of instructions. The original MSI file is never altered. This arrangement allows you to create any number of MST files; so you can design any number of Setup scenarios by using the wizard, all from the same administrative installation point.
For example, you can use the Custom Installation Wizard to create unique MST files for your Accounting, Engineering, and Human Resources departments. You can install a customized set of features and settings for each department. Your settings become the default when users in each of these departments install Office by using the MST file that’s customized for their department.
The Windows installer package is a relational database that contains all the information necessary to install Office 2000. The package associates product components with features and contains information about the installation process itself, such as installation sequence, destination folder paths, system dependencies, and installation options. The package also contains a number of properties that control the installation process.
After installation, the installer continues to use the package to add or remove components and replace missing or damaged files. When you set Office features to be installed on first use, the installer uses the package to copy the files the first time the user activates the feature.
By using the Custom Installation Wizard, you can create a Windows installer transform that describes how to transform the package so that Setup installs Office the way you want. Like the package, the transform is a relational database with information about components, features, and Setup properties. But the transform contains only the changes that you want to apply to the package.
When you run Setup by using both the package and the transform, the installer applies the transform to the original package, and Setup uses your altered configuration to perform the installation. The installer does not change the package itself, but only temporarily applies the changes in memory before carrying out the package instructions.
To customize the Office installation, you use the Custom Installation Wizard to create a new transform that contains all of the changes you want to make to the Office installation. You then run Setup by using both the package and the transform.
Because the transform is typically much smaller than the package, you can easily create multiple custom installations by creating multiple transforms to use with the default package. In each transform, you can select a different set of installation options, add custom files or registry entries, and customize Setup properties.
For example, you can use the Custom Installation Wizard to create three MST files for three departments: Accounting, Engineering, and Services.
In the Accounting transform, you specify that Microsoft Access is to be installed to run on the user’s computer and that Microsoft Word is to run on the network. In the Engineering transform, you choose to install the spreadsheet templates to run on the user’s computer. And in the Services transform, you add a set of Word templates that are used to create corporate forms.
When users in the Accounting department run Setup, they use their department’s MST file, and Setup installs their customized version of Office. Users in the Engineering and Services departments install different customized versions of Office by using the MST file created for their particular department.
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