How to push Office 2003 sp3

[Clayton Sutton]

Hey everyone,

First, we are running both SMS 2003 and WSUS in a windows 2003 domain.
However, we are kinda new to both.

Is there a way to push sp3 for Office 2003 out to everyone without them
having any dialog boxes pop up and without them having to close Outlook or
Word or Excel? We would like to push this out without anyone knowing that
we are doing it and without the end user seeing any pop ups.

I know both SMS and WSUS can push it out, we just don't want any signs of it
on the end user's side.

Can anyone point me to a step-by-step doc or white paper?


TIA,


Clayton

 

[Matthew Hudson]

Depending on your enviroment you will need to set the patch to install when
no user is logged on and set to run at 6pm to 6am. This way if the user logs
out during the day and logs back in they don't have a patching install and
possible restarting their computer. Use ITMU to install the patch if you
like this way you don't have to do anything special, unless you ITMU settings
are different, in this case you would need to create a new package for just
sp3

 

[Lawrence Garvin [MVP]]

Hey everyone,

First, we are running both SMS 2003 and WSUS in a windows 2003 domain.
However, we are kinda new to both.

Is there a way to push sp3 for Office 2003 out to everyone without them
having any dialog boxes pop up and without them having to close Outlook or
Word or Excel?

Part of the answer to this question is this question: Is there *ANY* way to
install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 with Word/Excel/Outlook open on the
desktop? I believe you'll find the answer is No.

Furthermore you should not, as in *never*, attempt to install a SERVICE PACK
with the application running. It's a virtually guaranteed invitation to an
installation failure.

We would like to push this out without anyone knowing that we are doing it
and without the end user seeing any pop ups.

Then you should:
[a] Use after-hours installations, and
Instruct users to log off the machine when they go home (and leave
it powered on), and
[c] Enable the policy "Reschedule Automatic Updates scheduled
installations", just in case somebody powers the machine off,
which will ensure the service pack is installed at power up *before*
the user(s) can log on and start up Office 2003

I know both SMS and WSUS can push it out, we just don't want any signs of
it on the end user's side.

Well, actually this is semantically incorrect.


=SMS= can push the service pack.

WSUS is a PULL ONLY technology, and requires the client to *request* the
update package (made possible by the act of approving the service pack for
installation), and then successfully download the package to the client.

Can anyone point me to a step-by-step doc or white paper?

Have you tried the WSUS Operations Guide for basic "How to operate WSUS and
approve updates" information?

The WSUS Overview and WSUS Deployment Guide for the basics of how WSUS works
would probably also be a good resource to review.

Beyond that, some generic white papers on Patch Management philosphy and
best practices can be found on the Shavlik site, as well as, I believe, in
the Microsoft Technet library. (I don't have any specific links for general
guidance, though.)



--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCBMSP, MCTS, MCP
Senior Data Architect, APQC, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2008)

MS WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
My Websites: http://www.onsitechsolutions.com;
http://wsusinfo.onsitechsolutions.com
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin