Skipping the parts where I feel that you are trying to start a debate
what system is what or MS is missing the boat, I will only reiterate what
I said.
If the admin install point is updated with SP2, then redeploy using a
GPO. While this link isn't for SP2, it gives a good insight on how MS
sees updating admin point and client workstation after an update is
applied.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011525461033.aspx
Me personally... I'm fond of installing Office 2003 using the setup.exe
file and using a combination of chaining and/or patching via WSUS. If
you site uses something else to deploy/patch (SMS, Zenworks, Patchlink,
.etc), by all means use it because it fits your corporate strategy.
/neo
PS - before I forget, the MSI file still exists for the off the shelf
software. patches from Microsoft tends to be binary updates that are
packaged as an MSP. This allows the "updates" to be smaller.
Scott said:
whatever happened to the good old msi file you could just point the
software install package thing to in GPO? What did someone at MS wake up
one day and say "You know, that's just too easy, hmm, how can we make
that more difficult to do?" and walla here we are?
What the hell?
I thought MS was trying to make administration, use of systems etc
EASIER and LESS TIME CONSUMING for people now they come out with all
these great new extravegant ways of doing things that take something
that was previously a 10 page how to guide and 3-4 basic steps and turn
it into a 60 page guide with dozens upon dozens of steps, other
components that need to be configured / installed etc just to achieve
the same damn result as the previous version...
This is really getting old, one of the [previous good ol' days] benefits
of MS over Linux was ease of administration, deployement, less
complexity etc now it seems MS's goal is to catch up with Linux in being
a pain in the ass to do anything with while simultaneously trying to
keep the average desktop user dumb as a doorknob about system security
and stability.
Mac's and Linux based PC's are looking more and more attractive all the
time to me these days.
The way I understand the install and patch process can be done a couple
of ways...
1) Office 2003 installed from GPO (assuming administrative install
point)
- patch admin install point with fullfile sp2 update
- redeploy Office 2003 with GPO
2) Office 2003 installed using setup.exe
- patch using Microsoft Update or Windows Server Update Services
Just so you know, MS implements a binary update process. Therefore
the updates in SP2 fullfile exe download are MSP files. I prefer
option #2 because one can modify the setup ini to include references to
other applications/patches that need to be installed after Office
completes. This isn't slipstreaming and does speed up deployment.
Another benny is that the workstation/laptop ends up with a local
installation source. This means the CEO in a hotel room doesn't need
access back to corporate network when it comes time to add a feature,
repair the installation, or patch.
I should correct that - I cannot find the MSI that you would click on
in software installations -> new package in the GPO - office is not
installed here via GPO (I found that to be incredibly unreliable -
errors galore in office apps on machine that had it pushed to them that
way) and I would prefer to not slipstream it - I just want the freakin
update to run on user machines - anyway to do this now? Or did MS make
that 10 times more difficult to do as well now (seems to be their theme
lately)?
Thanks,
Scott
I'm not finding one available...?
