Office Registry Keys

[Michael R. Emmert]

Office Registry keys

We have a very large network (22,000, All local). Most workstations are
2kpro, with a few XP, small Number of NT4, and a couple of 9x. (the 9x
machines can be ignored at the present time)
We are needing to run a query against each workstation to determine the
following...
a. Version of Office (97, 2000, 2002, XP)
b. Build of Office version
c. What service pack has been aplied for that Office Version
d. What patches have been applied for Office

Our query ability can look at the registry, but would have problems running
against specific office files on each system. We can do the latter, but
would need to modify too many things to easily accomplish it.

Therefore, we are wanting to know the different registry keys where the
above information can be located. We have done a search on the net and in MS
KB's, but have not found anything definitive. Also we have closely examined
the registry settings for different OS's and Office versions. There does not
appear to be much consistency. We have found numerous keys for Office. One
problem is that when doing an upgrade from one version of office to another,
many of the previous version's reg keys remain. This will confuse our query
unless we know of the exact key information (there needs to be unwavering
consistency for key information within a version). Also the information
under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\... does not match information under
HKLM/Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\P
roducts\904000001E872D116\... In addition, when comparing the information
from Help\About, this does not match any of the registry information.

Any help would be appreciated

Michael R.

 

[Kamal]

If you go to help and about in any office program it should tell you what
version of office you have and whether any service packs have been applied.

To see what patches have been applied you can go to office update at
http://office.microsoft.com/ProductUpdates/default.aspx

 

[Michael R. Emmert]

What you state is Correct. These things we know about. However, this will
not help when we run a query. If we would need to visit each workstation
(22,000) to accomplish what you recommend, we would never get the task done.
Therefore, we are needing a way to run a query against information found in
the registry.

Are there other ideas or suggestions.

Michael R.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Michael,

There is an Office Inventory tool that works with
Office 2000 and Office XP
http://microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/journ/offutool.htm

Office 97 used the older Acme setup and checking file
properties would be more reliable. You may want to check
with the folks in the MS Systems Management Server (SMS)
newsgroup to see if its capabilities might be appropriate
or the tools at http://microsoft.com/sam

With Office 2000, Office XP or Office 2003 if you try to
apply an update that has been applied you'd basically
get a 'not required' response. If you're managing those
from an Office Admin point then one of the approaches for
updating would be to update the Admin points to current
status then recache the clients which would bring them
current.
http://microsoft.com/office/ork

You can use the GUIDs for the Office products in
the installed software section in the registry,
but that won't give you the update level unless the
update has been part of a Service Release rather than
a Service Pack.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302663&FR=1

========
Office Registry keys

We have a very large network (22,000, All local). Most workstations are
2kpro, with a few XP, small Number of NT4, and a couple of 9x. (the 9x
machines can be ignored at the present time)
We are needing to run a query against each workstation to determine the
following...
a. Version of Office (97, 2000, 2002, XP)
b. Build of Office version
c. What service pack has been aplied for that Office Version
d. What patches have been applied for Office

Our query ability can look at the registry, but would have problems running
against specific office files on each system. We can do the latter, but
would need to modify too many things to easily accomplish it.

Therefore, we are wanting to know the different registry keys where the
above information can be located. We have done a search on the net and in MS
KB's, but have not found anything definitive. Also we have closely examined
the registry settings for different OS's and Office versions. There does not
appear to be much consistency. We have found numerous keys for Office. One
problem is that when doing an upgrade from one version of office to another,
many of the previous version's reg keys remain. This will confuse our query
unless we know of the exact key information (there needs to be unwavering
consistency for key information within a version). Also the information
under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\... does not match information under
HKLM/Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\P
roducts\904000001E872D116\... In addition, when comparing the information
from Help\About, this does not match any of the registry information.

Any help would be appreciated

Michael R. >>

--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

The Office 2003 System parts explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/preview/system.asp

MS on 'Why Office System 2003'
http://microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2003/10-13productivity.asp