Office2003 included in MS Action Pack

[Kit]

Hi all,

My company subscribe to the MS Action Pack (UK -I don't know if there are
variations from country to country) and I (as the sole IS bod) will shortly
be rolling out 2003 to the 18 users.

When we went from 2000 to XP, I did administrative installs and rolled out
through a GPO, the Office applications in the action pack do not seem to
support this. Begs the question "why?" doesn't it!

Running "setup.exe /a" reports an error saying that only volume licensed
versions can do this.

Is there a 'work-around'??

If there is no way doing this with the Action Pack versions then I think
this is a huge oversight on the part of MS, it is not just large companies
that have the need to reduce the administrative overheads, also, I feel for
the thousands of MCSE students and independent consultants out there who now
cannot test GPO roll-outs of office using their Action Pack software. Sorry
MS, this is a huge f**k up, please think about changing this!!!


__
Kit

 

[Keith V. Klenke]

how much does the action pack cost vs volume licensed office2003? you will
find your answer in the difference.

i too have run into something like this as an admin, i have higherups who
bought mass retail/oem versions because they found it for cheaper than
open/volume licensing & are mad at me for not having it rolled out
unattended already...heh

 

[Helmut]

Hello,
I am stuck with the same situation, but I understand
Action pack not as a way to buy cheap software, but as
support for people dealers and others who sell and handle
with microsoft products.
So, limiting featueres makes no sense.
Anyhow, I know once I have read a white paper about this
kind of installation procedure and how to prepare
the "mother installation" so that each individual user may
still activate with his own key.
If someone could publish this article again, would be very
appreciated!
Thanks,
Helmut