Software Deployment

Usually a hidden, read-only DFS share is created to hold all the MSI packages. That's the best way to go, but if you really want it local then the easiest way to get around this is to copy the MSI to the local machine and launch it from the local machine.

A sleightly more complicated method is using the Source List within the MSI, where you can put your network location and the local location. If the source isn't found on the network, it will look local. Since you still need to do the copy to local step anyway, it's not that much of an advantage.

You can also add the source list in the registry using a script to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\9040150900063D11C8EF10054038389C\SourceList\Net]

I believe you can add up to 28 source list here. You can add one for the network share and for the local pc

You can also add the source list in the registry using a script to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\9040150900063D11C8EF10054038389C\SourceList\Net]
**** Remember 9040150900063D11C8EF10054038389C is a unique to the software that is being installed ( in the case its office 2003) YOURS will be unique as well

I believe you can add up to 28 source list here. You can add one for the network share and for the local pc

My customer does not allow MSI's to be stored locally or on a network, so I'm faced with a similar situation. I've used this vbscript in the past to insert additional installation sources for emergency repairs.

Const strProductCode = "{AC76BA86-1033-0000-7760-000000000001}"
on error resume next
Set msiObject = Wscript.CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
strServerPath = "C:\Windows\Installer\"
msiObject.AddSource strProductCode, "", strServerPath

This product code was for an Adobe product, so you'd need to change it to your MSI product code. The strServerPath would be whatever directory you plan to store the MSI's in.

Like UCMerrill stated, this will modify keys in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\9040150900063D11C8EF10054038389C\SourceList\].

Of course that unique code will be different for your product. And you can do this multiple times to insert many installation sources if you need to.

Hope that helps.

Darwin Sanoy from Desktop Engineers has a script which allows you to change the Source paths on a workstation to whereever you want. Very handy for ppl without DFS links.