Software Deployment

Do you have a volume license agreement?

I highly recommend against repackaging Project! (Or Visio, or Office, etc.) You're much better off running "Setup.exe /a" and extracting their source to an administrative installation point. Do the same with the Microsoft SP1 patch, and there should be a .msp file. You can then patch the msi in the administrative installation point with the .msp file.

Does that help? I hope so!

Make transforms for any changes your organization requires.

First of all, don't try to use any other MSI tool on the Project 2003 MSI except for the Custom Installation Wizard in the Office 2003 SDK, a free DL from MS. Those Office MSI's are chock full of Custom Actions and it won't work. Also do not try to combine SP1 with the MSI, you'll hit a brick wall there too.

You need to create an Administrative Install Point by installing the Project MSI through MSIEXEC with the /A switch. This will create a place where you can install the MSI from that is also patchable. Then you run the MSP and patch the Administrative Install Point. Thats the only way to install Project 2003 w/ SP1 in a single installt. Your only other option is the two stage install then patch on every machine.

Argh! And it's ThaiBoxer by a nose![:(]

Yay!

Does that mean I can build two MSI’s? One is for the MS Project 2003, one is for the SP1? We are using Active Directory and Group Policy to deploy MSI packages. I am not sure what an admin installation point is, is it a server or the network location to keep the MSI’s?
Thanks very much.

An administrative installation point is basically an extracted version of Microsoft's source, so you can run the msi directly. It also incorporates your volume license key so you don't have to type it every time you install the program.

When you extract the SP1 patch to the administrative installation point (see above), it patches the original extract with SP1 so you have a single, updated, installation.

Make sense?

Thanks a lot!
I don’t believe we have an admin installation point at my company. I already created a MSI for the MS Project 2003, just don’t know what to do with the SP1.
Thanks again!!

I customized MS Project 2003 shortcut in the .MST file by using the MS Office Source Tool Kit and I deployed the MSI package via group policy(MST file was added into the GP). Although the application was installed successfully, the shortcut was not placed. I customized the shortcut under <startmenu>\ Microsoft Applications.
I then tried to repair the package from add/remove programs and received this error,
WARNING 1909. Could not create shortcut Microsoft office project 2003.ink. Verify that the destination folder exists and that you can access it. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? Thanks!

When I try to apply a MSP file to the Administrative Installation point for the MS Project 2003 Pro, I received the following message.
You have not entered a valid product key.
Please check the number located on the sticker on the back of the CD case or on your certificate of Authenticity.
There is no where that asks me to enter a licence key when I extracted the MSP file. Does anyone know why?

ORIGINAL: bubbletea

Thanks a lot!
I don’t believe we have an admin installation point at my company. I already created a MSI for the MS Project 2003, just don’t know what to do with the SP1.
Thanks again!!



Honestly, your best bet is to scrap that & use the one that Microsoft created to create your admin install point. If you don't, then you'll need to recreate the MSI you already created to include SP1, which is painful at best.

Just use their MSI, create your admin install point, extract the MSP file from SP1, and apply it to your admin install point.


ORIGINAL: bubbletea

When I try to apply a MSP file to the Administrative Installation point for the MS Project 2003 Pro, I received the following message.
You have not entered a valid product key.
Please check the number located on the sticker on the back of the CD case or on your certificate of Authenticity.
There is no where that asks me to enter a licence key when I extracted the MSP file. Does anyone know why?



Did you create your admin install point exactly as described above? You should have been prompted for your Key during creation.

ORIGINAL: Thaiboxer

An administrative installation point is basically an extracted version of Microsoft's source, so you can run the msi directly. It also incorporates your volume license key so you don't have to type it every time you install the program.

When you extract the SP1 patch to the administrative installation point (see above), it patches the original extract with SP1 so you have a single, updated, installation.

Make sense?


I could use some clarification here. I am trying to extract the msp file from the patch file (PROJECT2003-KB837240-FULLFILE-ENU.EXE), but I cant seem to locate where it stashes it. Any ideas? Is there an "official" method of extracting these?

This is what I want it to look like:
msiexec /i SOURCE\PRJPROE.MSI ALLUSERS=2 COMPANYNAME=xxx PIDKEY=xxx RESTART=0 /qb!
msiexec /p patch\<patch name>.msp REINSTALL=ALL /qn

Thanks!

I could use some clarification here. I am trying to extract the msp file from the patch file (PROJECT2003-KB837240-FULLFILE-ENU.EXE), but I cant seem to locate where it stashes it. Any ideas? Is there an "official" method of extracting these?

This is what I want it to look like:
msiexec /i SOURCE\PRJPROE.MSI ALLUSERS=2 COMPANYNAME=xxx PIDKEY=xxx RESTART=0 /qb!
msiexec /p patch\<patch name>.msp REINSTALL=ALL /qn

Thanks!

I figured it out. Turns out my %TEMP% dir was switched to something extremely obscure.


But all is well now.