Software Deployment

No replies...wonder why?

This probably isn't the best way to go about it but, if it were me, I'd create a transform which is the OPPOSITE of your XL one (i.e. de-select the options you selected for your XL distro) and use that for the machines which already have XL. I'd then use a separate transform your general Office distro.

I'd then create some sort of stub or script to determine which transform to use and subsequently run MSIEXEC with that transform.

that wont work as he doesnt want to uninstall the previous excel which makes it interesting.

try setting up a transform which has all what you need in its configured state then disable the base features for word /ppt etc

then use something like this to enable the install of the feature (this would only work if the remaining features were preconfigured in the first step.

const msiInstallFeature = 1 ' check this value in the SDK i dont know it off the top of my head
set objInstaller = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
objInstall.SetFeatureState "product code of app", "feature to install", msInstallFeature
objInstall.SetFeatureState "product code of app", "word", msInstallFeature
objInstall.SetFeatureState "product code of app", "ppt", msInstallFeature

John, It may be my mis-reading of your post but I *think* you're labouring under the misapprehension that the OP wants to install only XL whereas the goal is to install all of Office but not install XL on machines where it's installed already. Certainly your use of the Installer object is the way to go in determining what features are already present.

you are right I misread the post. This method would only suit the machines which already had excel (although it would be better to uninstall them entirely I think)

i didnt read the question well enough.

Though it may take a bit longer to install, you could solve this issue by merely running the install with REINSTALL=ALL. This would have no effect on new installs, but would ensure the entire office suite is deployed when run on a system that only has Excel. This should pose no issues as the user preferences are retained when Excel is reinstalled.