Deploying Office 2003 OEM on a SBS2003 network

[pmf71]

I am looking for the best way to deploy the OEM version of Office 2003 basic on an SBS2003 network. Note that that it is the *OEM* version, not an enterprise or retail version. Reason is that there are only a limited amount of workstations involved, and any new workstation addition or replacement by a new machine must get it's own installation of office automatically. I know this has it's complications like activation, i guess we can't get around that.

I've been reading up on this, to my best knowledge, the best way would be to simply have the workstation run setup from a network drive, configured through group policy. But that would probably involve a good few interactions by the user.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how i can do this with the minumum amount of required interaction during installation?

 

[RobBoberts]

I belive you can do this through group policy by using the .msi install file and an mst file you generate with the Office deployment tools that puts in stuff like the key (have not tried it just heard it can be done). Make sure your copy has enough licenses for all your users.

Televison will make radio obsolete.

 

[martyh]

You cannot set up an administrative install point for OEM media (only volume licensing). You might be able to install from a CD image on a server though.

Marty
Network Admin
Hilliard Schools

 

[pmf71]

i've used the SBS server manager to assign an application to the designated workstations, and i've copied the office cd to a folder under c:\clientapps. Still working on the office setup.exe switches to minimise interaction. Will have to enter the cd key per workstation, but i can live with that. It's saving me a good deal of work anyhow.

 

[dkediger]

Still, OEM licenses are "tied" to the hardware they were purchased with. You can get the install to work, but your licenses would not be valid.

 

[pmf71]

I bought the Office OEM licenses seperately from the machines that they're going to run on. After activation, yes then they are dedicated to that machine, but that is no problem.