Upgrading previous versions of Office

Upgrading previous versions of Office

If you deployed a previous version of Office by assigning it to computers using Group Policy-based Software Installation, you can upgrade those installations by editing the associated GPO.

Note:

The following procedure assumes that you deployed the previous version of Office by using Group Policy Software Installation to assign Office to computers. If you deployed Office by assigning or publishing the application to users, or if you used a deployment method other than Group Policy, the existing version of Office will not be upgraded if you use this procedure. Instead, the previous version of Office remains on the computer when the 2007 Office system is installed. To remove the previous version of Office you must uninstall Office.

To upgrade Office using Group Policy-based Software Installation

1. Open Group Policy Management console. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Administrative Tools, and click Group Policy Management.
2. In the console tree, double-click Group Policy Objects in the forest and domain that contain the GPO that you want to edit. This is located in Forest name, Domains, Domain name, Group Policy Objects.
3. Right-click the GPO you want to modify and click Edit. This opens Group Policy Object Editor.
4. In the left pane of Group Policy Object Editor, expand the Computer Configuration tree.
5. In the left pane, expand Software Settings and select Software Installation.
6. Right-click in the right pane, point to New and click Package.
7. In the Open dialog box, browse to the network installation point you created and select the Windows Installer (MSI) file in the main product folder of the Office product that you are installing. For example, for Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, selectEnterprise.WW\EnterpriseWW.msi.
8. Click OK.
9. Select Assigned to use the default options, or select Advanced to customize these options. The Published option is disabled because you cannot publish Office to a user.
10. In the details pane, right-click the Windows Installer package that will function as the upgrade (not the package to be upgraded).
11. Click Properties and click the Upgrades tab.
12. Click Add to create or add to the list of packages that are to be upgraded by the current package.
13. Under Choose a package from, click Current Group Policy object (GPO) or A specific GPO as the source of the package to be upgraded. If you click A specific GPO, click Browse, and click the GPO that you want to use.
14. Click the package for the previous version of Office that you want to upgrade.
15. Click Uninstall the existing package, then install the upgrade package.
16. Close all dialog boxes.

How it works

The 2007 Office system consists of a number of MSI files. None of the files by itself represents the complete installation. However, you assign the 2007 Office system by assigning only the main product MSI file. The next time the computer starts, this MSI file is accessed and a Windows Installer Custom Action recognizes that Office is deploying with Group Policy. The additional Office MSI and support files are then retrieved from the network installation point and the complete product is installed.

If a previous version of Office is being upgraded, that version of Office is uninstalled before the new installation of the 2007 Office system starts.

Applications assigned to a computer are resilient. If an administrator removes an Office application from the computer, Windows reinstalls the application the next time the computer starts. Users can repair Office applications on the computer, but only an administrator can remove applications.

Applying customizations to the Office installation

Because of the way Setup runs when Office is installed, there are some limitations on the number of installation options that you can customize when you deploy the 2007 Office system with Group Policy-based Software Installation. The following limitations apply:

• All customizations must be made in the Config.xml file. Setup does not apply Setup customization files that you create using the OCT. For more information about using the Config.xml file, see Config.xml file in the 2007 Office system.
• The customized Config.xml file must be located in the main product folder of the product you are installing. Because you cannot specify command-line options for Setup when you assign Office, you cannot specify an alternate location for the Config.xml file. For example, if you are installing Office Enterprise 2007, you customize the Enterprise.WW\config.xml file.
• You can customize only the Config.xml elements shown in the following table. These options are set when Office is assigned, and they cannot be modified later when Office is fully installed. All other elements in the Config.xml file are ignored.

Option	Config.xml element
Installation location	INSTALLLOCATION
Feature installation states	OptionState
Product key	PIDKEY
Add or remove a language	AddLanguage, RemoveLanguage

Modifying the Config.xml file OptionState element

The OptionState element of the Config.xml file specifies how individual product features are handled during installation. Administrators can modify the Config.xml file by configuring attributes for the OptionState element. Administrators can specify the following behaviors:

• The feature or sub-feature is not installed.
• The feature or sub-feature is installed the first time it is used by the user.
• The feature or sub-feature is installed locally on the user's computer.
• Sub-features of the feature are set to the specified state.

OptionState Syntax

The OptionState element uses the following syntax. The attribute and element names are case sensitive.

 | "Advertise" | "Local" [Children="force"]/>

where:

optionId is the identifier for a feature or sub-feature to install.

Absent specifies that the feature or sub-feature is not installed.

Advertise specifies to install the feature or sub-feature on first use.

Local installs the feature or sub-feature on the user's computer.

Force sets all features or sub-features to their specified states.

OptionState Id Values

The value for the Id attribute of the OptionState element is located in the Setup.xml file in the product folder of the product you are installing. For example, if you are installing Office Enterprise 2007, the file is Enterprise.WW\setup.xml. For a list of OptionState Id Values, see Config.xml file OptionState Id values.

Tip:
If you set the installation state of an application in Office to "Absent", the shortcut for that application is not created on the user's computer when Office is assigned. For example, the following element definition in Config.xml prevents the shortcut for Microsoft Office Word 2007 from being created and Word is not installed on the user's computer:

To modify the OptionState element in Config.xml

1. Open the Config.xml file in a text editor tool, such as Notepad.
2. Locate the line that contains the OptionState element, as shown in the following example:
3. Modify the OptionState element entry with the options you want to use. For example, use the following syntax if you do not want Microsoft Publisher to be installed:
4. Repeat the preceding step to specify OptionState options for other features and sub-features you want to modify.
5. Save the Config.xml file in the same folder that contained this file before you edited it.

For more information about the OptionState element of the Config.xml file, see the “OptionState element” section in Config.xml file in the 2007 Office system.

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