Virtualization

I was at a Microsoft conference this month and they said that Office 2007 can't be sequenced properly yet. That was echoed by a Microsoft (ex-Softricity) consultant we had on-site last month.

I'm assuming that will change shortly.

Ugggggg.... that is just like them. I sure hope so... I'm getting tired of having to install and image! : )

Version 4.2 is supposed to support Office 2007 I'm told

I've seen Office 2007 (and 2003) Thinstalled. As well as IE for that matter.

Actually 4.1 SP1 should do Office 2007 because it supports the Side by Side assemblies.

I was able to virtualize Office 2007 Enterprise & Pro Plus with Altiris SVS and MS SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 & 4.2 (beta). Using SoftGrid, I wrote a 7-page recipe based on a Office 2003 recipe that used to be found in the Softricity knowledgebase - here's some of the important points I used for sequencing.

An Office 2007 Pro Plus Installation point and a SoftGrid Sequencer v4.1.1.303 are required for this recipe. The installation assumes that a MSP file has been added to the \updates folder on the installation point. The reason to use the MSP is that a MSP file created with the Office Customization Tool (OCT) allows for functions that are otherwise not available through the standard install. The Microsoft Office 2007 OCT can be access by typing setup.exe /admin at the command prompt:

While these changes are not required to make Office 2007 work in SoftGrid, they are highly recommended as they not only streamline the installation / package but also prevent some processes such CTFMON from running. Thus, this recipe applies specifically to the MSP included within the recipe. Open and review the MSP using the OCT Wizard. The changes include the following:

• Setup: Install location and organization name
-- Default installation path: Q:\OFF2K7.V03
• Setup: Licensing and user interface
-- Check ‘Completion notice’
-- Uncheck ‘Suppress modal’
-- Uncheck ‘No Cancel’
• Setup: Modify Setup properties
-- Click Add…
-- Name: REMOVECACHEONLY
-- Value: 1
• Features: Set feature installation states
•• Change the following items to Run From My Computer
-- Microsoft Office Excel: Add-ins
---- Euro Currency Tools
---- Analysis ToolPak
---- Lookup Wizard
---- Solver
---- Conditional Sum Wizard
-- Microsoft Office PowerPoint:
---- Organizational Chart Add-in for Microsoft Office programs
-- Office Tools: Microsoft Office Document Imaging:
---- Microsoft Office Document Image Writer
•• Set the following items to Not Available, Hidden, Locked
-- Microsoft Office Access:
---- Calendar Control
-- Microsoft Office Outlook:
---- Outlook Add-ins
---- Outlook Templates (Default)
-- Office Shared Features:
---- International Support: Japanese Font
---- Digital Certificate for VBA Projects
---- New and Open Office Document Shortcuts
---- Proofing Tools: English Proofing Tools: OCR Modules
---- Proofing Tools: Spanish Proofing Tools
---- Proofing Tools: French Proofing Tools
---- Microsoft Office Download Control
-- Office Tools:
---- System Information
---- Microsoft Office Document Imaging:
------ Help (Default)
------ Scanning, OCR and Indexing Service Filter (Default)
---- Smart Tag Plugins
---- Microsoft Office Picture Manager
---- Research Explorer Bar
---- Language Settings Tools
---- Smart Tag .NET Programmability Support
• Click File > Exit & select ‘Yes’ to save changes
• Save MSP file to \updates folder of installation point.

On the OSD tab, open each of the PROGIDs and validate that no duplicate ‘FRIENDLYNAME’ values are the same within one PROGID– here’s an example of what to look for:

<MGMT_FILEASSOCIATIONS>
<PROGIDLIST>
<PROGID>
<SHELLCOMMANDLIST>
<SHELLCOMMAND NAME="Print" FRIENDLYNAME="&Print"/>
<SHELLCOMMAND NAME="OnenotePrintto" FRIENDLYNAME="&Print"/>

Change to:

<SHELLCOMMAND NAME="Print" FRIENDLYNAME="&Print"/>
<SHELLCOMMAND NAME="OnenotePrintto" FRIENDLYNAME="&OnenotePrintto"/>
Hope this helps someone.

7 pages!?!?

How much effort did it take with SVS? We just did a LOOOOONG evaluation of SVS and SoftGrid and chose to go with Altiris SVS. We are an Altiris shop, but we wanted to make this consideration independent of the management consoles and purely based on ease of building, packaging, and deploying apps. We use Wise to build apps and when we saw that we could simply click a button and it became a virtual app, that was a big leg up. The downside at the beginning was no integrated / bundled streaming from Altiris, but we found out that they were working on an integrated "SVS Pro" and waited for the release (July) to purchase.

So far I'm very happy, but we haven't done any major rollouts yet. Any advice that can be provided would be greatly appreciated.

The decision to go with SoftGrid wasn't made by my office. I only got to experiment with SVS for about a week before having the decision made for me. We had looked at using SVS & AppStream to use the streaming technology as opposed to a SMS role out of SVS packages.

The 7 pages is really documentation for longevity / best practices - there should always be some kind of documentation with each package for continuity sake. I'm sure I won't be here forever.

We use Wise to build apps and when we saw that we could simply click a button and it became a virtual app
Well, I wouldn't say that is totally true. You do have some issues, same as SoftGrid has, but you will need to put some more work into SVS due to the default priority order that solves the conflict aka DLL hell (partly isolation) and integration between SVS virtual applications (and BASE).

Try having a Office layer and a also office installed to Base and you will make windows installer trigger a repair each time you switch between the different office versions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG fan of SVS.

ORIGINAL: AngelD

Try having a Office layer and a also office installed to Base and you will make windows installer trigger a repair each time you switch between the different office versions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG fan of SVS.


You haven't played with SVS 2.1 with the global excludes then. One on the base and however many you want virtualized works just fine.

No, it's not just click a button when you want to set layer priority but that is a super simple setting.

ORIGINAL: PushMyApps
You haven't played with SVS 2.1 with the global excludes then. One on the base and however many you want virtualized works just fine.

No, it's not just click a button when you want to set layer priority but that is a super simple setting.


I've used the 2.1 version for some time now, even got a non-public early beta version before Altiris merged with Symantec from Scott Jones the Product Manager of SVS.

set layer priority but that is a super simple setting
Maybe when the priority bug is fixed, but until then I would say still no.

If you have some more details how you solved on not getting a repair when switching office versions with global exclusion please provide the information for that, been looking to solve that but havn't found any solution for that yet. One office version must have been installed to Base for the repair to be triggered during switching.

I can't speak to SoftGrid, all I can say is on the 1.4 versions it did not seem to function.

As for the SVS solution, I had no issues getting Altiris to capture it properly. You just have to really make sure you set your exceptions pretty heavy or you can end up with Office touching all kinds of things it shouldn't. I suggest if you are going to use SVS and Office, to just set the exceptions globally, and be sure to capture it after a reboot.

Hello,
I'm trying to make a sequence with office 2007. I tried it with the dutchversion and also with english (vista and office)
But i am stil getting the error:

Detection of product '{90120000-0030-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}', feature 'ProductNonBootFiles' failed during request for component '{137F4F20-9B16-45F8-9813-A3B5F7B5FF9E}'

Anyone an idea?
I tried onenote only that works without a problem.

What version of the SoftGrid software are you using? Office 2007 can only be successfully sequenced using 4.1.1.303 (SG 4.1SP1) or 4.2.0.303.

Did you enable / disable all components to get rid of the 'Install on 1st launch'?

sfttray.exe 4.2.0.310
sftsequencer 4.2.303

I enabled everything (i followed the microsoft recipe for office 2007)
And also modified the osd file with the local_interaction option.

It lookes like office is searching for the installation files. But with the dutch sequence i copied the whole cd to the hard drive in the monitoring stage. But still the same error.And ofcourse all of the msi files are in the vfs.

Did you installed software before the office setup?

Hi,

I was wondering if there was any update to the following error message in the Event Viewer when trying to launch any application in the Office 2007 suite:

"Detection of product '{90120000-0030-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}', feature 'ProductNonBootFiles' failed during request for component '{137F4F20-9B16-45F8-9813-A3B5F7B5FF9E}'"

I followed the recipe in Microsoft's KB939796 when sequencing Office 2007 (Enterprise edition with VLK). When it finishes streaming and goes to launch, the installer screen appears then I get an message, "Microsoft Office Word has not been installed for the current user. Please run setup to install the application." (The same message appears for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc)

This is my first post so please let me know if more information is needed.

thanks!

I have been working on this some more and found a solution:[left] [/left][left]In KB939796, the recipe states, "On the Install location and organization name page, install the 2007 Office suite to Q:\unique eight-character path that you have not used previously." (Prepare the Environment - #1). I have been installing Office 2007 to Q:\Office07.v1. I created another folder on Q: and then installed Office on the subfolder (Ie. Q:\Office\Office07.v1). This is similar to Robert Morris' method for sequencing Excel 2007 on the SoftGrid blog. I noticed after installing Office 2007 during sequencing, it created a hidden folder Q:\MSOCache which holds the local install source.[/left] [left]I'm assuming the errors occurred if Office was installed to Q:\Office07.v1 because it would have tried to install the MSOCache two folders up but couldn't because one folder up was the root drive already.[/left][left] [/left][left]So after installing Office 2007 to Q:\Office\Office07.v1, the suite launches with no errors. I followed the rest of the Office 2007 recipe as posted. Hope this helps ya'll also![/left]

I went by this KB article and had no problems at all. Office 2007 streams and runs great although I'm not going to use it this way. It doesn't make sense to sequence the office suite.

Yeah i agree Office should be left outside as once virtualised apps that call on function of of Office may have issues making calls in to System Guard (Bubble) and also from bubble to bubble calls. Secondly Office is heavy and there is a performance hit on initial mounting and load of its major components e.g. Word