Questions[microsoft-office-2007](server)

I'm trying to automate the uninstall/install of Office. Removing 2007, installing 2010. I've downloaded the OCT and made changes as I needed. In there I can select, "Remove the following earlier versions of Microsoft Office Programs:" and you can select which to remove (default Remove All), or you can select the option "Default Setup behavior; earlier versions of installed programs are removed."

Initially I tried the Default Option, but it gave me the below error. Then I tried manually selecting the second option but leaving them all as "Remove". Same results.

I'm trying to get this done via group policy and have downladed and installed the ADM template as well, create a GPO for this OU to test in, etc. Using 2008 Server.

I've seen others online with the same error, and instructions are typically "remove the old version first" or use a third party tool (Revo), which I have used in the past with success, but on an individual uninstall/install basis, not via GPO. My end result is for a laptop to boot up on a given day, references the GPO, if it has 2007 it uninstalles 2007 and installs 2010.

Here is the error I'm getting, I'm sure it's nothing new as it's fairly prevelant online.

You cannot install the 64-bit version of Office 2010 because you have 32-bit Office products installed. These 32-bit products are not supported with 64-bit installations:

        Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007

If you want to install 64-bit Office 2010, you must uninstall all 32-bit Office products first, and then run setup.exe in the x64 folder. If you want to install 32-bit Office 2010, close this Setup program, and then either go to the x86 folder at the root of your CD or DVD and run setup.exe, or get the 32-bit Office 2010 from the same place you purchased 64-bit Office 2010.

Here's what I have in the config.xml file under ProPlus.WW:

REM Get ProductName from the Office product's core Setup.xml file, and then add "office14." as a prefix. 
set ProductName=Office14.PROPLUS

REM Set DeployServer to a network-accessible location containing the Office source files.
set DeployServer=\\filesvr\shared\Office2010

REM Set ConfigFile to the configuration file to be used for deployment (required)
set ConfigFile=\\filesvr\shared\Office2010\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

REM Set LogLocation to a central directory to collect log files.
set LogLocation=\\filesvr\shared\Office2010\LogFiles

Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated, thanks!

to be clear, I like the 'Recent Items' feature. I do not want to turn it off. We integrate all of Office with a document management system (DMS), Interwoven's FileSite, and because of this integration we have had to turn off the Recent Items feature. If Recent Items are turned on, documents opened from the DMS will show up in the recent items of a Windows 7 start menu when hovering over Word (or Excel\PPT etc) in the Start Menu. However the integration doesn't work correctly so if a user were to click on one of those recent [DMS] items later on, something wouldn't work right (it won't open and check out correctly etc). In short, we've always needed to turn off Recent Items completely for a DMS integrated workstation.

Does anyone knows of a way to exclude a directory from being "captured" so to speak? Or perhaps to remove certain entries via script? When you open a DMS document, the file gets copied to local directory where it saves it locally as you work, until you close and it checks it back in to the DMS. I'd like to be able to exclude that local directory from recent items. So local files in My Docs and Desktop would show up in recent items, but not DMS opened documents.

Hope this makes sense. Environment includes Win 7 (32 & 64), AD 2008 R2, we use GPOs including GPPref's extensively, if you know of a way to script it that's great also.

I have the DVDs (or downloaded ISOs, or archives) for the various Office products: stand-alone programs like Word and Excel, the full Office suite, and applications that are only bundled alone (Project, Visio).

Can they be placed in a single DVD (ISO, folder...) in such a way that I may choose what I want to install?

If yes, how?

I've read various articles about Microsoft's Office 2007 encryption and from what I gather 2007 is secure using all default options due to it using AES, and 2000 and 2003 can be configured secure by changing the default algorithm to AES. I was wondering if anyone else has read any other articles or know of any specific vulnerabilities involved with how they implement the encryption. I would like to be able to tell users that they can use this to send semi-sensitive documents as long as they use AES and a strong password. Thanks for the information.

Will a Microsoft Office 2007 OEM CD recognize a retail version product key?