Using ZENworks to prevent Microsoft Installer from running in MSOffice products

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By James Davey

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 13 Apr 2007

The students in our school system login into our network using DLU as volatile users. Whenever they open a Microsoft Office product (2000/2003), the Windows installer runs forcing them to wait while it says "Preparing to install - Please wait", followed by the request to put in a username and initials.

This is wasted time since their profiles are deleted when they logoff, so let's just bypass all that.

Copy and Paste the following registry entries into a text file with a .reg extension. Create a simple NAL object and import the reg file. Associate it force run to all your students and Office products will open immediately without the installer running. All we are doing is tricking Office into thinking the installer has already run and user information is already in place.

REGEDIT4

// Registry file generated by the Application Launcher.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General]
"FirstRun"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\UserInfo]
"Company"=hex:59,6f,75,72,43,6f,6d,70,61,6e,79,
"UserInfo"=-
"UserInitials"=hex:4a,44,00,00,00,
"UserName"=hex:59,6f,75,72,4e,61,6d,65,00,00,

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\PowerPoint]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options]
"FirstRun"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\General]
"FirstRun"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\UserInfo]
"Company"=hex:59,6f,75,72,43,6f,6d,70,61,6e,79,
"UserInfo"=-
"UserInitials"=hex:4a,44,00,00,00,
"UserName"=hex:59,6f,75,72,4e,61,6d,65,00,00,

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Excel]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\PowerPoint]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word]
"UserData"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\Options]
"FirstRun"=dword:00000000

Reader Comments

• This works perfect. The MSI for office XP was doing the same thing in our school (DLU and Deep Freeze on workstations). I just replaced the version number of Office with 10.0 in the reg keys and deployed - excellent tip!
• The installer runs for a reason - it copies files and templates to the user's appdata folder and performs other tasks. I think you will find that while this tricks Office into thinking it is already installed, several features will not work properly or may be broken altogether.
• Wouldn't it be better to provide separate registry files for 2000 / XP / 2003, rather than bundling them together? Althought Office XP is missing from this file I presume Office\10.0 would work.

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