Create custom configurations of Office 2010

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2012-10-28

Banner stating end of support date for Office 2010 with link to more info

You can deploy an initial customized installation of Office 2013 to your organization by using the processes and example in this article.

A Config.xml file example for an installation of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 is included in this article.

In this article:

  • Office Customization Tool changes in Office 2010

  • Creating a custom configuration

  • Config.xml example

We recommend that you read the following articles before you customize the installation:

Office Customization Tool changes in Office 2010

The Office Customization Tool (OCT), part of the Setup program, is the primary tool that is used to customize an Office 2010 client installation. It is included in Volume License versions of Office 2010 such as Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. Before you begin your customizations, you should be aware of the following changes in the Office 2010 OCT.

In Office 2010, two architecture-specific versions of the Office Customization Tool are available: one for 32-bit Office 2010 and one for 64-bit Office 2010. The 64-bit version of the OCT supports 64-bit client editions of Office 2010, and provides the same user interface, capabilities, and configurable settings as the 32-bit version.

The Office 2010 OCT supports the import of setup customization .msp files:

  • 32-bit Office 2010 .msp files can be imported into the 64-bit OCT, and then they can be used to customize 64-bit Office 2010 products.

  • 64-bit Office 2010 .msp files can be imported into the 32-bit OCT, and then they can be used to customize 32-bit Office 2010 products.

Note

You can import a setup customization .msp file for equivalent cross-architecture products only. For example, you can import a 32-bit Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 customization .msp file into the 64-bit version of the OCT for a 64-bit Office Professional Plus 2010 .msp file. However, you can't import a 32-bit Microsoft Word 2010 stand-alone customization .msp file into the 64-bit OCT for a 64-bit Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 .msp file; doing so is prevented and displays an error message. You can't import 2007 Microsoft Office system Setup customization files (.msp files) into the Office 2010 OCT.

For more information about the OCT, see Office Customization Tool in Office 2010. For more information about the import feature, see Import an Office 2010 Setup customization file. For information about 64-bit Office 2010, see 64-bit editions of Office 2010.

Creating a custom configuration

The following table highlights the process of how to deploy a custom configuration.

Steps References

Copy all the files and folders from the Office 2010 CD to a folder on the network or on your computer. For example, copy the files to \\server\share\Office14.

Copy all the language packs and additional Office products that you want to deploy to the same network installation point. When you are prompted to overwrite duplicate Setup files, click No.

Create a network installation point for Office 2010

Use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to customize Setup, and configure additional customizations and installation options. This creates a Setup customization file (.msp file). For a complete description of the areas that you can configure by using the OCT, see Office Customization Tool in Office 2010. A new Setup customization .msp file is created in the following example.

  1. From the root of the network installation point that you created previously, run the following command-line option to start the OCT: setup.exe /admin. For example, use the following: \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /admin.

  2. In the Select Product dialog, select Create a new Setup customization file for the following product to create a new customization file (for example, for Office Professional Plus 2010 (32-bit)). Click OK.

    The OCT user interface is displayed, and you can then configure settings in the following areas: Setup, Features, Additional content, and Outlook.

  3. Customize Setup to specify how you want Setup to manage the installation. The Setup section of the OCT is used to configure options such as the default installation location, default organization name, additional network locations that contain the Office 2010 sources, product key, Microsoft Software License Terms, level of user interface to display, previous versions of Office to remove, and so on.

    The product key option depends on the Office 2010 licensing method that you use. The following options are available in Licensing and user interface:

    1. Use KMS client key   A product key entry is not required for enterprise deployments that are using Key Management Service (KMS) activation because all Volume License editions of Office 2010 have a KMS client key pre-installed. KMS is one of the methods that are provided by Office Activation Technologies for activating products licensed under Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. Only a KMS host computer needs a KMS host key to be activated and to establish a local activation service in your environment. Office 2010 connects to the local KMS host for activation. Use KMS client key is the default. For information about how to configure the KMS host, see Install and configure the KMS host in Deploy volume activation of Office 2010.

    2. Enter another product key   You can enter a valid Multiple Activation Key (MAK) key in the OCT by using the Enter another product key entry. A MAK key is another method that Office Activation Technologies provide for activating products licensed under Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. With a MAK, clients activate Office 2010 online by using the Microsoft hosted activation servers or by telephone. To use a MAK key, in the Enter another product key text box, enter the MAK key (twenty-five numbers or characters) without spaces. For more information about how to use a MAK key, see Deploy volume activation of Office 2010.

    Expand the Display level menu to set the behavior of the user interface during installation. In enterprise deployments, we recommend that you set Display level to None to ensure that Setup runs silently, to prevent prompting users to enter information, and to prevent the installation from waiting for any user interaction, including when files are being used. Setting Display Level to None assumes that the Suppress modal and Completion notice options are silenced and that the Microsoft Software License Terms is accepted. You can also configure display level options by using the Config.xml file; see Display element in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    You can also configure Office security settings if you want to provide an initial default configuration of security settings. For information, see Office security settings in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

    Important

    Although you can use the OCT to specify initial default security settings in a Setup customization file (.msp file), users can change the settings after installation. To enforce security settings, you must use Group Policy. For detailed information about how to plan for security settings, see Security overview for Office 2010 and Plan security for Office 2010.

    For more detailed information, see Customize Setup before installing Office 2010.

  4. Use the Features section to configure feature installation states. For information, see Configure feature installation states for Office 2010.

    For each application that you want to add to the installation, set its installation option to Run all from My Computer or Installed on First Use in the right pane. For example, to install Microsoft Outlook 2010, expand Microsoft Office and change the installation option for Microsoft Office Outlook to Run all from My Computer.

    For applications that you do not want to install, set the installation option to Not Available in the right pane. The application name is set to bold to show that you have changed its installation option.

    To prevent users from installing this application themselves, select the Hidden and Locked options. The symbols [H] and [L] are added to the application name to indicate that these options are set.

    Important

    The Hidden option is not reversible. After it is set, a Hidden feature will not be displayed in the feature tree during or after installation. You can't use another Config.xml file or apply a second .msp file after the initial installation to “unhide” a feature.
    The feature remains hidden even if you opt to change the installation by using Programs and Features in Control Panel to change the Office 2010 installation.
    It will also not be displayed in the Office Setup feature installation tree under the Add or Remove Features option for Office 2010. Though the feature remains hidden, you can unlock the feature to install and run it locally later by using an .msp file or a Config.xml file. For more information, see Set feature installation states in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.
    The Locked option is reversible. If you set the Locked option for a feature by using the OCT or the Config.xml during initial installation, you can unlock and install the feature locally by using a customization .msp file or a Config.xml file later.
    For example, you can customize the Config.xml file to modify the OptionState element and add the following line to uninstall the feature (Microsoft Access in this case) on the user's computer and set child features of the feature to the specified state:
    <OptionState Id=”ACCESSFiles” State=”Absent” Children=”force” />
    For information about the OptionState element, see Config.xml file in Office 2010.
    You can also use the OCT to create a customization .msp file to install the feature later by setting the feature installation state to Run All from My Computer on the Set feature installation states screen.

  5. Use the Modify user settings section (under Features) to specify the user settings that you want to apply. For information, see Configure user settings for Office 2010.

    Use the Modify user settings section to set the default values of Office application settings for users who install Office with this customization file.

    To configure an option, expand the tree on the left, and then click the user interface element that you want to configure. The configurable settings associated with that element appear on the right pane. You can specify one of the following options:

    Not Configured   The setting remains as it is.

    Enabled   The setting is modified according to the selections that you make on the setting's Properties page.

    Disabled   The setting is disabled. Note that disabling an option may differ from not configuring the option. See the description of the specific option for more information.

    Note

    Using the OCT to configure user settings establishes the initial default values for the settings. Users can modify most of the settings after Office is installed. If you want to enforce user settings, use Group Policy.

    You can also use Group Policy settings to mandate settings for Outlook. You can manage the following Outlook areas by using Group Policy:

    • Specify the COM add-ins that are trusted.

    • Customize cryptographic options.

    • Configure Outlook Junk E-mail Filter settings. For information, see Configure junk e-mail settings in Outlook 2010.

    • Configure the method that Outlook uses for security settings.

    • Configure attachment settings.

    • Configure programmatic security settings.

    • Customize ActiveX options and custom forms settings.

    • Disable folder home pages.

  6. You can use the Additional content section of the OCT to configure the following options:

  7. You can use the Outlook section (Outlook in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010) of the OCT to configure the following Outlook areas:

    • Specify settings for Exchange accounts. You can configure users’ Microsoft Exchange Server settings in a new or modified Outlook profile. For information, see Exchange settings in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

    • Outlook Profile settings. You can customize a user's default Outlook profile, which is the set of values in the Windows registry that defines user-specific information. An Outlook profile can contain multiple e-mail accounts. Users can have multiple Outlook profiles, and the Office 2010 OCT provides support for adding multiple Outlook e-mail accounts. For information, see Outlook profile and Add Accounts in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

    • Include new Outlook e-mail accounts in the user’s profile. If you are adding or modifying an Exchange account, you can configure additional Exchange settings. For example, you can configure Exchange Server offline use options, the Outlook Anywhere feature, and you can specify the Cache Mode option to configure users' Outlook profiles to use a local copy of the Exchange mailbox. For more information, see Add Accounts and the “Add Account and Account Settings dialog box,” and “Cached Mode” sections in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

    • Export settings to an Outlook profile file (.prf file). For information, see Export Settings in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

    • Define Send/Receive groups for Exchange accounts and folders, and specify the tasks that are performed on each group during a Send/Receive operation in Outlook. A Send/Receive group contains a collection of Outlook accounts and folders. For information, see Specify send receive groups in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010.

  8. When you complete your customizations, click Save As on the File menu, specify a path and file name for the Setup customization file, and then click Save.

    For initial installations, you can save the custom .msp file in the Updates folder on the network installation point. When Setup runs, it searches the Updates folder on the installation point for a customization file specific to the product that is being installed.

    Note

    If you plan to deploy multiple Setup customization files (.msp files), you can place only one customization .msp file for each Office 2010 product that you are installing in the Updates folder for an initial installation. You must deploy the rest of the customization .msp files after the Office installation is completed. Only one Setup customization .msp file per product in the Updates folder is supported. The customization .msp files that you place in the Updates folder will be deployed first. Therefore, they must include any Setup customizations that can't be changed after the installation, for example, the installation location.
    If you do not put the customization file in the Updates folder, you can use the Setup command-line option /adminfile to specify the fully qualified path of the folder in which you store the custom .msp file. For example, setup.exe /adminfile \server\share\myNewUpdatesFolder.
    You can also specify the location of the folder that contains your .msp files in the Config.xml file by using the SUpdateLocation attribute of the SetupUpdates element. For more information about SetupUpdates, see SetupUpdates in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

Office Customization Tool in Office 2010

Deploy volume activation of Office 2010

Tools to configure client computers in Office 2010

Customize Setup before installing Office 2010

Configure feature installation states for Office 2010

Configure user settings for Office 2010

Configure Outlook 2010

Import an Office 2010 Setup customization file

To specify installation options, such as the path of the network installation point, the product to install, and custom setup options, and to specify the languages to install, use the Config.xml file that is located in the root of the product folder for the product that you are installing.

To edit the Config.xml file, use a text editor, such as Notepad.

  1. To modify the display options that users see during installation, locate the line in the Config.xml file that contains the Display element:

    <!-- <Display Level="full" CompletionNotice="yes" SuppressModal="no" AcceptEula="no" /> -->

    To prevent user intervention during the installation and to specify display options, you can modify the Display element information as shown in the following example:

    <Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

    For information, see Display in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

  2. To specify additional languages to install, use the AddLanguage elements and attributes in the Config.xml file.

    Note

    If you are adding more than one AddLanguage element, you must add the ShellTransform attribute of the AddLanguage element. This attribute specifies the language that Setup uses for the shell user interface.
    For example, to specify that Setup install full English, French, German, and Spanish language support with the user’s default regional options language as the default installation language, you add the following AddLanguage elements and attributes in the Config.xml file:
    <AddLanguage Id="match" ShellTransform="yes"/> <AddLanguage Id="en-us" /> <AddLanguage Id="fr-fr" /> <AddLanguage Id="de-de" /> <AddLanguage Id="es-es" />

    In the previous example, Setup installs all of the specified languages plus the language that matches the user's locale, if that language is different and is available in the installation source. For more information, see AddLanguage in Config.xml file in Office 2010, and Customize deployment of language setup and Proofing Tools in Office 2010.

    You can also use the Config.xml file to configure additional options such as the following:

    • Specify the path of the network installation point. For information, see DistributionPoint in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    • Specify the 25-character volume license key. The equivalent option in the OCT is the Product key setting in the Licensing and user interface section. As mentioned previously, a product key entry is not required for enterprise deployments that use Key Management Service (KMS) activation because all Volume License editions of Office 2010 have a KMS client key pre-installed. KMS is one of the methods that are provided by Office Activation Technologies for activating products licensed under Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. However, administrators must configure a KMS host computer with a KMS host key to be activated and to establish a local activation service in your environment. Office 2010 connects to the local KMS host for activation. By default, the Use KMS client key option is selected in the OCT. For more information, see Licensing and user interface in Office Customization Tool in Office 2010. For information about volume activation, see Volume activation overview for Office 2010 and Deploy volume activation of Office 2010.

      A Multiple Activation Key (MAK) key is another method that Office Activation Technologies provide for activating products licensed under Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. By using a MAK, clients activate Office 2010 online by using Microsoft-hosted activation servers or by telephone. Administrators can use the Config.xml file or the OCT to enter a MAK key.

      To enter a MAK key in the Config.xml file, you add the 25-character product key as shown in the following example, where AAAAABBBBBCCCCCDDDDDEEEEE represents the product key:

      <PIDKEY Value="AAAAABBBBBCCCCCDDDDDEEEEE" />

      For more information, see PIDKEY in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    • Specify the fully qualified path of the folder on users' computers in which the product is installed. For information, see INSTALLLOCATION in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    • Specify logging options for Setup. For information, see Logging in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    • Specify how the local installation source (LIS) is cached on the user's computer. For more information, see LIS in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    • Set the user or company name for the user on whose computer the product is being installed. For information, see USERNAME and COMPANYNAME in Config.xml file in Office 2010.

    You can use the Config.xml file to customize many of the same options that you can configure by using the Office Customization Tool, including some additional options that are not available in the OCT. For a complete description of the areas that you can configure in Config.xml, see Config.xml file in Office 2010.

  3. When you complete the Config.xml customizations, save the Config.xml file. You can use the /config Setup command-line option to specify the location of the Config.xml file, as shown in the following example:

    \\server\share\setup.exe /config \\server\share\ProPlus.WW\config.xml

    For information about the /config Setup command-line option, see /config [path] in Setup command-line options for Office 2010.

    To see an example of a custom Config.xml file, see Config.xml example.

Config.xml file in Office 2010

Customize deployment of language setup and Proofing Tools in Office 2010

Configure a silent installation of Office 2010

To install Office 2010 on users' computers, you can use one of the following approaches, depending on your particular environment and requirements:

  • Use the precached local installation source to install Office on users' computers. When you deploy Office 2010, Setup creates a local installation source on the user's computer — a copy of the compressed source files for the Office product that you are installing. After the files are copied to the user's computer, Setup completes the installation from the local installation source. To minimize the load on the network, you can deploy the local installation source to users' computers separately, before you deploy Office.

    To use this approach, perform the followings tasks:

  • On the user's computer, run Setup.exe from the root of the network installation point. For information, see Run Setup from a network installation point.

  • To deploy Office to users who are not administrators of their computers, you can use one of the following methods.

    Log on to the computer as an administrator and install Office 2010. For information, see Logging on as an administrator in Deploy Office 2010 to users who are not administrators.

    -or-

    Use an enterprise deployment method such as the following:

    • Use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. If you manage large numbers of clients in a complex or rapidly changing environment, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is the recommended method for installing and maintaining Office 2010 in medium- and large-sized organizations. Configuration Manager 2007 offers sophisticated functionality, including inventory, scheduling, and reporting features. For information about deployment with System Center Configuration Manager 2007, see Deploy Office 2010 by using System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

    • Use Microsoft System Center Essentials 2010 (Beta) to deploy Office 2010. System Center Essentials 2010 is a management solution that is designed for IT system administrators in medium-sized organizations that include up to 30 servers and 500 client computers. For information about deployment with System Center Essentials 2010, see Deploy Office 2010 by using System Center Essentials 2010.

    • If you have deployed Active Directory and Group Policy in your organization, you can use Group Policy to assign computer startup scripts to deploy Office 2010. For information about deployment with Group Policy computer startup scripts, see Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts.

Precache the local installation source for Office 2010

Install Office 2010 from local installation source

Run Setup from a network installation point

Deploy Office 2010 to users who are not administrators

Deploy Office 2010 by using System Center Configuration Manager 2007

Deploy Office 2010 by using System Center Essentials 2010

Deploy Office 2010 by using Group Policy computer startup scripts

Config.xml example

The following example shows a Config.xml file for an installation of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. The following options are used in this example:

  • Display Level is set to turn off the Setup user interface, hide error messages and other dialog boxes, and accept the End-User License Agreement.

  • Verbose logging is turned on (Logging Type value is set to verbose), and log files are stored in the AppInst folder.

  • INSTALLLOCATION specifies the fully qualified path of the folder on the user's computer in which the product is installed.

  • LIS SOURCELIST provides a list, separated by semicolons, of the network installation points that contain the installation files for the product. The equivalent option in the OCT is Additional network sources.

  • Setting Id specifies the suppress reboot option (SETUP_REBOOT value is set to NEVER).

  • OptionState element specifies to uninstall the feature (Access in this case) on the user's computer and sets child features of the feature to the same specified state.

<Configuration Product="ProPlus">

          <Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />

          <Logging Type="verbose" Path="%SYSADMINROOT%\Log\AppInst\Office2010" Template="Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Setup(*).txt" />     

          <INSTALLLOCATION Value="%programfiles%\Microsoft Office" />

          <LIS SOURCELIST Value="\\server1\share\Office14;\\server2\share\Office14" />

          <Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="NEVER" />

          <OptionState Id="ACCESSFiles" State="absent" Children="force" />

</Configuration>