Office 2011 for Mac deploy

[#1]

I am not sure who all has access to Office 2011 for Mac already, but we have the full final version from Microsoft. We currently have Office 2008 for Mac deployed currently to our base. What we would like to do is start rolling out the new version to clients ASAP. I will most likely cache install the package to everyone to stage it on their machines since it is nearly 1GB. Then I would like for the policy to either-

1. Display a message that they need to exit from all documents within xx minutes, or Office will be automatically closed. The install to happen and either reboot or display a complete message.
2. On startup or login have a message display that Office 2011 is being installed and their machine will reboot once complete or for a message to display at the end that the install is complete.

Next, when they launch Outlook, for a script to handle the importation of the Entourage settings.

Sound reasonable? I am hoping someone out there is in the same boat as we are and have some thoughts on this!

--
Steve Flanagan
Infrastructure Engineer
Collaboration and DeskSide Services

Level 3 Communications
Office 720.888.3088

[Janowski]

I don't have much Office deployment experience, but what if you had one policy to push the cached package out to your clients. Then have another one (scoped to a smart list of clients that have 2011 cached) to run at 'logout' to do the actual office install?

So, ideally Office would cache during the day, then when they logout for the night it would trip the install and when they come in the next day it should be ready to rock. No messages needed?

If you include the script in your office-caching policy, so the .sh file gets pushed locally, you might even be able to just add a unix command to the end of your "install" policy to execute that script when it's all done too (in the advanced tab of the policy setup - unix command).

ben janowski
Senior Macintosh Support Technician
Kohl's Mac Support Team
262.703.1396 | benjamin.janowski at kohls.com

[talkingmoose]

On 10/12/10 2:35 PM, "Flanagan, Steve" <Steve.Flanagan at Level3.com> wrote: YNVf4TeSwq5gOqPZBfgM I would avoid interrupting users needlessly just to install software. You can display a message that Office 2011 is ready to install and tell them it will be installed when they restart their computer. (I'd actually set the policy to install at logout, but more users seem to understand Restart.)

2. On startup or login have a message display that Office 2011 is being installed and their machine will reboot once complete or for a message to display at the end that the install is complete.

Optionally, you could set the policy to install Office at first login too.
If you set this as a startup install then they may get confused when the
startup takes longer than usual. At login, you can display a message via a
script to run Before.

A reboot is not necessary to complete an Office install.

Next, when they launch Outlook, for a script to handle the importation of the Entourage settings.

Unfortunately, updating isn't scriptable. However, the first time Outlook
is launched and a new identity is created then it will prompt the user to
upgrade the default Entourage identity. The downside to this is that the
upgrade process is "in your face" and the progress window can't be
backgrounded. Each user will have to sit there as this happens.

IIRC, only locally stored messages are imported. Messages from IMAP and
Exchange accounts are not imported but are instead downloaded from the
servers. Been a while since I've worked on this, so I could be wrong.

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William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

[jafuller]

What about the local Entourage database that has email archives, etc? How
have you all addressed this at upgrade?
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James Fuller | Starbucks Coffee Company | Technology Application Services
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