This blog was submitted by Jeremy Chapman, director on the Office team
Many organizations use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to deploy Windows with Office to new computers or when re-imaging computers. You can use the tools to deploy just applications, or as part of an operating system + application deployment.
If you’ve been deploying Office or using MDT for a few years, you may know that the integration for Office deployment began in 2007 when MDT was called Business Desktop Deployment 2007 and Office 2007 suites introduced the Office Customization Tool. These capabilities have remained largely unchanged for the MSI package versions of Office over the years – currently Office Professional Plus 2016 and Office Standard 2016.
Fast forward to 2016 and while the tools have been consistent for around nine years, what if you were the IT administrator tasked with building out an imaging solution for Windows 10 and Office 2016 today using MDT? Where is the process documented for installing Office 2016? It turns out the process is documented on TechNet… but labeled as the approach for Office 2010. In reality, the same approach works in Office 2013 and Office 2016 MSI packages.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed MDT, installed the Windows 10 Automated Deployment Kit, and downloaded Office installation files from the Volume Licensing Service Center, here’s what you do to add Office 2016 into your MDT deployment share.
1. Under MDT Deployment Share, click Applications and then click New Application in the Action pane. The New Application Wizard opens to the Application Type page.
2. On the Application Type page, make sure that Application with source files is selected, and then click Next.
3. On the Details page:
a. Under Publisher, type the name of the application publisher (optional).
b. Under Application Name, type a descriptive name for the application (required).
c. Under Version, type the application version (optional).
d. Under Language, type the application language (optional).
e. Click Next.
4. On the Source page:
a. Click Browse. In the Browse for Folder dialog box, locate and select the folder that contains the setup files for the particular application, and then click OK.
Note: If you want to move the setup files instead of copying them, select the check box that is next to Move the files to the deployment share instead of copying them.
b. Click Next.
5. On the Destination page, accept or change the default destination folder (the deployment share folder that will contain the application source files) that was assigned by the wizard, and then click Next.
6. On the Command Details page:
a. Under Command line, type the command that you want to be run at the start of the application installation. This is typically “setup.exe”, you can access the Office Customization Tool via the Application Properties > Office Products tab later.
b. Click Next
7. On the Summary page, click Next.
8. The Progress page indicates that the share is being created. On the Confirmation page, click Finish. The New Application Wizard finishes, and the application name that you typed in the Application Name page appears in the Deployment Workbench details pane.
Now you can access the properties of the Office 2016 install in the Applications menu of your deployment share.
Here in the Office Products tab, you can select the Office product to install and configure Display Level, automatically accept the EULA and suppress reboots.
The majority of your granular Office customization will be done via the Office Customization Tool (OCT), which outputs an update (.MSP) file that is automatically consumed as part of the Office installation. Plus you can use MDT to deploy additional Office applications – like the legacy versions of InfoPath or SharePoint Designer – or use it to install custom Office add-ins. Once you’ve finished the above steps and anything you want to do with the OCT, you can start building Windows or custom application-only deployment task sequences with MDT.