With the release of Microsoft® Office 2003 Service Pack 1, some minor changes have been made to the Office group policy template files and Custom Installation Wizard (CIW) user settings files originally available in the Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit. In addition to these updated files, two new spreadsheets are now available that will help you in planning your Office deployment.

Toolbox   The Office group policy template files (ADMs) and user settings files (OPAs) for the Custom Installation Wizard and Custom Maintenance Wizard for Office 2003 Service Pack 1 are available in a single download (Office-2003-SP1-ADMs-OPAs-and-Explain-Text.exe). You can find this downloadable file on the Office 2003 Resource Kit Downloads page.

Office 2003 policy template and CIW settings files

The Office group policy template (ADM) files enable you to set policies globally for users of Office on a network. By using policies, an administrator can quickly enforce a configuration on users' computers when users, groups, or computers log on to the network. These ADM files are used with the Group Policy snap-in included in Microsoft Windows operating systems to apply policies to users' computers.

The Custom Installation Wizard (CIW) user settings (OPA) files enable you to preset user options when Office is installed. The OPA files define the options that you can set for users in the Change Office User Settings pane of the CIW and the Custom Maintenance Wizard (CMW).

The following policy templates and settings files have been updated for Service Pack 1.

Deployment planning tools

Two new spreadsheets are now available in the Office 2003 Editions Resource Kit to help you in planning this part of your Office deployment — Office 2003 Group Policies.xls, and Office 2003 UI Options.xls. These files contain the latest information from Office 2003 Service Pack 1.

Office 2003 Group Policies.xls A Microsoft Office Excel 2003 workbook that documents the large number of options that you can use to configure Office 2003 applications. The workbook provides an explanation of each Office group policy and CIW user setting available, and gives additional information such as the range of possible values and the registry key associated with the policy or setting. Most of these policies and settings can be used to preset specific options in the user interface of Office applications, and in those cases the associated UI option is identified as well. The Overview worksheet describes all the information available in the workbook.

Office 2003 UI Options.xls A Microsoft Office Excel 2003 workbook that documents the options available to users in the user interface of Office 2003 applications. The spreadsheet provides information for each option such as the default value and the range of possible values. If there is an Office group policy or CIW user setting that can be used to configure the option, then that is identified as well. The Overview worksheet describes the information available in the workbook.

You can use these two workbooks to help you decide how you want to configure Office for your users. Office 2003 UI Options.xls allows you to browse through user options without having to run each application and cycle through menu commands. And you can use Office 2003 Group Policies.xls to quickly scan all the available Office group policies and CIW user settings without having to walk through the tree structure of the Group Policy snap-in or the user interface of the CIW.

Installing the new files

To extract the files, save the downloadable executable file to your hard disk drive, and then double-click the executable file. All of the ADM, OPA, and XLS files will be extracted into the same folder as the executable file, along with a copy of the End User License Agreement (EULA).

Installing the ADM files

If you did not install the Office 2003 ADM files previously, you copy the extracted SP1 ADM files directly to the INF folder of the WINDIR path (for example, C:\Windows\INF). Then you use the Add/Remove Templates command (Action menu) in the Group Policy snap-in to add the SP1 templates you wish to use.

If you previously installed and used the Office 2003 ADM files in the Group Policy snap-in, then you can replace the 2003 ADM files with the SP1 files by using the procedure below. Note that the registry information in some policies changed in SP1. If you used any of these policies with Office 2003 (see the table below), then you must disable those policies in the Group Policy snap-in before installing the Office SP1 ADM template files. Be sure to record your policy settings so you can restore them after you have installed the SP1 files.

The following table describes the policies that must be disabled before installing SP1 ADM files.

To replace the Office 2003 ADM files

1. Open the Group Policy snap-in by clicking Start, clicking Run, typing gpedit.msc, and then clicking OK.
2. If you configured any of the policies listed in the table above, then record these settings and disable those policies.
3. Select Administrative Templates in the console tree, and then click Add/Remove Templates in the Action menu.
4. Select the Office 2003 templates you wish to replace, and then click Remove.
5. Archive the 2003 ADM files if you wish to retain them.
6. Using Windows Explorer, copy the SP1 ADM files from the download folder to the INF folder in the WINDIR path.
7. From the Group Policy snap-in, click Add and browse to the INF folder.
8. Select the SP1 ADM files you wish to add, and then click Open.
9. Click Close.

   The updated policies are now ready to be configured with the Group Policy snap-in. If you disabled some policies, you can restore those settings now.

10. Exit the Group Policy snap-in.

Installing the OPA files

The OPA files for the Custom Installation Wizard and Custom Maintenance Wizard (CIW and CMW) must be stored in the following folder:

\Program Files\ORKTools\ORK11\TOOLS\SHARED

If you need to retain the 2003 OPA files, then back them up in another location from where you are copying the SP1 OPA files. Once the SP1 OPA files are in this folder, the CIW or CMW will use them when customizing Setup.

Related links

For more information about Office policies, including how to install and use the Office group policy template files, see Managing Users' Configurations by Policy.

For detailed information on using the Custom Installation Wizard, see Creating a transform by using the Custom Installation Wizard in Methods of Customizing Office, or the Custom Installation Wizard reference in the Office 2003 Resource Kit.