Customizing How Office Features Are Installed

When running Office Setup interactively, users can choose which Microsoft Office features are installed by selecting from a list that Setup displays. Users can choose to install a particular feature in one of several ways:

• On the local hard disk
• On the network server, from where the user runs the feature
• On first use, meaning that Setup does not install the feature until the first time it is used.
• Not installed at all.

By using the Office Custom Installation Wizard, you can make these choices ahead of time for users. When users run Setup interactively, your choices become the default. When users run Setup quietly, your choices determine how the features are installed.

Set the installation state for features

On the Set Feature Installation States panel of the Custom Installation Wizard, you can click any feature to select the installation state. You can choose from the following options:

• Run from My Computer

  Components for the feature are copied to the local hard disk, and the feature is run from there.

• Run all from My Computer

  Same as Run from My Computer, except that all of the child features belonging to the feature are also set to this state.

• Run from CD or Run from Network

  Components for the feature are left on Microsoft Office 2000 Disc 1 or on the network server (depending on how users are installing Office). The feature is run from Office Disc 1 or the network server.

• Run all from CD or Run all from Network

  Same as Run from CD or Run from Network, except that all of the child features belonging to the feature are also set to this state.

• Installed on First Use

  Components for the feature and all its child features are left on Office Disc 1 or on the network server (depending on how users are installing Office). When the user attempts to use the feature for the first time, the components are automatically copied to the local hard disk, and the feature is run from there just as if it had been installed with the option Run from My Computer.

• Not Available

  The components for the feature, and all of the child features belonging to this feature, are not installed on the computer, and the feature is unavailable to the user.

Not all installation states are available for every feature. For example, if a feature contains a component that cannot be run over the network, then the feature does not have Run from CD or Run from Network as a choice in its list of installation states.

 Tip    If you run the Custom Installation Wizard with the /x command-line option, the wizard displays the feature tree fully expanded on this panel.

Hide features from users during Setup

In addition to setting the installation state, you can right-click any feature on the Set Feature Installation States panel of the Custom Installation Wizard to hide the feature from the user. If you select Hide, then Setup does not display the feature when the user runs Setup interactively; instead, the feature is installed behind the scenes according to the installation state that you have specified.

To reverse this setting, right-click the feature and select Unhide. If you hide or unhide a feature, all of the child features belonging to the feature are hidden or not hidden accordingly.

See also

When you change the installation state of an Office feature, the installation states of the child features change in various ways. For more information, click Help on the Set Feature Installation States panel of the Custom Installation Wizard.

Creating the administrative installation point on a network server is the first step in deploying a customized version of Office over the network to your users. For more information, see How to Create an Administrative Installation Point.

You can use the Office Custom Installation Wizard to customize many aspects of your Office installation. For more information, see Office Custom Installation Wizard.