Disable Setup Assistant

[jasonmbennett]

Is there a way to disable to whole setup assistant or make it
completely transparent to the user and fill in any necessary data with
some default data? A lab full of first graders and their teacher is
going to flip out if we have to send them through that.

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, there is.

Go to Mactopia and read up the information for "IT Pros". That takes you to
the Office 2008 Admin Guide.

You can do a managed roll-out of this thing, and you can perform a silent
administrative installation.

If you need more help, come back and I will get one of our System
Administrators to give you a hand.

I will need to know: Mac or Windows or Linux server?

Cheers

Is there a way to disable to whole setup assistant or make it
completely transparent to the user and fill in any necessary data with
some default data? A lab full of first graders and their teacher is
going to flip out if we have to send them through that.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[jasonmbennett]

Hi John,

Thanks for the quick reply. Here's some more detail on our setup.

The install is being done using a utility called Radmind which
basically takes a snapshot of the file system before and after the
install and saves the changes to a "loadset". These loadsets are
pushed out to computers using a server.

We're using network home folders for all of our users and these reside
on mac servers for most of the schools but we have two schools that
store the home folders on Windows 2003 servers. Users connect via AFP
to the Macs and SMB to the Windows servers. Each school does have a
Mac server in it though that handles the OD for managed preferences.
Authentication is done via AD. Also, we're only using Word, Excel,
and Powerpoint - so no Entourage is needed.

I read through the IT Pros section on the Office 2008 site but didn't
really find what I was looking for. I want to make it so the setup
assistant never runs. I was hoping there was a plist somewhere that
could specify this but I'm not finding one. The only thing I can
think of is push out the basic files that Office makes on first run (~/
Documents/MS User Data) to each user's home folder then it might see
that and skip the assistant. But that requires adding a login script
of some sort to check for these files and copy if needed and I'm
trying to avoid something like that.

- Jason

 

[Diane Ross]

I forwarded this on to someone that I know that uses Radmind. If I get any
feedback, I'll post here.

 

[John McGhie]

Setup Assistant has to run, to create the config plists. But you can
pre-populate all the answers.

I know who Diane has sent this to: same person I was going to pester. He's
using Radmind successfully (and complaining a hell of a lot...)

Cheers

Hi John,

Thanks for the quick reply. Here's some more detail on our setup.

The install is being done using a utility called Radmind which
basically takes a snapshot of the file system before and after the
install and saves the changes to a "loadset". These loadsets are
pushed out to computers using a server.

We're using network home folders for all of our users and these reside
on mac servers for most of the schools but we have two schools that
store the home folders on Windows 2003 servers. Users connect via AFP
to the Macs and SMB to the Windows servers. Each school does have a
Mac server in it though that handles the OD for managed preferences.
Authentication is done via AD. Also, we're only using Word, Excel,
and Powerpoint - so no Entourage is needed.

I read through the IT Pros section on the Office 2008 site but didn't
really find what I was looking for. I want to make it so the setup
assistant never runs. I was hoping there was a plist somewhere that
could specify this but I'm not finding one. The only thing I can
think of is push out the basic files that Office makes on first run (~/
Documents/MS User Data) to each user's home folder then it might see
that and skip the assistant. But that requires adding a login script
of some sort to check for these files and copy if needed and I'm
trying to avoid something like that.

- Jason

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[jasonmbennett]

I know who Diane has sent this to: same person I was going to pester. He's

using Radmind successfully (and complaining a hell of a lot...)

Don't get me started...

 

[Jason_Falcone]

I need to accomplish the same thing. I am using Altiris to deploy a Software Delivery Task to Mac OS X systems and want to automate the install so that it is a Silent Installation with NO user interaction. Can this be done and how? The Admin guide doesn't specify this.

 

[MrSexeh]

I need to accomplish the same thing. I am using Altiris to deploy a Software Delivery Task to Mac OS X systems and want to automate the install so that it is a Silent Installation with NO user interaction. Can this be done andhow? The Admin guide doesn't specify this.

Ditto. I can find no information on automating the post-upgrade/
install procedure.
My users should never have to see the Office Setup Assistant or know
their identity even had to be converted.