Will Sysprep mess with Office activation?

[chinnp]

I was put in charge of setting up WDS on the server in the shop at work. (We do IT outsourcing and deploy the same machine to multiple clients.) I finally got it up and running and no longer have to download a hundred and some odd updates from Microsoft. The problem is with MS Office 2007. For some reason, Windows Update won't update Office products that aren't activated. The machine I imaged had Office on it, but it wasn't activated. If I image a machine with an activated version of Office, will that mess up the Office activation. With my current setup I have to image the machine, activate Office, update it and then pack the machine back up. I want to be able to image the machine, activate Office and be done with it. I don't know if Sysprep will severely affect Office or if I'll be able to activate Office again using the same key I used previously.

[anyweb]

hi and welcome

 

take a look at this

 

You use the Office Customization Tool (OCT) to customize an installation of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The OCT is part of the Setup program and is the recommended tool for most customizations. You run the OCT by typing setup.exe /admin on the command line.

 

When you run the OCT, you choose to create a new Setup customization (MSP) file or to open an existing MSP file. If you are creating a new file, the OCT displays a list of the products available on the network installation point. You must select a single product that you want to customize.

NoteNote:

 

The 2007 Office release requires version 3.1 or later of Windows Installer on all computers running Office, including the computer you use to run the OCT. For more information about Windows Installer 3.1, including where to obtain it, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 893803.

 

Using the OCT, you customize Office and save your customizations in a Setup customization MSP file. You place the file in the Updates folder on the network installation point. When you install Office, Setup looks for a Setup customization file in the Updates folder and applies the customizations. The Updates folder can only be used for deploying software patches during an initial installation of 2007 Office system.

 

As an alternative to placing the customization MSP file in the Updates folder, you can use the Setup command-line option /adminfile to specify the fully-qualified path to the location of the MSP file. For example, type: setup.exe /adminfile \\server\share\mychanges\custom.msp.

NoteNote:

 

If you use a folder other than the Updates folder for your customization files, you can specify the folder's location in the config.xml file by using the SUpdateLocation attribute of the SetupUpdates element. For more information, see Config.xml file in the 2007 Office system.

 

i'm still trying to find out about how sysprep reacts with office 2007 though.....