ACC2000: How to Use the Custom Installation Wizard to Install Access 2000

Microsoft provides a custom installation wizard that you can use to modify the Setup process of Microsoft Office or Microsoft Access 2000. This article give you an overview of the Custom Installation Wizard and provides sample steps for creating a transformation file, which is used to customize the installation of Office 2000 or Access 2000.

When you select modifications within the Custom Installation Wizard, the wizard changes the behavior of Access 2000 Setup, and installs Microsoft Access in whichever way that you choose.

If you are deploying Microsoft Access throughout a large organization, it is more efficient to first install Access onto a network server, and then to have users run Setup from your administrative installation on the network.

After you create an administrative installation on the network, you have many options for managing the deployment of Access. By using the Custom Installation Wizard, you can modify how all users within your organization install Access onto their computers. For example, by using the Custom Installation Wizard, you can control the following:

• Define the path where Access is installed on each computer.
• Define the default installation for all features of Access.
• Add your own files and registry entries during Access Setup.
• Modify Access shortcuts, specifying where they are installed and customizing their properties.
• Define a list of network servers for Access to use if the primary server is unavailable.
• Specify other products to install, or programs to run, after Setup is complete.
• Configure Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.

After you fine-tune the options by using the wizard, your modifications become the default settings for anyone who runs Setup from your administrative installation on the network. You can even have users run Setup in quiet mode (with no user interaction) so that your modifications define precisely how Access is installed.

The wizard uses the new Windows Installer component to modify Access 2000 Setup. The Windows Installer package is a relational database that contains all the information necessary to install Access 2000. The Windows Installer uses two types of files when installing Access:

• Installer package (MSI file). The package, or MSI file, contains a database that describes Access files and configuration information, plus instructions that determine how Setup installs the files.
• Installer transform (MST file). The transform, or MST file, contains modifications to be applied to the package as Setup installs Access.

The Custom Installation Wizard creates a new MST file based on your customizations. Setup reads the information in the MSI file, applies the changes specified in the MST file, and installs Access by using the combined set of instructions. The original MSI file is never altered. This arrangement allows you to create any number of MST files. You can design any number of Setup scenarios by using the wizard, and each scenario can be executed from the same administrative installation on the network. Like the package file (MSI), the transform file (MST) is a relational database with information about components, features, and Setup properties. But the transform contains only the changes that you want to apply to the package.

When you run Setup by using both the package and the transform, the installer applies the transform to the original package, and Setup uses your altered configuration to perform the installation. The installer does not change the package itself, but only temporarily applies the changes in memory before carrying out the package instructions.

After installation, the installer continues to use the package to add or remove components, and to replace missing or damaged files. When you set Access features to be installed on first use, the installer uses the package to copy the files the first time that the user activates the feature.

Because the transform is typically much smaller than the package, you can easily create multiple custom installations by creating multiple transforms to use with the default package. In each transform, you can select a different set of installation options, add custom files or registry entries, and customize Setup properties. If you need to make several MST files that are almost, but not quite identical, create the first MST file by using the Custom Installation Wizard. You can then use the wizard to open your customized MST file, alter one or two options, and save these options in a new MST file. Because you can define a list of network servers for Access to use in case the primary server is unavailable, remember to copy these MST files to every network server that is used for installing Access 2000.

Running the Custom Installation Wizard

When you run the Custom Installation Wizard, you first identify the Windows Installer package (MSI file) that you want to use. Then you can either open an existing Windows Installer transform (MST file), if you want to work with those customizations as a starting point, or create a new transform file.

1. Place an administrative installation of Access (or Office) 2000 onto your network server.
2. Install the Custom Installation Wizard onto this same network server.
3. Start Notepad, type the sentence "This is my Readme file", save the file as MyReadme.txt in the administrative installation folder, and then quit Notepad.
4. Start the Custom Installation Wizard (Custwiz.exe), and after reading the information on the initial screen, click Next.
5. Click Browse and in the Look in box, browse to the folder where you have placed an administrative installation of Access 2000.
6. Select the Data1.msi file, click Open, and then click Next.
7. Select the Do not open an existing MST file option, and then click Next.
8. Accept the new default name of New Custom Setup File.MST, and then click Next.
9. Change the Default installation path to <ProgramFiles>\Access 2000.
10. Type Test Company in the Organization box, and then click Next.
11. Click the Remove the following versions of Microsoft Office applications option, click to clear all of the check boxes, except for the following two, and then click Next:

        Microsoft Access 97
        Obsolete Microsoft Office Files
    						

12. Click the dropdown icon for Microsoft Office, and then click Not Available.
13. Click the dropdown icon for Microsoft Access for Windows, click Run all from My Computer, and then click Next.
14. Click the Do not customize; use Microsoft default values option, click to clear the Migrate user settings check box, and then click Next.
15. On the Add Files to the Installation page, click Add, and then select the MyReadme.txt file that you created earlier.
16. In the Destination path on the user's computer box , type <ProgramFiles>\Access 2000, click OK, and then click Next.
17. On the Add Registry Entries page, click Add, and in the Key box, type \Software\Microsoft\Office\Access, in the Value name box, type CustomKey, in the Value data box, type Key added by custom install, click OK, and then click Next.
18. From the list of Shortcut names, remove each of the New Office Document shortcuts, remove each of the Open Office Document shortcuts, remove the Screen Saver shortcut, and then click Next.
19. If another network server is available for installing Access 2000, then on the Identify Additional Servers page, click Add, type the name of your other network server's location, such as \\<ServerName>\<ShareName>, click OK, and then click Next. If you include the name of another server, make sure that you also place a copy of the MST file on this other server.
20. On the Add Installations and Run Programs page, click Add, type C:\Windows\Notepad.exe \\<ServerName>\<ShareName>\MyReadme.txt, click OK, and then click Next. This is an example of when multiple MST files may need to be created, where one MST file points to C:\Windows\Notepad.exe, and the other MST file may point to C:\Winnt\Notepad.exe. Setup will not start the executable if you exclude the path.
21. Select the Do not customize Outlook profile and account information option, and then click Next.
22. Select the Upgrade to Internet Explorer 5 option, click to select the following two boxes, and then click Next:

        Make Internet Explorer 5 the default browser
        Do not prompt the user to install Internet Explorer 5 during Microsoft Office Setup
    					

23. Double-click the TYPICALINSTALLHEADER property, change the default value to Test Company's Custom Installation, click OK, and then click Next.
24. Click Finish and review the information on the final page. After you click Finish, the Custom Installation Wizard writes all of your changes to the MST file. If you click Cancel before you click Finish at any point in the wizard, none of the options that you specified in this procedure are saved. Also, the original MSI file is never altered, even after you click Finish, so you can always go back to using the standard Access Setup program.
25. Make a special note of the sample command line, and then click Exit. For a complete list of Setup command-line options that you can use, click Help on this final wizard page. This topic also describes the format of the Setup settings file, which you can use to specify Setup properties or define the level of user interaction that Setup uses.
26. On one of your workstations, click Start, click Run, type a command line similar to the following, and then click OK:

    \\<ServerName>\<ShareName>\Setup.exe TRANSFORMS="New Custom Setup File.MST" 
    					

    This will install Microsoft Access 2000 onto that workstation, including all the customizations that you specified in this procedure.

If you plan to store multiple MST files in the same folder that contains the MSI file, give them unique file names. When users run Setup from your network installation point, the users should specify the name of the MST file designed for them in the Setup command line.

The Custom Installation Wizard is designed for use with the MSI and MST files included with Office 2000 applications and related products. If you use the Custom Installation Wizard to customize Setup of another product, some of the pages within the wizard may not appear, and some of the Setup properties described in the wizard's Help file (Custwiz.hlp) may not have any effect.

To find out more about placing an administrative installation of Office or Access 2000 on a network, please see the Ofread9.txt file in the \PFiles\MSOffice\Office folder of the Office or Access 2000 CD.

To obtain the Custom Installation Wizard, visit the following Microsoft Web site and download the Office Resource Kit core tool set: To find more information about the Custom Installation Wizard, refer to its Help file (Custwiz.hlp) after the wizard is installed, or visit the following Microsoft Web site: