Deploy Office 2013 from a local installation source

  • Article

 

Applies to: Office 2013

Summary: Explains how to install the Windows Installer-based version of Office 2013 (MSI) from the local installation source.

Audience: IT Professionals

When you deploy Office 2013, Setup creates a local installation source on the user's computer. It is a copy of the compressed source files for the Office product that you install. The default location is \MSOCache\All Users, which is a hidden folder at the root of the drive on which Office is installed. After the files are copied to the user's computer, Setup completes the installation from the local installation source. You can minimize the load on a network by doing the installation in two steps:

  1. Deploy the local installation source by using Setup and a customized Config.xml file, which will copy the compressed source files to the local computer. This is called precaching and an MSOCache folder is created on the local computer to store the installation files.

  2. Run Setup from the local installation source.

Precaching lets most of the installation activity occur on the local computer instead of over the network. You can distribute the local installation source to groups of users over time and then schedule a concurrent installation throughout the organization without overtaxing the network.

Important

Running Setup.exe from the MSOCache, as described in this article, is intended only for new installations of Office 2013. This method does not work if you have an existing Office 2010 or Office 2007 installation on the computer on which you are installing Office 2013. If you attempt to upgrade from Office 2010 or Office 2007 to Office 2013 by installing Office 2013 from the MSOCache folder, an error message that resembles the following may be displayed: “The Language of this installation package is not supported by your system.”

In this article:

  • Create a network installation point

  • Deploy the local installation source

  • Run Setup from the local installation source

Create a network installation point

Before you begin, you will want to create, replicate, and secure a network installation point. To do this, copy all source files and any language packs that you want to deploy from the Office 2013 installation media to a shared location on the network. You can then use the network installation point as a starting place to distribute Office 2013. Make sure that access to Office 2013 source files is read-only. The Setup.xml and Package.xml files, such as ProPlusWW.xml for Office 2013, are digitally signed and cannot be changed. For more information, see Create a network installation point in Customize Setup before installing Office 2013.

Deploy the local installation source

Use the following procedure to deploy the local installation source before you deploy Office 2013.

Note

You can complete tasks in all Office 2013 suites by using a mouse, keyboard shortcuts, or touch. For information about how to use keyboard shortcuts and touch with Office products and services, see Keyboard shortcuts and Office Touch Guide.

To deploy the local installation source separately

  1. On the network installation point, open the Config.xml file in a text editor, such as Notepad. For information about the Config.xml file, see Config.xml file reference for Office 2013.

    By default, Config.xml is located in the core product folder for the Office product that you are installing. For example, if you install Office Professional Plus 2013, open the Config.xml file in the ProPlus.WW folder.

  2. Find the LIS element (<LIS>); remove the comment marks in the line by deleting the opening <!-- and closing --> tags.

  3. Set the <CACHEACTION> attribute to "CacheOnly".

    The line in Config.xml should look as shown in the following example.

    <LIS CACHEACTION="CacheOnly" />

  4. Save the Config.xml file.

  5. Run Setup.exe on users' computers. On the Setup command line, specify the path of the custom Config.xml file.

    You must use a fully qualified path. For example: \\server\share\Office15\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office15\ProPlus.WW\Config.xml

    where:

    Office15 is the root of the network installation point.

    /config specifies the path of the customized Config.xml file.

Note

If you precache the local installation source on users' computers and then later have to remove it, you can set the <CACHEACTION> attribute to "RemoveCacheOnly" and run Setup again. This setting works only if users have not yet installed Office.

To take full advantage of precaching the local installation source for new installations of Office 2013, you can use the Setup.exe file from the local cache and only pass in the optional files, the Setup customization file (.msp file), and the custom Config.xml file from a network installation source. You must use the fully qualified path of these files. If the share names contain spaces, use quotation marks around the paths as shown in the following example.

"C:\MSOCache\All Users\{90150000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}-C\setup.exe" /adminfile "\\server\share\Office15\mychanges\db_outlookonly.msp" /config "\\server\share\Office15\ProPlus.WW\Config.xml"

where:

/adminfile specifies the location of the Setup customization .msp file.

/config specifies the location of the customized Config.xml file.

Setup handles the creation and maintenance of the local installation source automatically. The default location is \MSOCache\All Users at the root of the drive on which Office is installed. In addition to installing Office from the local installation source, Setup uses the local installation source to repair, reinstall, or update Office later. If the local installation source is corrupted or deleted, Setup uses the original source on the network to repair or re-create it. For information about the /adminfile and /config setup command-line options, see /adminfile [path] and /config [path] in Setup command-line options reference for Office 2013.

Note

If you set the installation location for Office to another location (for example, by entering a new value for the INSTALLLOCATION attribute in Config.xml), Setup creates the local installation source at that location.

MSOCache folder

Setup copies each package from the network installation point to a separate subfolder under MSOCache\All Users. The subfolder for the core product package includes a copy of Setup.exe that defaults to installing that product. Subfolders under MSOCache\All Users are named according to the download code for each package, instead of the folder naming convention that is used on the network installation point.

Note

Download codes for each Office product can be found in the Setup.xml file in the core product folder. The line in the Setup.xml file for Office Professional Plus 2013 should look as shown in the following example:
<LocalCache DownloadCode="{90150000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}"

The letter that is appended to the end of each download code (-C, for example) indicates the drive on which the local installation source for that product is installed. If a user has installed multiple Office products on different drives, each drive contains a local installation source in the MSOCache\All Users folder. The drive letter in the download code enables Windows Installer to identify the correct location for the specified product.

In the precache scenario only, Setup also copies the Updates folder from the network installation point to the local installation source. You can store both Setup customization files (.msp files) and software update files (.msp files) in the Updates folder and automatically include them in the installation. You gain the benefits of an offline installation without losing any of your customizations. For more information about using the Updates folder, see "Updates folder" in Office Customization Tool (OCT) reference for Office 2013.

Run Setup from the local installation source

To run Setup, you must identify the subfolder in MSOCache\All Users that contains the core product that you want to install. See MSOCache folder. Setup.exe is located in the same folder that contains the core product file <product_name>WW.msi, for example, ProPlusWW.msi. For example, for Office Professional Plus 2013, the core product file is ProPlusWW.msi, and the folder that contains Setup.exe is {90150000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}-<drive letter>. The folder includes files, such as the following:

  • Office64WW.msi

  • Office64WW.xml

  • Ose.exe

  • Osetup.dll

  • OWOW64WW.cab

  • PidGenX.dll

  • pkeyconfig-office.xrm-ms

  • ProPlusWW.msi

  • ProPlusWW.xml

  • ProPsWW.cab

  • ProPsWW2.cab

  • Setup.dll

  • Setup.exe

  • Setup.xml

To run setup from the local installation source

  1. Distribute the local installation to users. See Deploy the local installation source.

  2. Locate the download code for the Office product that you want to install. Download codes are included in the Setup.xml file in the core product folder.

    For example, locate the line in Setup.xml that contains the LocalCache entry as in this example from Office Professional Plus 2013:

    <LocalCache DownloadCode="{90150000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}" SkuComponentDirectory="ProPlus.WW">

  3. Run Setup.exe from the subfolder in MSOCache\All Users that corresponds to the download code. You can use a relative path of point to the location of Setup.exe on each user's computer.

    For example, if you deployed the local installation source for Office Professional Plus 2013 on drive C, use the following command line:

    C:\MSOCache\All Users\{90150000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}-C \setup.exe

    You can send the Setup.exe command line to users by whatever means that you want — for example, in a logon script or a batch file.

See also

Overview of Setup architecture for Office 2013
Config.xml file reference for Office 2013
Customize Setup before installing Office 2013
Office Customization Tool (OCT) reference for Office 2013

Create a network installation point