SBS - Office 2003 Install Location After Domain Add

Ever hunt for something and not find it because it is not where it is "supposed: to be?

In this case, we are setting up a couple of Windows XP Pro Virtual Machines with Office 2003 Pro installed for some testing sessions that we will be doing.

The VMs are already resident on a Virtual SBS domain.

These particular XP VMs do not have Office deployed by GP or installed before being added to the domain. If they did, Office would be in its standard install location under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office.

So, when we ran the install routine for Office Pro, this is what we were greeted with for the directory install location:

C:\Program Files\Outlook

Having Outlook already installed by the SBS domain setup routine means the full version of Office installer picks the current location of Office Outlook: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Outlook.

In this case, we are leaving it at its default choice. Once the installation of Office was done:


So, on a day where we may have had five or six workstation installs where Office was not delivered via GP, we may miss changing the install location to \Microsoft Office on some of the machines that are already on the SBS domain.

In our experience, there is are caveats with changing default install location for applications such as issues with registry settings, subsequent uninstall needs, and other hiccups with product install or reinstall situations. This is not so common anymore, but still happens occasionally.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

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