Setup.exe is the program that initiates all the mechanisms of the installation process; it is located at the root of the network installation point. You run Setup once for each Office product you install. When it runs, Setup searches the network installation point for an Office product to install. If the installation point contains more than one Office product, Setup presents the user with a choice of products to install.

You can circumvent the selection process and determine which Office product is installed by pointing Setup.exe to the Config.xml file in a core product folder. For example, if you want to install Microsoft Office Standard 2007, you can use the following command line:

\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /config \\server\share\Office12\Standard.WW\Config.xml

where Office12 is the root of the network installation point.

In previous versions of Office, Setup.exe called Windows Installer (Msiexec.exe) to perform the installation of Office. Although Setup still uses Windows Installer, Setup bypasses the Windows Installer executable program. The Msiexec.exe command line cannot be used to install the 2007 Office system.

Note:
This version of Setup.exe recognizes only a few command-line options. For more information, see Setup command-line options for the 2007 Office system.

When Setup starts, it checks for a number of installation prerequisites, including minimum operating system requirements and administrative rights. A user must be an administrator of the client computer in order to install Office, or you must use a tool such as Microsoft Systems Management Server to run the installation with elevated privileges.

For more information about giving users administrative rights for an Office installation, see Deploy the 2007 Office system to users who are not administrators.

Setup gathers information about each package on the installation point, collects default settings for the installation, and incorporates customizations you specify. Setup gathers all this information in the form of XML data from several sources:

• Setup.xml and Package.xml files for each package

• Setup customization file

• Config.xml file

Setup.xml and Package.xml

Each folder on the installation point—both the folder for the language-neutral core package and the folder for each language-specific package—contains a Setup.xml and a Package.xml file (for example, StandardWW.xml for Office Standard 2007). Information in these files allows Setup to do the following:

• Identify a product and the available languages for that product.

• Match language-neutral and language-specific elements to create complete features.

• Build a consolidated feature tree.

• Collect the set of MSI files required for the installation.

Note:
The Setup.xml and Package.xml files are signed and cannot be modified. Altering these files causes Setup to fail.

Setup customization file

Config.xml

Setup uses the information contained in the XML files to create a single feature tree that includes all the available applications and features in the product. You view the feature tree and specify which applications and features to install on users' computers by using the Office Customization Tool. If you allow users to run Setup interactively, they view the feature tree with your modifications in the Setup user interface.

For more information about specifying which Office features to install, see Configure feature installation states of the 2007 Office system.

Setup calls a program named Office Source Engine (Ose.exe) to create a required local installation source on the user's computer. To create the local installation source, Setup copies files from the installation point to a hidden location on the user's computer. The default location is \MSOCache\All Users at the root of the drive on which Office is installed. Later, Setup uses Windows Installer to install Office from this local installation source.

The local installation source provides several important benefits:

• After Office is installed, Setup can repair, reinstall, or add Office features by using the local source.

• Users who are applying software updates are less likely to be prompted for a network or CD source because an installation source is available locally.

• You can deploy the local installation source in advance and trigger the installation of Office on users' computers later to reduce the load on the network. In this scenario, you can even run Setup from the local installation source, allowing users to complete the Office installation with no network connection.

For more information about the local installation source, see Required local installation source for the 2007 Office system.

When the installation begins, Setup checks for required disk space and feature dependencies, and then calls Windows Installer to install the correct set of packages (MSI files) on the user's computer from the local installation source. Setup uses the XML data described previously to determine which set of MSI files to include. The progress bar that Setup displays to users during the installation takes the entire installation process into account, including applying customizations and software updates from the Updates folder.

Note:
Although Setup uses Windows Installer to install Office, Windows Installer alone cannot install the individual MSI files independent of Setup.

During the installation process, Setup applies the customization file to the user's configuration. The result is similar to the effect of applying a Windows Installer transform (MST file) in previous versions of Office: your customizations become the default configuration for users. In addition to the XML data that customizes the installation process, the customization file may include default user settings, feature installation states, Microsoft Outlook profiles, and other modifications to the user's configuration.

Customization files are product-specific; Setup applies only those files that are relevant to the product being installed. However, if you store more than one customization file for the same product in the Updates folder, Setup applies all of the files to the user's configuration in alphabetical order.

If you create different configurations for different groups of users, Microsoft recommends that you store the customization files in another location and then use the /adminfile option on the Setup command line to specify the file you want. For example:

\\server\share\Office12\setup.exe /adminfile \\server\share\Office12\MyUpdates\Engineering.msp

where Office12 is the root of the network installation point.

Note:

When you precache the local installation source, Setup copies the Updates folder from the network installation point to the local installation source. In this way, your customizations can be included in offline installation scenarios. This is the only circumstance in which Setup caches the customization file on the local computer before the installation. For more information, see Precache the local installation source for the 2007 Office system.

At the end of the installation process, Setup checks the Updates folder on the installation point for software updates (MSP files). Unlike Setup customization files that you create by using the Office Customization Tool, software updates are distributed by Microsoft to enhance the product.

If you are deploying Office to users who also need a set of software updates, Setup can apply the updates as part of the initial installation process. Costing (estimated required disk space) and progress bar indicators all take this step of the installation process into account. From a user's perspective, the entire process is a single event. This model preserves the original installation point and still allows you to give new users the most up-to-date version of the product.

Note:
You cannot use the Updates folder to deploy product updates after the initial installation of Office.

For more information about the software update process, see Consolidated update process for the 2007 Office system.