Office Deployment Support Team Blog

In a previous Office Deployment Support Team Blog post, we explained how to automatically activate Office 2010 by using a customized config.xml file and setting element/property, AUTO_ACTIVATE.

This blog post will expand on that a bit and explain how to perform the same actions using an MSP file created with the Office Customization Tool (OCT).

NOTE: Adding the AUTO_ACTIVATE property to an install will trigger an attempt to activate only once. If that fails for whatever reason (i.e., proxy issues, user rights, Internet connectivity issues, etc.), another attempt will not be made and Office users will later be prompted to activate Office 2010.

The following is a simplified example of a custom config.xml file, which can be used with volume license source files for Office 2010 Professional Plus to automate the process of inputting an Office MAK product key and activating the product at install time. In addition, the installation operation will be silent, with a related verbose log file created in the %temp% directory.

These options are typical for many customers who deploy Office in an enterprise environment. For more information, see the Config.xml file in Office 2010 article at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179195.aspx

</Configuration>

1) In the above, "ABC12xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx34XYZ" is a placeholder for what should be your organization specific MAK product key for Office 2010.
2) Install Office 2010 as a user with local administrator rights by using a command line similar to the following:

<path to Office 2010 source files>\setup.exe /config <path>\config.xml

3) Alternatively, this file can be added to the root of source files for Office 2010 (i.e., the same location of Setup.exe on a CD/DVD or network share), and running the setup executable will cause the config file to be automatically parsed at install time.

The following steps can be used to accomplish the same thing using the Office Customization Tool (OCT). In addition to providing for more advanced customization of an Office installation, adding a MAK product key to and OCT generated MSP file instead of a config.xml causes the key to be obfuscated, rather than appearing in plain text as it is in a config.xml file.

1) Run the OCT by typing setup.exe /admin at the command line from the root of the network installation point that contains the Office 2010 source files. For example, use \\server\share\Office14\setup.exe /admin.
2) In the OCT, select Licensing and user interface in the left pane, and in the right pane select Enter another product key, add your organization specific MAK Office product key in the Product key field, and other options as desired.

3) In the OCT, select Modify Setup properties in the left pane and then click the Add... button in the right pane.
4) In the Add/Modify Property Value dialog and type AUTO_ACTIVATE in the Name field. Note that property names are case sensitive.
5) In Value field, type 1, and then click OK.

6) Note that the AUTO_ACTIVATE property has been added to the MSP file and has a value of 1.

7) Click the File menu and then click Save as to save the Setup customization file. If the file is saved in the Updates folder that is part of the Office source file location/installation point, running the Office Setup.exe file will automatically detect the customization file in the Updates folder and apply the customizations.
8) 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 of the location of the MSP file. For example, type setup.exe /adminfile \\server\share\mychanges\custom.msp.

When troubleshooting KMS configuration and activation issues, our customers are often surprised to find unexpected Windows or Office KMS hosts in their environment.

By default, Windows and Office clients discover KMS hosts via DNS and a related _vlmcs SRV record. To determine whether a KMS client can locate a KMS host and/or whether undesired KMS hosts exist on the network, run a command line similar to the following:

nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp >%temp%\kms.txt

Review the kms.txt file. It should contain one or more entries similar to the following:

_vlmcs._tcp.contoso.com                            SRV service location:
                  priority       = 0
                  weight      = 0
                  port          = 1688
                  svr hostname   = kms-server.contoso.com

Running this nslookup command frequently reveals _vlmcs SRV entries which are tied to unauthorized Windows or Office KMS hosts.

In many cases, Windows KMS hosts may have been unintentionally set up by users who mistakenly entered a KMS host product key, rather than a Windows client product key. To remedy this issue, perform the following steps on the machine(s) in question, to replace the KMS product group key and "convert" it to a KMS or MAK client:

1) Open an elevated command prompt.
2) Run a command similar to the following:

cscript slmgr.vbs /ipkxxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx (where xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx is a 25 digit, Windows product key)

3) To prevent instability in the license service, the system should be restarted or the Software Protection Service should be restarted. The following command lines can be used to restart the Software Protection Service:

net stop sppsvc
net start sppsvc

4) Run a command line similar to the following to display the license information for the installed, active Windows edition:

cscript slmgr.vbs /dli

5) Using DNS Manager, in the appropriate forward lookup zone, delete the _vlmcs SRV records that exist for each machine which is not to serve as a Windows KMS host.
6) See the following articles for additional information:

Slmgr.vbs Options
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793433.aspx

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Customer Hosted Volume Activation Guide / Deploying KMS Activation
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793409.aspx

Unintentional creation of an Office KMS host is less common, because setting up an Office KMS requires a specific product key and the installation of the Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack.

To determine whether a machine has the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack installed and is an active Office KMS host, run a command line similar to the following:

cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864

The output of a machine which has the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack installed will resemble the following. Key items are "Partial Product Key: GB7AH" and "License Status: Licensed", which indicate that the Office 2010 KMS host key is successfully installed and activated.

Name: Microsoft Office 2010, KMSHost edition
Description: Microsoft Office 2010 KMS, VOLUME_KMS channel
Activation ID: bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864
Application ID: 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663
Extended PID: 55041-00096-199-000004-03-1033-7600.0000-3632009
Installation ID: 008523674214771124199799184000850026888810090415321136
Processor Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88342
Machine Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88343
Use License URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88345
Product Key Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=88344
Partial Product Key: GB7AH
License Status: Licensed
Remaining Windows rearm count: 1
Trusted time: 10/16/2011 2:07:42 PM

Key Management Service is enabled on this computer
    Current count: 0
    Listening on Port: 1688
    DNS publishing enabled
    KMS priority: Normal

Perform the following steps to remove an Office KMS host in your environment:

1) Open an elevated command prompt.
2) Run a command similar to the following:

cscript slmgr.vbs /upk bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864

CAUTION:If the above command line is run without the Office activation ID ("bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864"), all installed product keys are uninstalled, including those for Windows.

3) Run following command line again, to check the status of the Office KMS host:

cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864

4) If the Office KMS host product key has been removed, the output will be similar to that below. Key items are "This license is not in use" and "License Status: Unlicensed".

Name: Microsoft Office 2010, KMSHost edition
Description: Microsoft Office 2010 KMS, VOLUME_KMS channel
Activation ID: bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864
Application ID: 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663
Extended PID:
Installation ID:
Processor Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88342
Machine Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88343
Use License URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88345
Product Key Certificate URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=88344
This license is not in use.
License Status: Unlicensed
Remaining Windows rearm count: 1
Trusted time: 8/16/2011 7:49:23 AM

5) Using DNS Manager, in the appropriate forward lookup zone, delete the _vlmcs SRV records that exist for each machine which is not to serve as an Office KMS host.
6) See the following articles for additional information:

Deploy volume activation of Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624357.aspx

Troubleshoot volume activation for Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624355.aspx

Installing Service Pack 1 for Office 2010 may cause the SharePoint Workspace (SPW) feature to be added to the installation, when it was previously set to "Not Available". This issue is the subject of Microsoft Knowledge Base article 2612800.

The screenshots below illustrate the SPW feature state as displayed in the Control Panel and the Office Customization Tool (OCT) when set to "Not Available":

(click to view larger images)

A related update was recently published to the Microsoft Download Center:

x86/32-bit (Office2010-kb2598245-fullfile-x86-glb.exe)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29250

x64/64-bit (Office2010-kb2598245-fullfile-x64-glb.exe)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29249

This update must be applied prior to the installation of SP1 to prevent the SPW feature from being added by SP1 or a later update.

Enterprise customers who are using the Updates folder for new installations of Office 2010 and including SP1 MSP files can use these steps to prevent the installation of SharePoint Workspace 2010:

1) Extract the contents of the update executable to a temporary location using the “/extract:<path>” switch (see KB912203 for addt'l switches).

(click to view larger image)

2) Note the contents and subfolder in the location of the extracted update:

(click to view larger images)

3) Copy the pre_rmaddlocal-x-none.msp and osetup.dll files, SP1 MSP files, and any other update or OCT generated MSP files into the Updates folder. The osetup.dll file can be found in the Admin subfolder, and the presence of this file will cause the pre_*.msp file to be applied before SP1, and after any OCT files.

(click to view larger images)

There are currently no plans to add this update to the Microsoft Update Catalog, as doing so would cause it to be offered to all Microsoft Update users. In this case, only users who have set the SharePoint Workspace feature to Not Available will be affected by the issue.

See the following articles for additional information:

KB2612800 Office 2010 SP1 installs SharePoint Workspace
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2612800

KB2598245 Description of the Office 2010 update: March 29, 2012
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598245

Office Sustained Engineering and Release Team Blog post, "Update to Office 2010 SP1 to prevent unintentional installation of SharePoint Workspace"
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2012/03/30/update-to-office-2010-sp1-to-prevent-unintentional-installation-of-sharepoint-workspace.aspx

Support for Windows XP, Office 2003, and Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP ends on April 8, 2014.

After April 8, 2014, Microsoft will not provide any public support for Windows XP, Office 2003, and Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP. This includes security patches, non-security hotfixes, and incident/assisted support.

To continue receiving assisted support and security updates:

Customers using Windows XP should upgrade to Windows 7.
Customers using Office 2003 should upgrade to Office 2010.
Customers using Internet Explorer 6 should upgrade to Internet Explorer 9.

By moving to these versions, customers will receive the latest security technology from Microsoft.

Self-Help Online Support for Windows XP, Office 2003, and Internet Explorer 6 will be available for a minimum of 12 months after their end of support date. Microsoft online Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, troubleshooting tools, and other resources, are provided to help customers resolve common issues.

For additional information related to why support is ending for Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003, what end of support means to customers, and how Microsoft will help customers see http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx

The current version of the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack cannot be installed on machines running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012. Attempts to do so will result the error, "Unsupported operating system".

1/7/2013 UPDATE: The "Product activation failed" error that can occur when attempting to perform a phone activation of an Office 2010 KMS host installed on Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machines has been addressed in the latest release of the KeyManagementServiceHost*.exe file, which can be found in the link below.

12/4/2012 UPDATE: This issue has been addressed in the latest version of the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack, which can be found at the link below.

Microsoft is working on an update for the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack which will allow it to be successfully installed on Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machines.

In the meantime, the following steps can be used to work around the issue:

1) Download the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=169244)
2) Run the downloaded KeyManagementServiceHost.exe file to extract files that it contains. Ignore the "Unsupported operating system" error that occurs and click OK.
3) Press the Enter key to close the command window that is related to cscript.exe.
3) Browse to the %programfiles% or %programfiles(x86)% folder and navigate to the MSECache\OfficeKMS subfolder. If you installed the Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack on a 64-bit operating system, %programfiles% is the Program Files (x86) folder.
4) Rename the existing kms_host.vbs file to kms_host.old
5) Download the kms_host.zip file from the Office Deployment Support Team's SkyDrive share at http://sdrv.ms/RiZ8Q9
6) Extract the kms_host.vbs file from the zip file and place a copy of it in the %programfiles(x86)%\MSECache\OfficeKMS or%programfiles%\MSECache\OfficeKMS folder.

7) From an elevated command-prompt navigate to the %programfiles(x86)%\MSECache\OfficeKMS or%programfiles%\MSECache\OfficeKMS folder and run the following command:

cscript kms_host.vbs

7) If the KMS host machine has Internet connectivity, click Yes to enter the Office KMS host product key and activate online. Otherwise, click No, and press Enter to close the command window.

Open an elevated command prompt and run the following command line to check the installation, licensing state, and current status of the Office KMS host:

cscript slmgr.vbs /dlv bfe7a195-4f8f-4f0b-a622-cf13c7d16864

See the following articles for additional information related to Office KMS host installation, activation, and troubleshooting:

Deploy volume activation of Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624357.aspx

Troubleshoot volume activation for Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624355.aspx

Office Deployment Support Team Blog, "Office 2010 KMS installation and troubleshooting"
http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/archive/2010/06/01/office-2010-kms-installation-and-troubleshooting.aspx

With the release of Office 2013 Click-to-Run, Microsoft has created a tool to assist with the deploying of various 2013 Click-to-Run products. This blog walks through how to use and customize the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run.

Step 1.
Download the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778
Running the officedeploymenttool.exe produces a Setup.exe and a configuration.xml file.

Step 2.
Edit the Configuration.xml file:
Open the configuration.xml file in a word editor. You will see the XML data:

Anything between comment marks  will not run. So first remove the comment marks around Add SourcePath and the trailing </Add>

Next, edit the “\\Server\Share\Office\” path to represent where you want to download the Office files too. Example – “C:\users\admin\desktop\odt\”

If you are only installing Office Pro Plus, remove <Product ID=”VisioProRetail”> through </Product> to remove Visio from the install. Then save your Configuration.xml file.

If you are installing additional products, or a different product, view the following KB article for a full list of product IDs that are supported by the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2842297
If you are adding additional languages to your install or want to further customize your install, please see the Reference for Click-to-Run configuration.xml file TechNet article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426.aspx

Step 3.
Download the media:
Open a command window and change the directory to the location of your setup.exe file. Next, run Setup.exe /download configuration.xml

The software will begin downloading to your machine. This process usually takes 15 or so minutes, but can take as long as an hour or more depending on your internet connection and other factors.
Once the software is done downloading, the command window will return to the C:\ Prompt.

Step 4.
Install the software.
If you are installing on the same machine that you downloaded the software too, run the following command to start the install: Setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

If you are planning on adding this download to a network share and having multiple users download Office from that location, make sure that DOMAIN COMPUTERS has Read & execute, List folder contents and Read permission. For more info on Installing from a network share, visit our blog entry on that topic here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/archive/2012/11/20/office-2013-installation-hangs-at-10-percent-when-installing-from-a-network-share.aspx

Customers using Microsoft Office 2010 may experience delays when provisioning new user accounts. These users may receive the following error when attempting to sign-in and activate Microsoft Office 2010:

"No Subscription Found

No subscription for Microsoft Office can be found for the Microsoft Online Services ID that you provided.

If you want to try again and provide an alternate Microsoft Online Services ID, click Retry. Otherwise, click Cancel.

For more information on error message 0000000C, contact your support team."

Microsoft engineers are aware of the issue and are actively working on a fix. If this error message is still appearing after three business days please create a service request.

Note: Microsoft Office 2010 will not enter Reduced Functionality Mode for at least 30 days. For more information see Office Professional Plus for Office 365 activation overview http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg982959(v=office.14).aspx

After installing Office 2010 Service Pack 2, you may receive the following error when attempting to Internet activate Office 2010:

This activation error is currently being investigated. To activate Office 2010, please use one of the following workarounds:

1. Activate Office 2010 by using OSPP.VBS.

a. Open an administrative command-prompt
b. Run one of the following command-lines based on your Operating System:

x86
cscript "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs" /act
x64
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs" /act

2. Open any Office 2010 program using Run as Administrator

a. Go to Start | All Programs | Microsoft Office
b. Hold down the 'Shift' key and right-click any Office 2010 Program (ex. Microsoft Word 2010) and select Run as administrator
c. Follow the prompts to internet activate

3. Change the UserOperations key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform to have a value of 1. Can automate this by running the following from an elevated command prompt:

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\microsoft\officesoftwareprotectionplatform /v USEROPERATIONS /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

After running this command, open any Office 2010 program and follow the prompts to internet activate.

Note - Setting UserOperations to a value of 1 permits administrator-privileged license operations including Internet or telephone activation by standard users.

4. If using a volume license version of Office 2010, use KMS activation instead of MAK activation. For further information on KMS activation in Office 2010, please refer to the following Microsoft articles:

Plan KMS activation of Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff603508(v=office.14).aspx

Deploy volume activation of Office 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624357(v=office.14).aspx

ISSUE:

When attempting to activate Microsoft Office running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 clients using KMS activation, the activation fails with an error code 0xC004F074.

Running ospp.vbs /dstatus shows the following output:

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15,VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
LICENSE STATUS: ---OOB_GRACE---
ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application is running within the valid grace period.
REMAINING GRACE: 29 days (43178 minute(s) before expiring)
Last 5 characters of installed product key: GVGXT

Running ospp.vbs /act shows the following output:

LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_KMS_Client edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Last 5 characters of installed product key: GVGXT
ERROR CODE: 0xC004F074
ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the product could not be activated. No Key Management Service (KMS) could be contacted. Please see the Application Event Log for additional information.

The application event log will show an event ID 12288 containing an error 0x8007000D.

MORE INFORMATION:

This issue occurs due to a change made to the activation engine of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 that prevents KMS host running on down-level operating systems from activating these clients. Microsoft has published a hotfix to address this issue. This hotfix has to be applied to all down-level operating systems that are running KMS Host. No update to hosts running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 is needed.

RESOLUTION:

Download and install the appropriate hotfix from the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2885698

When Office products are downloaded from the Volume License Service Center they come down as .ISO files. .ISO is not a file format that Windows can open natively.

An ISO file is an image of a CD/DVD. Typically you would be able to use a burning program like Nero, or ImgBurn, to then burn that ISO file directly to a disk.

How do I use .ISO files?

Once you have downloaded an .ISO file, there are several possible options you can use to install the software:

Use .ISO image file software to download and save the .ISO image file to a CD-R or a DVD-R.
If you are planning to install an Operating System on a PC or install software across multiple machines, this is one of your best options. A CD/DVD gives you the flexibility to make clean installs and to be used as a “boot CD.”
If you are using a PC with Windows 7, you don’t need any additional software to burn a CD-R or DVD-R. Simply double click on the .ISO file you downloaded, and then follow the steps in the Image Burner Wizard.
If you are using any other Operating System, you may need additional software. If your computer is equipped with a CD/DVD burner, this software is probably already loaded on your PC. Most CD-R/DVD-R writing software enables disk creation from an image file. Select a menu item such as Copy Image to CD or Burn Image to access this feature. For detailed instructions, see the software’s Help documentation.
Virtually mount and access ISO files as a virtual device.
If you don’t have a CD/DVD burner installed on your machine or you don’t have media available to you (a blank CD-R/DVD-R), you can “mount” the ISO file as a virtual drive. With this method, your machine will believe that the file is a real disk drive, and you will be able to read files from this “virtual disk.” This approach is advisable only for installation of applications (such as Office) or minor system upgrades. You will not be able to install an Operating System using this approach, because the virtual drive would disappear at some point during the installation.
There are several software options for the virtual drive approach. Though they have not been tested and are not supported by the VLSC team, customers report that Daemon Tools and Pismo File Mount offer such capability as well as Microsoft Virtual CD Control Tool.
Extract the .ISO files to your hard drive.
Contents of .ISO image files can be accessed directly using third-party tools that allow file extraction from the file to a temporary folder on your hard drive (similar to .zip files). As with the virtual drive, this approach is advisable to install application software or system upgrades. An example of this approach is the creation of an installation thumb drive to install software on netbooks or other devices with no optical drive.
The following tools offer .ISO file support:
Note: While other products may work to manipulate .ISO files, they have not been tested and are not recommended by Microsoft.

The purpose of this blog will be to demonstrate the usage of my favorite third party freeware program that can be used to “mount” the ISO file and allow the extraction of the contents.

As you can see there are many programs that we could use to extract the contents from ISO files, but there are few reasons that I prefer Pismo File mount.

- Free
- Easy to use
- Non invasive

Let me demonstrate how I use Pismo File Mount to extract the contents from an Office ProPlus 2010 ISO I downloaded from the VLSC.

1. Downloaded and ran the installer for Pismo File Mount Audit Package.
2. After the installation, I right click on the ISO file that I had downloaded and choose “Mount Image”

3. After mounting the image you will notice that the icon for the ISO has changed and how looks like this:

We can now double click on this and it will open like so:

Now we will want to select all and copy the contents to another local folder on the machine.

4. After I have copied the contents to another folder on the machine, I will “unmount” the ISO so that it is no longer in use by Pismo File Mount.

Now that I have the contents extracted I can delete the ISO and copy the contents to a network share, burn to a disc, or copy to a thumbdrive for installation on other machines. At this point I uninstalled Pismo File Mount.

Note: While this blog article is written with ISO files in mind, it also pertains to .IMG files.

We can automate the silent uninstallation of Office patches via a command line like so:

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /package {Office GUID} /uninstall {Patch GUID} /QN

First we will need to determine what the GUID is for Office, and next what the GUID is for the patch that we are trying to uninstall.
To determine what the GUID is for the installed version of Office, look in the uninstall hive in the registry.

x86 OS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}
x64 OS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}

On my two example machines I have Office 2003, and Office 2007 installed.

The GUID for Office 2003 will be similar or equal to {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}
The GUID may be slightly different then what I have listed here. Verify you found the correct GUID by verifying the product under the “Displayname” key listed in the GUID.

See also - Description of numbering scheme for product code GUIDs in Office 2003
Here is a screenshot of this registry key on my machine that has Office 2003.

The GUID for Office 2007 will be similar or equal to {90120000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}
The GUID may be slightly different then what I have listed here. Verify you found the correct GUID by verifying the product under the “Displayname” key listed in the GUID.

See also - Description of the numbering scheme for product code GUIDs in 2007 Office suites and programs
Here is a screenshot of this registry key on my machine that has Office 2007.

Notice that there are many GUIDS that end in 0FF1CE in my screenshot above. The reason for this is because Office 2007/2010 is a multi-msi based product, and because of that there is a GUID for each component in Office 2007/2010. So for example if I clicked on {90120000-0015-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE} in my example above the “Displayname” would show “Microsoft Office Access MUI (English) 2007”. This is not the GUID for the Office suite. This is only the GUID for the Access MUI component. For Office 2007/2010 make sure that you find the GUID that has a display name that correlates with the name of the suite. ie.. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, or Microsoft Office Standard 2007 etc..

Next we need to discover the GUID of the patch we are trying to uninstall. To do this we will want to look at the properties of the MSP file that is contained within the patch .exe.

First we will need to extract the MSP(s) from the patch executable.

The method to extract the contents from Office patches has changed since Office 2003.

To extract the contents from 2003 patches-
I will download the Office 2003 patch from KB2464588 as an example. (office2003-KB2464588-FullFile-ENU.exe)
For Office 2003 patches we will need to extract the MSPs from the executable using an extraction command like so to extract the MSPs from this patch executable to the c:\temp directory:
office2003-KB2464588-FullFile-ENU.exe /c /t:c:\temp

To extract the contents from 2007 patches-
I will download the Office 2007 patch from KB2464594 as an example. (PowerPoint2007-KB2464594-fullfile-x86-glb.exe)
For Office 2007 patches we will need to extract the MSPs from the executable using an extraction command like so to extract the MSPs from this patch executable to the c:\temp directory:
PowerPoint2007-KB2464594-fullfile-x86-glb.exe /extract:c:\temp

Now that we have the MSP from the patch executable we need to find the GUID of the patch.

We can find this by right clicking on the msp and going to properties. We will be looking for the revision number.
Sometimes there will be a lot of numbers in the revision number section. Copy/paste the list of revision numbers into notepad, and delete all but the first one. The first number in the list of revision numbers is the GUID.

*note* - In Vista you will not be able to find the GUID this way.

So using the POWERPNT.MSP file from KB2464588 as an example we discover that the GUID for this patch is {AB0D3DA9-FC93-4F57-ADE2-B6669749B25E} because that is the first number in the revision number properties.

From Windows XP:

From Windows 7:

So now we know that the Office 2003 suite GUID in my example is {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}, and we know that the GUID for the Office 2003 patch from KB2464588 is {AB0D3DA9-FC93-4F57-ADE2-B6669749B25E}. So the command that could be used to programmatically remove this patch would be:

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /package {90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9} /uninstall {AB0D3DA9-FC93-4F57-ADE2-B6669749B25E} /qn

*note*
You could use /qb for an automated uninstall with a progress bar, or use /qn for a totally silent uninstall.

We found that the GUID for Office 2007 in my example above was {90120000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}, and the GUID for the Office 2007 patch KB2464594 is {E6B7C11E-21E9-4BA0-9677-29AD603B953C}.

So the command that could be used to programmatically remove this Office 2007 patch would be:

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /package {90120000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE} /uninstall {E6B7C11E-21E9-4BA0-9677-29AD603B953C} /qn

*note*
You could use /qb for an automated uninstall with a progress bar, or use /qn for a totally silent uninstall.

FAQ-

How can we determine if the patch is installed programmatically if we know the GUID of the patch?
A- This can be done once we convert the patch GUID to a compressed GUID. (How to convert an Office GUID, or Office patch GUID to a compressed GUID)
Then query for the compressed GUID at this registry location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\

So for example the patch GUID for KB2464588 is {AB0D3DA9-FC93-4F57-ADE2-B6669749B25E}. Once converted we find that the compressed GUID is 9AD3D0BA39CF75F4DA2E6B6679942BE5.

So if KB2464588 is installed the following registry key would exist:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\9AD3D0BA39CF75F4DA2E6B6679942BE5

Is it possible to uninstall a patch that is not natively uninstallable?
A- While it is not recommended, nor supported by Microsoft it is possible to uninstall patches that are marked as not uninstallable. Once again we will need to convert the patch GUID to a compressed GUID. (How to convert an Office GUID, or Office patch GUID to a compressed GUID)
Using the same example above we know that KB2464588 has a compressed GUID of 9AD3D0BA39CF75F4DA2E6B6679942BE5. The registry key that determines whether or not this patch is uninstallable will be located here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\[Office guid]\Patches\9AD3D0BA39CF75F4DA2E6B6679942BE5

"Uninstallable"=dword:00000001

If the patch is not uninstallable natively, it would be possible to change the "Uninstallable" value at this registry location to “1” and then the patch would be available to uninstall.

We have a patch that has multiple MSP files inside of it. Is this normal? Would we need to uninstall them all?
A- It is not uncommon for Office patches to contain multiple MSP files. If you wanted to completely remove the patch you would need to uninstall each of the MSPs.

It is also not uncommon for Office patches to apply to multiple products and as such show up multiple times in Add/Remove. In these cases to completely remove the patch you would need to run the uninstall command targeting the GUID for each Office product that has the patch installed.

After installing the April 2011 Public Update for Outlook 2007 (KB2509470), some users have reported difficulty with print previewing messages. The KB2512788 hotfix was created to address these issues.

The following steps can be used to install the KB2512788 hotfix in a manner that is conducive to an enterprise environment (i.e., via command line, silently, and requiring no user interaction):

1) Extract the MSP file from the KB2512788 executable, by using a command line similar to the following ("C:\KB2512788" is an example of a path where files could be extracted to):

<path>\office-kb2512788-fullfile-x86-glb.exe /extract:C:\KB2512788 /Q

2) Attempt to silently install the KB2512788 MSP file, generate a verbose installation log, and suppress reboots using a command line similar to the following (change "/QN" to "/QB" to display only a basic progress indicator):

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /P C:\KB2512788\outlook-x-none.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress /L*V C:\KB2512788\KB2512788.log /QN

3) Check the end of the verbose log file (i.e., KB2512788.log) for a return code. A value of zero indicates success with no further action required. A return code of 3010 also indicates a successful installation of the MSP file, but a reboot is required to complete the update process.

4) See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368542(v=vs.85).aspx for additional info on Windows Installer return/error codes.

5) Machines with Windows Installer 4.x and later (Windows 7 ships with Installer 5.x) contain functionality provided by the MSI Restart Manager. The design of the MSI Restart Manager is to reduce required system restarts caused by required files being in use during a maintenance mode or update process.

6) With the MSI Restart Manager, if a file that is to be updated is held in use by another process or application (i.e., Outlook.exe), that application is restarted in order to allow for an "on the fly" update.

7) This has the potential to cause issues with open Office applications, which may be unexpectedly restarted. To prevent applications from being restarted, a command line similar to the following can be used:

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /P C:\KB2512788\outlook-x-none.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL=Disable /L*V C:\KB2512788\KB2512788.log /QN

8) It is important to note that if the MSI Restart Manager is disabled, a reboot is suppressed, and Office files to be updated are in use, changes to files will not occur until after the machine is rebooted (this would be a scenario where the log file ends with a return code of 3010).

9) See the following articles for additional info on the MSI Restart Manager:

MSI Restart Manager - How it relates to Office updates and application restarts
http://blogs.technet.com/b/odsupport/archive/2011/04/29/msi-restart-manager-how-it-relates-to-office-updates-and-application-restarts.aspx

Using Windows Installer with Restart Manager
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372466.aspx

MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL Property
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370377.aspx

10) For further information on the KB2509470 and KB2512788 updates & hotfixes, see the following blog posts and articles:

Office Sustained Engineering and Release Team Blog post, “Issues after installing Outlook KB KB2509470"
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/04/28/issues-after-installing-outlook-kb-kb2509470.aspx

KB2512788 Description of the Office Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Outlook-x-none.msp): April 26, 2011
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2512788

Office Sustained Engineering and Release Team Blog post, "April 2011 Office Security Update Release"
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/04/12/april-2011-office-security-update-release.aspx

KB2509470 Description of the Extended Protection for Authentication update for Outlook 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2509470

If you have installed the KB2464588 update for Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, which is related to Microsoft Security Bulletin MS11-022, you may be aware of/experiencing the following known issues:

When you open presentations that contain layouts with background images in PowerPoint 2003, an error may occur. When the error occurs, you receive a message that states that some contents (text, images, or objects) have corrupted. You can determine what content has been lost by viewing the layout, but not by viewing the slide content. Items that were removed will display a blank box or a box that contains "cleansed."

The KB2543241 hotfix was created to alleviate these issues. The following steps can be used to install the KB2543241 hotfix in a manner that is conducive to an enterprise environment (i.e., via command line, silently, and requiring no user interaction):

1) Extract the MSP file from the KB2543241 executable, by using a command line similar to the following ("C:\KB2543241" is an example of a path where files could be extracted to):

<path>\office2003-KB2543241-ENU.exe /C /T:C:\KB2543241 /Q

2) Attempt to silently install the KB2543241 MSP file, generate a verbose installation log, and suppress reboots using a command line similar to the following (change "/QN" to "/QB" to display only a basic progress indicator):

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /P C:\KB2543241\POWERPNT.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress /L*V C:\KB2543241\KB2543241.log /QN

3) Check the end of the verbose log file (i.e., KB2543241.log) for a return code. A value of zero indicates success with no further action required. A return code of 3010 also indicates a successful installation of the MSP file, but a reboot is required to complete the update process.

4) Seehttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368542(v=vs.85).aspx for additional info on Windows Installer return/error codes.

6) With the MSI Restart Manager, if a file that is to be updated is held in use by another process or application (i.e., PowerPnt.exe), that application is restarted in order to allow for an "on the fly" update.

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /P C:\KB2543241\POWERPNT.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL=Disable /L*V C:\KB2543241\KB2543241.log /QN

9) See the following articles for additional info on the MSI Restart Manager:

Using Windows Installer with Restart Manager
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372466.aspx

MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL Property
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370377.aspx

10) For further information on the KB2543241 and KB2464588 updates & hotfixes, see the following blog posts, articles, and bulletin:

Office Sustained Engineering and Release Team Blog post, "Issues after installing PowerPoint 2003 update KB2464588"
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/04/23/issues-after-installing-powerpoint-2003-update-kb2464588.aspx

KB2543241 Description of the PowerPoint 2003 hotfix package
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2543241

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS11-022 - Important
Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2489283)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS11-022.mspx

KB2464588 MS11-022: Description of the security update for PowerPoint 2003: April 12, 2011
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2464588

Windows Installer 4.x and later includes the “MSI Restart Manager” which is designed to reduce required operating system reboots during Installer maintenance mode operations, by restarting applications rather than rebooting the operating system.

A typical Office update scenario where the MSI Restart Manager is used may be similar to the following:

1) Windows 7 machines have Office 2010 installed.
2) Using a sample update named KBxxxxxx.exe, extract the MSP files from the executable using a command line similar to the following (run the executable with the /? switch to see all available switches):

<path>\KBxxxxxx.exe /extract:<path>

3) A customer deploys an Office update during the business day or during off hours, prior to rebooting machines/ensuring that no Office applications are in use, using a command line similar to the one below:

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /P <path>\POWERPNT.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress /L*V <path>\POWERPNT.log /QN

4) If a user has PowerPoint and a related document open at this point, an expected reboot will not be called for or suppressed.
5) Instead, the MSI Restart Manager is invoked, closes PowerPoint, allows files in use to be updated without a reboot, and reopens PowerPoint.
6) The resulting behavior is that, upon restart, PowerPoint’s auto recovery functionality has saved the file that was previously open, and the user is prompted how they want to proceed with the auto-recovered file.

In order to prevent the application restart from occurring and disable the MSI Restart Manager, a command line similar to the following can be used:

%windir%\System32\msiexec.exe /P <path>\POWERPNT.msp REBOOT=ReallySuppress MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL=Disable /L*V <path>\POWERPNT.log /QN

It is important to note that if the MSI Restart Manager is disabled, a reboot is suppressed, and Office files to be updated are in use, changes to files will not occur until after the machine is rebooted (this would be a scenario where the log file ends with a return code of 3010).

The screenshots below illustrate the behavior which occurs when installing updates while Office apps are open, with and without the MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL=Disable property being set.

1) If the MSI Restart Manager is not disabled, and the update process is run in quiet mode versus silent mode (“/QB” vs. “/QN”), the user will be prompted to close open applications:

2) If the MSI Restart Manager is not disabled, and the update process is run in quiet mode, with only reboots suppressed, open Office applications will automatically be restarted. Upon restart, open documents will be auto saved and auto recovered.

3) Clicking the “Recovered” button will result in the Document Recovery pane being displayed, and the user will be prompted as to which copy of the document that they wish to save.

4) If the MSI Restart Manager is disabled, the update process is run in silent mode, and reboots are suppressed, Office applications will not be restarted, but the resulting log file will contain a 3010 exit/return code (see attached LogFile.zip and the KB2464594.log file that it contains).

See the following articles for additional information on the MSI Restart Manager and the MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL property:

Using Windows Installer with Restart Manager
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372466.aspx

MSIRESTARTMANAGERCONTROL Property
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370377.aspx

The 32 and 64-bit versions of Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Office 2010 are now available!

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) 32-bit Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26622

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2460049) 64-bit Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26617

See the following Knowledge Base articles for an overview of Service Pack 1 improvements and technical details:

KB2460049 Description of Office 2010 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460049

KB2532118 Technical details about the Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) releases
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532118

To obtain an Excel workbook that lists the issues which are addressed by this service pack, click here.

Version 2 of the Group Policy template files and OCT files for the SP1 release of Office 2010 are also now available for download!

Office 2010 Administrative Template files (ADM, ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=18968

NOTE: If you are using the Office Customization Tool to create MSP files for custom installations of Office 2010, we recommend that you use the most recent version of the OCT files.

Updating OCT files is simple– just replace the /Admin folder in your Office 2010 installation files or installation image with the new /Admin folder after extracting it from the download package.

If your Office 2010 installation files include 32 and 64-bit versions, you will need to replace the contents of the /Admin folder in the x64 and x86 directories with those from the appropriate download package.

See the following article for additional information:

Office 2010 Administrative Template files (ADM, ADMX, ADML) and Office Customization Tool
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178992.aspx

Need Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 and/or Office 2010 Web Apps? We've got you covered!

Download Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26623

KB2460045 Description of SharePoint Server 2010 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460045

Download Microsoft Office Web Apps Service Pack 1
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26639

KB2460073 Description of Office Web Apps SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460073

KB2532120 Technical details about the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Office server Service Pack 1 (SP1) releases
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532120

In a previous Office Deployment Support Team Blog post, we explained how to automatically activate Office 2010 by using a customized config.xml file and setting element/property, AUTO_ACTIVATE.

This blog post will expand on that a bit and explain how to perform the same actions using an MSP file created with the Office Customization Tool (OCT).

</Configuration>

<path to Office 2010 source files>\setup.exe /config <path>\config.xml

6) Note that the AUTO_ACTIVATE property has been added to the MSP file and has a value of 1.