Group Policy and Office 2000 Pro

Okay so after having lots of fun with Group Policy I want to put it to the ultimate test, I want to install Office through it an do the updates. MS says that you can do it by pointing to the data1.msi file, but I seem to be having a few issues with the install. For some reason after the install is complete every time I start Outlook Windows Installer comes up and tries to connect to the install point. That?s all fine and dandy if you are on the network, but when you are on a laptop, clicking cancel is just plain annoying. There is that and the fact that I was actually asked for the CD key on one of the test machines. My users may not have such info and why should they. I tried to use a custom.mst file to install the right components, butI think that MST files can only be used with setup.exe and not data1.msi. Am I wrong here, got any ideas?

Of course all of this gets even more complex when the machines already have Office on them. Anyone ever try to uninstall Office, it doesn?tfricken work, there is all kinds of junk left behind. That junk affects a reinstall or a network install like my package. At this point I am thinking of making an msi package that uninstalls office for real and distributing it to the world. =) If you know of a script or product that can remove Office entirely it may be of use to me.

PS
The last time I posted a question about GP, someone said something to the affect of, "You can't track who has installed and who hasn't". I can't remember who said that but actually there is a way. I put a batch file in each of my msi installs that writes/appends a record to a csv file on a hidden net share then erases itself, works okay except for office of course.

(this question has been posted inboth the Windows 2000 and Office 2000 fourm, please answer in the Windows 2000 fourm)