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Preinstalling Office 2003 on an Image

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by emax131

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We have purchased about 20 new PC's with 20 copies of Microsoft Basic Edition 2003. My problem is how to create an image that has this Office installed but also overcoming the problem of product activation and licensing. I know you can do this for Windows XP using sysprep but how would you go about doing this for Office 2003. Will I have to leave Office out of the image and install it manually for all the PC's?

5 replies

by cg it

first answer is correct. you need to buy a volume license for a network install of Office. Office 2003 is setup for network install once you have the # of licenses you need just like office 2000.

by albert franco ii

Just to clarify. You can pre-install, but you have to activate individually.

Before activating you need to correct all of the serial numbers (you can't activate the same serial number 20 times) and then activate on each station individually.

I think, all things considered, the image is the best way to go because the amout of time lost changing serials and activating is less than an instalation and the image can be a helpful tool if you need to restore any of the PCs.

by pgm554

What you should have done in the first place was to buy corporate editions of Office and Windows with VLA licensing(as few as 5 users will get you a VLA copy) and you get a discount too!

Your vendor did a totally screwed job of explaining how you should license.

by pgm554

Oh,yeah,if you want to create an image and the system are ALL the same hardware,you can install everything, activate it(including office) ,run sysprep,create the image and use the image to install .
If I remeber correctly,sysprep only strips the SID's off of the system,so you shouldn't have to reactivate.
As long as you have a paper license for every PC,you should be fine legally.

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