In this Office 2008 installation method, you use Apple Remote Desktop to deploy Office 2008 to users' computers.
When you deploy Office 2008 by using a remote connection, such as Apple Remote Desktop, to a client computer at a login window, a postflight script in the Office Installer
causes the Dock application to open with root user privileges. Any applications subsequently opened from the Dock will also be run with root user privileges. Under these conditions, someone with physical access to the client computer can gain local elevation of privilege. This security issue can only occur when Office 2008
is deployed to computers that run Mac OS X v10.4.9
or a later version of Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger). This is not an issue for computers that run Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard). For more information about this security issue,
Apple KB304131: "Remote Desktop: Installing a package on clients that are at a login window"
To ensure a more secure deployment when you use a remote connection, such as Apple Remote Desktop, you must delete the postflight script file from Office Installer.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Office2008_<language>_dock.pkg/Contents/Resources/. After the install, restart the computers. If you use Apple Remote Desktop 3 or later to deploy Office 2008, you can choose the options that lock the screens during installation. For more information about how to delete the postflight script file, see the "Install Office 2008 by using Apple Remote Desktop" section later in this topic.
Install Office 2008 by using Apple Remote Desktop
We recommend that you write an AppleScript script to perform the steps for preparing the users' computers at the beginning of the installation process. For more information, see the "Prepare a user computer for installation of Office 2008 when deployed by using Apple Remote Desktop" section later in this topic.
If you do not use a script to perform all the steps that are required to prepare users' computers, you will need to provide instructions for users to prepare their own computers immediately before Office 2008 is installed.
Copy Office Installer from the Office 2008 DVD to a writable volume.
Before you use the Office 2008 installer, delete the postflight script file from Office Installer.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Office2008_<language>_dock.pkg/Contents/Resources/. A known issue prevents network deployment of Office 2008 Dock icons. However, a postflight script, which is in the package that attempts to install icons in the Dock, runs successfully. The postflight script causes the Dock application to close and then reopen. To delete the postflight script, perform the following steps:
Copy Office Installer from the Office 2008 DVD to a writable volume.
Hold down CONTROL and click the Office Installer icon.
Click Show Package Contents.
Double-click Contents, and then double-click Packages, and then locate Office2008_<language>_dock.pkg.
Note Replace <language> with the relevant two-letter language code, such as en, ja, or fr.
Hold down CONTROL and click Office2008_<language>_dock.pkg, and then click Show Package Contents.
Double-click Contents, and then double-click Resources, and then delete postflight.
Set up Apple Remote Desktop to deploy Office 2008 to users' computers.
As an added security measure, we strongly recommend that you lock the screens of the client computers before you deploy. If you use Apple Remote Desktop 3 or later to deploy Office 2008, you can choose the options that lock the screens during installation.
You may want to instruct users to leave their computers on overnight so that you can schedule the distribution during nonworking hours.
For an introduction to Apple Remote Desktop, see Apple Remote Desktop 3
on the Apple Web site (www.apple.com/remotedesktop). For detailed information, see the
Apple Remote Desktop Administrator's Guide documentation available for download from the Resources page in the same area of the Apple Web site.After the install is finished, restart the client computers.
Prepare a user computer for installation of Office 2008 when deployed by using Apple Remote Desktop
If the computer is currently running the Classic environment (Mac OS 9), switch to Mac OS X, and then quit the Classic environment.
To quit the Classic environment, on the Apple menu, click System Preferences, and then click Classic. On the Start/Stop tab, click Stop.
Turn off virus protection software, and quit any applications that are running.
Back up any existing Entourage identity folders from /Users/username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office<version>Identities/ in one of the following ways:
Create and deploy a script for renaming the existing Entourage identities on each computer.
If you are in a relatively small setup environment, you can instruct users to back up the Entourage identities that are stored in /Users/username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office<version> Identities/folderName and copy them to another location on their computers.
Note After you have deployed the Office 2008 applications, users can import information from their previous identities. For information on how to import from identities, see Entourage 2008 Help.
Remove any Dock icons for Office applications.
