How to automate Microsoft Office 2007 installation

I was just updating some documentation on our wiki and found some old notes on automating Office 2007 installation.  We upgraded our Microsoft Office software early last year from Office 2003 (and a few Office XP) to Office 2007 and this simple installation script saved us a lot of time. Here are the steps:

Step 1.  Copy the contents of the Office 2007 installation CD (or package) to a network share (eg. \\server\Office12).

Step 2.  Run the Office Customization Tool and create a setup customization file (I got these instructions from a BDD 2007 document on Microsoft’s website).

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PowerShell Cheat Sheet

I found this PowerShell Cheat Sheet a while back when I was looking for tips on PowerShell. It contains commands that you’ll be using a lot when working with PowerShell, and also examples on how to use them. Very helpful especially if you’re just starting to learn it. Also check out the PowerShell team blog where I got this document from.

Useful PowerShell Scripts

Below are some simple PowerShell scripts that I find pretty useful in Windows administration:

Note: For the scripts that connect to a remote machine, you will need to run PowerShell as a user with Administrator privileges to that machine.

Aliases:

• Gwmi = Get-WmiObject
• fl = Format-List
• ft = Fomat-Table
• -Comp = -ComputerName

Get a list of installed applications for a specified machine (32-bit OS only).
Gwmi Win32_Product -Comp computer_name | Sort name | ft name, version, installdate

Get the Service Tag (Dell computers) and BIOS version for a specified machine.
Gwmi Win32_BIOS -Comp computer_name

Get the computer information for a specified machine (Domain, Manufacturer, Model, Name, Owner, Memory).
Gwmi Win32_ComputerSystem -Comp computer_name | fl

Get storage drive information for a specified machine (Hard Drive, Floppy, CD/DVD-ROM).
Gwmi Win32_LogicalDisk -Comp computer_name | fl

Get the logged on user name for a specified machine.
Gwmi Win32_Computersystem -Comp computer_name | Select Name, UserName

Get the running processes for a specified machine.
Gwmi Win32_Process -ComputerName computer_name | Sort processname | ft processname, ws, executablepath