Chapter 19: Maintaining Office 2003 Installations

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Microsoft Office 2003 has features to help repair installations and report problems when they occur. The automatic and manual Detect and Repair feature, which was included in Office XP, helps reduce the number of required manual reinstallation tasks for administrators when users encounter problems. Microsoft Application Error Reporting—which helped Microsoft learn about the most commonly encountered problems in Office XP—has been enhanced in Office 2003.

Repairing Office 2003 Installations

Microsoft Office 2003 allows users to manually repair an installation if there is any concern that the current installation is not functioning properly. Office can also automatically repair itself if it detects a corrupt component or application, and if the core files of each application have not been deleted or damaged. A library of file names maintained in the registry helps the detection system determine what files should be replaced when a specific application or component cannot be started. If required, Office calls Windows Installer and reinstalls only the affected files and registry entries.

Repairing Office installations manually

Users and administrators have the option of repairing an installation of Office 2003 to its original installation configuration by using the Detect and Repair feature.

To repair Office by using Detect and Repair

1. In the application you are repairing, click the Help menu.

2. Click Detect and Repair.

   Selecting the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings check box is not encouraged unless the user who initiates this action is sure she or he wants to remove all custom settings they may have for Office applications. The effects of the two options in this dialog are explained in the sidebar just below this procedure.

3. Click Start.

Options in the Detect and Repair dialog box

The Detect and Repair dialog box has two options to consider:

• Restore my shortcuts while repairing

• Discard my customized settings and restore default settings

Restoring shortcuts may not be a valid option depending on the configuration established by the administrator. Restoring shortcuts while repairing re-enables the use of shortcuts that were deleted or corrupted. But if the user who initiates the repair is not the administrator of the system, or does not have permissions to perform an update of software, then this task will not complete.

The most sensitive option is the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings. When detect and repair runs with this option selected, the configuration for the user currently logged on is destroyed; the configuration settings of other users, however, are not deleted. Deleting a configuration when a user is not expecting it can cause troubles; therefore, it is suggested that the profile of the affected user be saved prior to running detect and repair. (You can save a user’s profile by using either the Office Profile Wizard or the Save My Settings Wizard.) Selecting the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings option is only suggested if the user wishes to restore his or her configuration settings to those when Office was originally installed.

Administrators also have the option of using remote desktop administration to force a repair of a user’s installation, if required.

Note

For installations of Office 2003 on Terminal Services–enabled servers, users with administrative privileges are the only individuals who have the option to perform a repair.

For a repair to function properly, the installation source from which Office was installed must be available. If this installation source is not available, Office can use an alternate source specified in the transform used to install Office. Alternate installation sources can be specified in the Identify Additional Servers page of the Custom Installation Wizard or Custom Maintenance Wizard.

Running the ResetO11.ops file

In order to discard all settings for all users, it is necessary for all users to run the Detect and Repair command with the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings check box selected. However, in many cases this is not possible or not feasible. The recommended way to accomplish this task without running this feature is to have all users delete all custom user settings in the registry, which can be accomplished by running the ResetO11.ops file. This file is included with Office 2003 and is not part of the Office Resource Kit. Each user runs the Office Profile Wizard or Save My Settings Wizard and provides the following command line option:

proflwiz.exe /d RESETO11.OPS  

All custom settings for the user running this program will be removed when this command is issued. The path to ResetO11.ops must be provided if this file is not in the same folder as Proflwiz.exe.

Removing and reinstalling Office is not a way to discard user settings. When Office is removed and reinstalled on a computer, the previous user settings—whether they were customized by the user themselves or by a transform or configuration maintenance file—are still present in the registry. By default, user settings are not removed when Office is removed. To remove these settings, each user must run the Office Profile Wizard or Save My Settings Wizard with the above command line.

Forcing a global repair of Office installations

If required, you can force Setup to repair Office 2003. You use the /f command-line option with Setup and save the command line in a batch file. You then distribute the batch file by using a logon script, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), or some other method employed by your organization. It is recommended that users understand, before the repair commences, that their installation of Office 2003 is being repaired, and that their personal settings will not be lost.

For more information, look up /f in “Setup Command-line Options” in Appendix B, “Office 2003 Resource Kit Reference.”