Microsoft KB Archive/117878

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Office: Administrative Setup Asks for Shared Windows Directory

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Q117878

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.2, 4.3

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SUMMARY
During a shared network installation of Microsoft Office versions 4.0 and later, you may receive the following alert

Please note the following before continuing with a shared network

installation: Be sure setup is using the same copy of Shared Windows the

end users will be using and that it has write access to the Shared

Windows directory. No users should have access to the system during the

network installation. Although this alert implies that Microsoft Office can only be installed if you are using a shared copy of Microsoft Windows, this is not the case: using shared Windows is not a requirement for installing Microsoft Office.

MORE INFORMATION
The alert is designed to caution network administrators that Microsoft Office should be installed using a shared copy of Windows in the event that future users will run it under the same shared copy of Microsoft Windows. The alert is necessary because certain files (such as the spelling checker, clip art, fonts, and so on) will be installed on that shared copy of Microsoft Windows, and users will need those files to run Microsoft Office.

In the administrative setup (/a), the administrator will be prompted for the location for the Microsoft Office files and for the MSAPPS subdirectory. Specify the network drive where users will log on to start Microsoft Office Setup. When users start setup from this directory (setup), each user's copy of Microsoft Windows, shared or local, will be updated correctly. If a network user is running shared Microsoft Windows and has access to the shared SYSTEM subdirectory, files will be updated there for all shared Microsoft Windows users.

If users do not have write access to the shared SYSTEM directory, they will receive a copy of these files in their user directory on the server. Neither the network user trying to do a post-administrative installation, nor the administrator doing the administrative installation will be prompted for the location of Microsoft Windows. Setup queries Microsoft Windows for that information.