Precedence among registry customizations made by CIW and CMW (290205)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office XP Professional
  • Microsoft Office XP Standard
  • Microsoft Office XP Developer
This article was previously published under Q290205

SUMMARY

The Custom Installation Wizard (CIW) and the Custom Maintenance Wizard (CMW) provide several options for specifying user settings when Office is installed or updated by the CMW. However, there are some situations where the same setting can be specified in multiple places in the CIW or CMW. Because of this, you need to be aware of the order in which these settings are applied to a computer when Office is installed or updated.

This article outlines the order of precedence for the different methods that these two wizards use to apply user settings.

MORE INFORMATION

The following lists all of the different ways a user setting can be applied to an Office installation. These methods are listed according to precedence, from lowest to highest. For example, if you have the same setting applied in an .ops file and in a system policy, the value for that setting specified in the system policy will be the value that is applied.
  • OPS file in an MST file Using the Customize Default Application Settings dialog box in the Custom Installation Wizard, you can include an OPS file in the transform (MST file). The OPS file contains a collection of registry values that correspond to option settings in Office programs.

  • Office user settings Options set in the Change Office User Settings dialog box in the Custom Installation Wizard translate into registry changes. These settings typically correspond to the settings in the Options dialog box (Tools menu) in the Office programs.

  • Outlook options Options set in the different Outlook dialog boxes in the Custom Installation Wizard translate into registry changes for specifying Outlook configuration values.

  • Security options Options set in the Specify Office Security Settings dialog box result in changes to registry settings. These security settings are typically configured in the Security dialog box (on the Tools menu, point to Macro and then click Security) in the Office programs.

  • Added registry entries Using the Add/Remove Registry Entries dialog box in the Custom Installation Wizard, you can define custom registry values that are applied by Setup during installation.

  • Office Profile Wizard run as a separate program Using the Add Installations and Run Programs dialog box of the Custom Installation Wizard, you can create a command line for running the Office Profile Wizard with a reference to a settings profile (OPS) file.

    NOTE: This command line runs immediately after Setup completes the installation of Office, and any registry values contained in the OPS file override duplicate values entered with any of the previous methods.

  • Migrated user settings If an earlier version of Office is installed on a computer, the default behavior is that the old application settings are transferred to Office XP when you run the first Office XP program. If you set the DONOTMIGRATEUSERSETTINGS property to Yes or clear the Migrate user settings check box in the Customize Default Application Settings dialog box of the Custom Installation Wizard, the old settings are not migrated to the new version. All the new Office XP programs start with default Office XP user settings.

    When you add an OPS file in the Customize Default Application Settings dialog box, the Migrate user settings check box is automatically cleared to prevent migrated user settings from overwriting equivalent settings contained in the settings profile (OPS) file. If you want the previous user settings to be migrated so that they overwrite conflicting OPS settings, you can select the Migrate user settings check box.

  • Custom Maintenance Wizard changes Custom Maintenance Wizard files that are applied after initial installation of Office override the registry keys that are currently in place on a user's computer.

  • System policies You can override specific registry values by using Windows system policies. Policy settings take effect when the user logs on to the network. Policies take precedence over any values that you set during installation, independent of when the policy was configured. You can enforce policy settings prior to the installation of Office, so that, after Office is installed, the policies are enforced immediately.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:2/14/2006
Keywords:kbhowto KB290205
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