Knowledge Base

OFF: Creating a Valid Post-Admin SETUP.STF Without Running Setup

Article ID: 123069

Article Last Modified on 8/16/2005

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q123069

SUMMARY

You can create a post-administrative installation setup table file (STF) for any of the programs listed above without performing an administrative installation of that program. This is useful for troubleshooting an administrative installation of one of the programs listed above. For example, you might want to do this to verify that the problem is not caused by modifications to the setup table file that is being used by the Setup program. By using this method, you avoid performing another administrative installation of the program to create a new .STF file for testing.

Note that the instructions below refer to the setup table file as Setup.stf although the .STF file for the program that you are running may have a different name, such as ACMSETUP.STF, or Off95std.stf. The following information applies to the .STF file for your program.

MORE INFORMATION

This method assumes that you have already completed an administrative installation of the program. This can save you time when you are working with a customer that is having a problem with a workstation installation of the application, or has modified the .STF file that was created by the administrative installation. To create a valid post-administrative installation .STF file, do the following:

Windows Version 3.x Programs

  1. Rename the .STF file located on the network server in the directory that contains the administrative installation of the program, such as F:\OFFICE.
  2. Decompress or extract the Setup.stf file located on Disk 1 of the original Setup disks to the directory that contains the administrative installation of the program.

    On disks that contain .CAB files, the Setup.stf file is located in the first .CAB file. The following are examples of using Decomp.exe, or Extract.exe (also located on Disk 1) to copy the Setup.stf file

    DECOMP A:\SETUP.ST_ <path>SETUP.STF

    EXTRACT A:\MSOFF1.CAB /L <path> SETUP.STF

    where A is the drive that contains the Setup Disk 1, and <path> is the location of the administrative installation of the application.
  3. In a text editor or spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel), open the SETUP.STF file that you decompressed or extracted from the Setup disk.

    NOTE: If you open SETUP.STF in Microsoft Excel 5.0 or later, complete the following additional steps before continuing:

    1. In the Text Import Wizard dialog box, choose Next until Step 3 Of 3 appears.
    2. In the Text Import Wizard-Step 3 Of 3 dialog box, under Data Preview, drag the vertical scrollbar indicator down until the "Object ID" item appears in the Data Preview window. Click the First column to select it. Hold the SHIFT key down, and drag the horizontal scrollbar indicator to the right until the last column is displayed in the Data Preview window. Click the last column. All of the columns (at least 15) should be selected.
  4. Under Column Data Format, click the Text option, and click Finish.

    URGENT: If you do not click the Text option at this step, Microsoft Excel will read some of the entries in your edited .STF file incorrectly. When this occurs, you will receive "setup parse errors" during Setup.
  5. Locate the "MSAPPS Mode" entry at the top of the .STF file (should be the 9th entry).
  6. Insert the following two rows below the row that contains the "MSAPPS Mode" entry. 
          MSAPPS Network Server   \\machine\sharename
      MSAPPS Network Path     \directory (location of msapps on server)
    where the "MSAPPS" entry and the respective path information are in different columns. (Do not overwrite any of the existing entries.)

    For example, if you are running Setup from the following network location

    \\PSSABU\OFFICE!OFFICE43

    add the following entries to the .STF file below the "MSAPPS Mode" entry: 
          MSAPPS Network Server   \\pssabu\office
      MSAPPS Network Path     \office43\msapps
    Note that the syntax for the "Network Server" and "Network Path" entries is determined by the type of network that is being used. You can open the SETUP.STF file that you renamed in Step 1 above to find the proper syntax.
  7. Save the changes to the SETUP.STF file, making sure that the file is saved again in Text format.
  8. Run the Setup program again from the workstation.
Note that there are additional differences between the decompressed SETUP.STF and a true post-admin SETUP.STF file. However, these differences may be ignored for testing purposes.

Office Version 7.0

There are a few additional changes that you must make to the setup table file for Office version 7.0. To make the appropriate changes to the Office for Windows 95 .STF file, do the following:
  1. Follow Steps 1-3 in the "Windows Version 3.x Programs" section above.
  2. At the top of the .STF file, locate the "MSAPPS Mode" entry (it should be the 11th entry).
  3. Insert the following four rows below the row that contains the "MSAPPS Mode" entry. 
          MSAPPS Connect          server
      MSAPPS Network Server   \\machine\sharename
      MSAPPS Network Drive    drive-letter:
      MSAPPS Network Path     \path
    where the "MSAPPS" entries and the respective path and server name information are in the first and second columns (respectively) of the .STF file.
  4. Scroll down in the .STF file to the following line: 
          '=== Office Install Types ===
    The different types of Office installations that you can perform are located under this heading. Each of these installation types has an associated Object Id (ObjId) number located in the first column of the .STF file. The third column of the .STF file indicates which installation type the line refers to. For example, ObjId 74 refers to &Run from Network Server (the Run From Network Server option).

    Set the Run From Network Server option in the second column of the .STF file to the value Yes. All the other options (68, 70, 72, 76 and 78) should be set to the value No.
  5. Save the .STF file as a tab delimited text file and keep the original name (for example SETUP.STF).
  6. Run the Setup program from the workstation.

CHANGES TO THE SETUP.STF AFTER ADMINISTRATIVE INSTALLATION

After you perform an administrative installation (setup /a), the following changes are made to the default SETUP.STF file that is located on Disk 1:

The value of the following line is often changed:

MSAPPS Mode

The following lines are added: 
      MSAPPS Network Server   \\server_name\share
      MSAPPS Network Path  \Office_directory\MSAPPS
The column headers for the Object Section are "expanded." (The headers are shorter in the compressed file SETUP.ST_ on Disk 1 to reduce the size of the file.) 

BEFORE INSTALLATION                       AFTER INSTALLATION
============================================================
ObjID                                     ObjID
Install During Batch Mode                 Install During Batch Mode
Title                                     Title
Descr                                     Description
Type                                      Object Type
Data                                      Object Data
BMP Id                                    Bitmap Id
Vital                                     Vital Attribute
Shared                                    Shared Attribute
Dir Chang                                 Configurable Directory
Dest Dir                                  Destination Directory
Check Dir                                 Check Directory
Installed By Us                           Installed By
                                          Install Data
                                          Install Directory
NOTE: After you perform an administrative installation (setup /a) of Office version 7.0, the "Install During Batch Mode" column header is changed to "Checkbox State" instead of the value shown above.

In the Header section, below the "INF File Name" line, the following line is added:

Setup Status

This line appears to be for recording copy disincentive information.


Additional query words: 3.00 4.20c 4.30c 5.00c 6.00a 6.00c

Keywords: kbsetup KB123069


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