Open Office Technology

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The following instructions describe how to upgrade an existing Group Policy installation to a new version of the OpenOffice.org office suite.

IMPORTANT: Before upgrading to OpenOffice v2.1 or higher, you must be running Build 450 or later of the OpenOffice-Enterprise client software. If you are running an earlier version, upgrade the OpenOffice-Enterprise client before upgrading OpenOffice.

1. Download the new release of OpenOffice, as described in Step B of Download Software Packages.
2. Perform an administrative installation of the new release, as described in Step B of Create Network Installation Images. CAUTION: Do not overwrite the previous version; install the new release in a different directory. Do not delete the previous version until you are certain all desktops have been upgraded.
3. Download the file Check_OOE.mst and add it to the network installation directory.
4. Download any additional installation transform (.mst) files you would like to use, and add them to the network installation directory.
5. Launch the Group Policy Management console on your administrative workstation. Expand the tree for your domain, then expand the tree for “Group Policy Objects”. Right-click on the Group Policy Object used to install the previous version of OpenOffice, then select “Edit...”. This will open the Group Policy Object Editor.
6. In the Group Policy Object Editor, under “Computer Configuration”, expand “Software Settings”, right-click on “Software Installation” and select “New --> Package...”.
7. Click on “My Network Places”. (Note: This is a required step. You must select the package to install from a network location rather than a local location. If you do not first click on “My Network Places”, the selection of a package to install will not be accepted.)
8. Navigate to the network location containing the administrative installation of the new version of OpenOffice and and double-click on the .msi file “openofficeorg24.msi”.
9. Select “Advanced” as the deployment method and click “OK”. After a short pause, the Properties dialog should appear.
10. Under the "Upgrade" tab, click "Add..." and under "Package to upgrade", select "OpenOffice.org 2.x" and click "OK". The properties dialog will display the text "Replace OpenOffice.org 2.x".
11. Under the “Modifications” tab, add Check_OOE.mst and the other transforms you downloaded earlier (if any), then click “OK”. The selected transforms will appear in the properties dialog.
12. The option “Uninstall this application when it falls out of the scope of management” can be set under the "Deployment" tab. This option will cause the application to be automatically uninstalled if this group policy object is deleted or unlinked. Alternately, the application can be uninstalled later by right-clicking on its package name and selecting “All Tasks” -> “Remove...”
13. When all of the installation properties look correct, click "OK" to accept the properties, then close the Group Policy Object Editor.

The Group Policy Object will begin to propagate and will be applied on each selected computer in the domain(s) within approx. 90 minutes (depending on how Group Policy is configured). To apply the GPO immediately on a particular computer, go to that computer and run “gpupdate” from a command prompt. Once the Group Policy Object is applied, the new version of OpenOffice will be installed the next time the computer is rebooted. The installation process will take several minutes.