VMware ThinApp 5 and Office 2013

[Best Practice] VMware ThinApp 5 and Office 2013

Ever since I got my hands on ThinApp 5, I've been trying to thinapp Office 2013. I've tried it in various ways and I think I should give something back to the forum by sharing my experience.

I captured Office 2013 by following this guidebut also did some tweaking and tuning by myself.

Let's start!

1. Extract the Microsoft Office 2013 installation files.
2. Edit the config.xml file located in the suite.WW directory where suite is the suite of Office you are installing. i.e. for professional plus it's proplus.ww
3. Add these lines to the bottom of the file above </ Configuration>
   • For KMS licensing activation:
     
     <Setting Id="KMSSERVICENAME" Value="kmsserver.domain.com"/>
     <Setting Id="AUTO_ACTIVATE" Value="1"/>
     
     Note: Replace kmsserver.domain.com with your KMS server name.
     
     
   • For MAK licensing activation:
     
     <PIDKEY Value="AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE"/>
     <Setting Id="AUTO_ACTIVATE" Value="1"/>
     <Setting Id="USEROPERATIONS" Value="1"/>
     
     Note: Replace AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE with your MAK information.
     
     
4. Run the Setup Capture wizard and take a prescan.
5. If the deployment operating systems do not all have the same version of .NET installed, capture .NET. For more information, seePackaging guide for .NET (2069188).
6. Start the Microsoft Office 2013 setup wizard.
7. Click Customize for the type of installation.
8. Click Microsoft Office> Run all from My Computer or do your own customization and choose the specific tools you want to install.
9. Click Install Now.
10. Launch an Office component, disable auto updates, run through the welcome assistant and do any other customization.
    • For faster startup of Excel, Word and PowerPoint, do this:
      • Go into options of each application
      • Untick the option "Show the Start screen when this application starts"
        
    • Note: When you start an office application it will log you on with the windows account you're currently working with which in my case was the domain admin.
      This shouldn't bother you at this point as I will you show you how to get rid of this later on.
      
11. Stop the OSPP service.
12. Take a Postscan.
13. If required, modify the Inventory name.
14. Open the file HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.txt and edit it as shown:
    • Add to the bottom of the file:
      
      isolation_full HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsSearch\Preferences
      Value=PreventIndexingOutlook
      REG_DWORD=#01#00#00#00"
      
      
15. Now, to remove the admin account open the file HKEY_CURRENT_USER.txt and edit it as shown:
    1. Search for common\identity
    2. If you want to remove the account and also prevent your users from logging in with their AD accounts, do this:
       • Delete all lines that have to do anything with HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity
    3. If you just want to remove your "setup account" but keep the ability to let your users log in, do this:
       • Delete all lines and that have anything to do with your "setup account" but keep these:
         • isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity
           Value=Version
           REG_DWORD=#01#00#00#00
           Value=FederationCacheExpiration
           REG_SZ~2014-02-27T09:49:34Z#2300
           
         • isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\DocToIdMapping
         • isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\Identities
         • isolation_full HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Identity\Profiles
       • I've attached a before and after file example for further explanation
         
16. Build the project.

There's one thing though I haven't been able to work out.

Whenever I add a required applink in the file Package.ini, Office fails to start any application. Instead, a screen pops up where Office tries to install an "Office Feature" but fails to do so and then just quits.

Has anyone been able to add applinks for Office 2013?

Regards

Marius