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barrykeel

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Custom Office Install from Mapped Drive

When we do a custom install of Office 2003 Volume License with a bat file the bat has to be run from a mapped drive. A new user gets the machine and runs Office for the first time and it does a setup for the user and then the user runs the application. With the drive mapped, there would be no trouble during an update. Office would install its components as needed, with no necessary interaction from the domain user. My question comes from a security standpoint. If my mapped drive has applications for install and my users have read rights, then what is to stop them from taking the software? My users do have the ability to burn CDs. They have to because of the nature of our work. If I do a FULL installation on Office Package does it still need to be mapped? How are others handling this install point?
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cmarandi
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We don't allow CD-R drives.  None of the hardware have it.  It's cheaper too.  Plus, we pushed out a security policy with GPO to disable the CD ROMs and the USB's.
In addition to that, we don't map the drive.  we use the UNC to make it less visible.

Our main reason for all this is that we process credit cards so we are required by regulations to protect data from leaving the office.

There is no reason for anyone to have a CD Burner on their pc's.
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barrykeel

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Sorry, but we have to have the CD burners due to the nature of our work. Plus, you cannot do a custom install from a bat file with a UNC path. So, due to these limitations what would you suggest.
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cmarandi
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Well we only have about 80 users. I like the GPO idea but right now we do not have all users on the same version. This is for our new users and the ones we are slowly moving to the latest version. We mostly use the bat file for the initial install on a new machine or a reloaded machine. It looks as if I will have to lock it down to only our IT group and not map it for the user. Only map it for the install. Correct me if I am wrong, but it would not need to be mapped to the user for updates if it is a FULL install, correct?
no... when you do a full install, it will not look back to original location for any updates.
The updates can come from office.microsoft.com, or you can push the updates out with the GPO.
Also be done with WSUS?
I think so... I'm not sure on wsus pushing office updates.. i don't use wsus.
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