PDQ Deploy: can it run Office Repairs as an "install"?
With the continued issues with MS Office and Windows 1709 seemingly unresolved without running a repair on Office (and occasionally having to point to the setup files on the file server), is it possible to set up something so PDQ Deploy can run the appropriate repair (2010, 2013, 2016, 32/64), if it notices a system has changed from having (1511/1607/1703) to having 1709?
New deployments won't need a repair, only upgrades. And we're talking about 900 computers, so manually doing it isn't desirable.
The alternative right now is just push 1709 and repair when people notice a problem, as the issue seems so narrow in scope (MAPI calls broken from other apps like the snipping tool), that I might be blowing things out of proportion...but if I could have something setup to just run the proper repair after an upgrade, it'd make life a lot easier. I have servers at each of the remote locations, so if I can point the repairs to some wildcard type thing that I can fill in for the 23 remote locations, that'd reduce network traffic and speed things up.
(VERY NEW to PDQ, so I'm not sure what all it can do, or how to do it. I'll be consulting the guy that's more familiar with this, but he's new to it too, but was handling the trial deployment period)
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So, it's been a month without response, and I've went ahead and deployed between Christmas and New Year's. I've had to repair approximately 78 computers since January 2nd...and I suspect I'll have to hit every single machine. I'd rather find a fix for this before I have to push out to 1300 more computers.
Is PDQ able to handle this?
I suspect you are referring to the save and send functionality from other programs? Basically where you send the file as an attachment in Outlook from what ever program you are using. Repairing Office does fix this, but there is an easier solution and quicker.
I am trying to put it into a package with PDQ Deploy, but it's not running properly.
This is the commands for the package I'm trying to use.
taskkill /im outlook.exe /f
del "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\system\MSMAPI\1033\MSMAPI32.DLL"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.exe"
Got it to work.
I put all 3 commands into 3 separate steps and it works perfect.
Hope this helps with your issue as it is much simpler and quicker than a repair.
Indeed it appears to be. I had to add another step in there for something that's holding onto Outlook's MAPI setting. I wonder if that combo is why this isn't working. Anyway, yes, much faster and easier, and doesn't require a reboot. Now I just need someone to put in a ticket so I can test it!
Yes, the fact that there is no reboot involved is a plus. Hopefully it works well for you as it has solved my problem we having been facing here without having to go around and manually perform a repair install, which is what I was doing in the beginning.
BTW those commands may vary slightly depending on your version of Office or other variances, but should be able to easily edit/adapt them to your needs.
Yep, I've created 6 tasks for the 3 versions of office 32, and 64. I appreciate it!
Not a problem!
One thing I noticed is after it completes all the steps it never finishes the deployment in PDQ Deploy. If I abort the deployment after it's done manually it kills the Outlook process.
Not sure how to resolve that part of it in PDQ so it actually finishes the deployment.
Did you run into this?
I changed the command:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.exe"
To:
Start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.exe"
This caused Outlook to stay open after I aborted the deployment. I can't seem to get the deployment to actually end after all the steps as it just stays running.
Nevermind haha. It works once changing that one command as stated.