OL98: (CW) Enabling Outlook Automatic Upgrade

MORE INFORMATION

If users install Microsoft Outlook 98 from a shared installation point, the automatic upgrade feature can be enabled by adding the following Registry value to the client workstation:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\UpgradePath

   Value Name: ServerPath
   Data Type:  REG_SZ (String)
   Value Data: <path>
				

Where <path> is the directory on the server that contains the Outlook.stf file. This file is located in the CD\En\Packages directory of the Outlook 98 installation point.

NOTE: Do not add a trailing backslash to the path. The path can be a mapped drive (X:\, for example) or a UNC (\\servername\share) path.

Adding the Registry Entry through the ODW

1. Start the ODW and go to the Add Registry Entries screen in Stage 5.
2. Select the Add button.
3. Type the following values in the Add/Edit Registry Value dialog box:
   

         Root:         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
         Data type:    SZ
         Key:          Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\UpgradePath
         Value name:   ServerPath
         Value data:   <path to OUTLOOK.STF in Outlook 98 install point>

4. Select OK and complete the ODW installation.
5. Run Setup from the install point to install the Outlook client on a workstation.

The automatic upgrade feature performs the following actions at startup to determine whether a new version is available:

• Reads the UpgradePath Registry entry on the user's local workstation to determine the location of the OUTLOOK.STF file. If found, OUTLOOK.STF is opened and the version number is obtained from the "App Version" string on the second line of the file.
• Compares the version number to the version number extracted from the local Outlook.stf file, which was placed on the user's computer during setup. If the version number at the installation point is greater than the version number in the local file, Outlook opens a dialog box informing the user that a new version is available, and allows them to install it.

The automatic upgrade feature has the following limitations:

• This feature only works with standalone installations of Outlook. It does not work with versions of Outlook that are included with Microsoft Office 97.
• Microsoft Schedule+ does not support the automatic upgrade feature. In addition, if Schedule+ is started before Microsoft Exchange, the user will never be prompted for an automatic upgrade.
• If the user starts Microsoft Exchange while not connected to the network, and then connects after Microsoft Exchange is running, the user will not be prompted for an automatic upgrade.
• After the auto-upgrade process has completed, the Outlook.stf file is not updated to reflect the new version just installed. Therefore, the user will be prompted again that a newer version is available and the process starts over again. To work around this behavior, the administrator will need to copy an updated Outlook.stf file to the user's local computer. For example, this can be done through a custom component (using an IExpress package or batch file) specified in the ODW.