SOLVED: How to Customize Office 2013 Corporate Installs

If you work in a company of more than 10 people and want to deploy Office 2013 (or 2010 or 2007) you likely will want to customize it prior to installing it.  This used to be accomplished using the Office Resource Kit or Office Deployment Kit but those tools faded in 2007 and now we use the “Office Customization Tool” or OCT .  The even better news is the OCT is built into every Open License version of Office.  If you have a retail copy the OCT apparently does not exist.

The even better better news is that it is very simple to use.  Just copy the Office 2013 files from the CD to a network share and add /ADMIN to the run line.  For example \\<server>\<share>\office2013\setup /ADMIN and the following will come up.

When you are done making your changes, click FILE, SAVE into \\<server>\<share>\office2013\UPDATES There is no need to configure your SETUP.EXE to look in that folder as it is hardcoded to do so.  For the record, this is also where you can put future Service Packs (any product related .MSP’s).

In case you care, my key customizations are:

1. NOT installing MS Access
2. Disabling SKYDRIVE integration (several locations)
3. Setting the product key, accepting the license and setting the DISPLAY LEVEL to NONE so that the install is close to SILENT

I hope this helps, but if you need more information, see:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179132.aspx

and

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178992.aspx

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UPDATE – March 2013 : I am STILL trying to find the settings below so if you have an idea, please let me know.

I have a number of Outlook features I wish to change cannot find in SETUP /ADMIN:

1. I want to turn off (but not DISABLE) Conversation View.  I found OUTLOOK2013 > OUTLOOK OPTIONS > PREFERENCES > E-MAIL OPTIONS > DO NOT USE CONVERSATION ARRANGEMENT IN VIEWS but the DESCRIPTION says “If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, users will be able to use Conversation arrangement in Views.”.  I just want CONV VIEW off by default, not to block its use if a user decides they like it.
2. I want to set FILE > OPTIONS > OFFICE BACKGROUND (to Straws) and OFFICE THEME (to Light Grey) but cannot find the setting.
3. I would like to set the WEATHER to default to CALGARY and to be in CELCIUS.  The only WEATHER settings I can find are at the bottom of OUTLOOK2013 > OUTLOOK OPTIONS > CALENDAR OPTIONS and the two settings I want are not there.
4. I want to enable SIGNATURES in both REPLY / FORWARDS as well as NEW MESSAGES, but I cannot find this setting.
5. I want to add QUICK PRINT to the QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR by default but I cannot find this setting.
6. I want to set the FIRST THINGS FIRST to RECOMMENDED SETTINGS for automatic updates.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officesetupdeploy/thread/a08535ee-facf-4823-b8d1-8f4394216076