MSP to MSI - Office Communicator

Today I needed to help a client update Office Communicator 2007 R2 in preparation for their Lync migration. They had deployed Office Communicator via Group Policy using an MSI, I wanted to create an MSI that encompassed the latest Office Communicator MSP. These are the steps I performed:

I firstly Downloaded the latest communicator client update from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/ee695846 At the time of writing this, the latest update was January 2012: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=21547

I created a working directory with both the MSI and MSP.

I then performed an admin install of my MSI using the command:


msiexec /a "PATH TO COMMUNICATOR.MSI" TARGETDIR="create a new folder called Admin within your working directory"

For me the command was:

msiexec /a "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\OCS2007r2\communicator.msi" TARGETDIR="C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\OCS2007r2\admin"

This creates an admin install of communicator to my working directory, you can see the files it created.

I will now patch my administrative install with the MSP using the following command: 


msiexec /a “PATH TO MY NEW ADMIN MSI AS SHOWN ABOVE” /p “DIRECTORY TO THE MSP DOWNLOADED” TARGETDIR=”THE DIRECTORY I USED IN THE PREVIOUS STEP” /qb

For me the command was: 


msiexec /a "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\OCS2007r2\admin\communicator.msi" /p "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\OCS2007r2\Communicator.msp" TARGETDIR="C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop\OCS2007r2\admin" /qb

I now need to make all the files shown below into an MSI. This can be achieved using a script called WiMakCab.vbs this is part of the “Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1” which can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3138 

I then browsed to the directory where the SDK installed to and looked for the scipts directory (the default path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Samples\sysmgmt\msi\scripts)

I then ran the WiMakCab.vbs file using the following syntax: 


WiMakCab.vbs "PATH TO MY PATCHED ADMIN MSI" “TEMP CAB NAME” /R /L /C /U /E /S

A warning window popped up which I ignored and another command prompt window should be opened, creating the file:

Once completed my administrative install will have grown in size, and is a standalone installer Office Communicator 2007 R2 with the January 2012 Updates.

Any questions please contact me on james.rogers@4logic.com.au