LIPS

LS,

According Microsoft Eric Ashton, MCDST, MCSA Microsoft Enterprise Business
Applications - Office Deployment the below mentioned problems should be
discussed in the vista newsgroup (especially question 2).

Two (related) problems.

General:

We are a Holding Company in the Netherlands that acquired several
(relatively small) companies in the Netherlands, Britain, France, and Russia.
In order to consolidate IT structure we plan to move (beginning 2008) to the
Vista platform with Office 2007. We have in total approx 250 workstations.
For that we purchased an OVS (?) Vista Enterprise Desktop and OVS Office
Multi language pack.
We have Software Assurance and in fact lease the software (I am not a
licensing specialist).
The (Vista and XP) Enterprise Desktop includes Office 2007 Professional and
the “calls� for e.g. Exchange, SharePoint etc.
It is maybe important to mention that we design (agricultural) machinery
with ProEngineer which requires 64 Bits computing on several special
workstations.
Right now, we are in the process to create the (thick) images (.WIM) for a
32 bits environment and for a 64 bits environment.

Goal is following:
1) Prepare 2 (32 & 64 Bits) cooperate images that contain Vista, Office 2007
and some other “standard� software (like Adobe reader 8.0, some
dictionaries, Forefront Client security etc.).
2) The software has to include the following (language) interfaces: English
(we start with an UK version), Dutch, French, Russian.
3) In addition, users should have the possibilities to do spell checking
(Proofing) of many other languages. We had the habit to simply install all
(but Chinese and Arabic) languages of the Office 2003 Proofing disk.
Problems we face are following now (I split between the 32 and 64 bits
platform):

32 Bits:
The image is ready, we did install everything and the .WIM image installs as
a breeze (with PE) on all our tested workstations.
We have the 4 desired language interfaces: English, Dutch, French, and
Russian. Very nice, switching between the languages without any problem.

--- Problem 1 ---

Unfortunately we got stuck when asking for the Proofing tools.
As you mention, the DVD with the ~ 39 languages is not yet available (we
were promised October 2007).
We face a problem (but that could be a bug) when using the spell checking of
the English, Dutch, French and Russian languages.
I add a screen shot that clearly shows on the “Editing Languages� tab the
support of Russian is “limited�. We tested other languages that show the same
(limited) support.
We assume that (after installing the Proofing DVD) the “limited support�
“disappears�.
Conclusion for 32 bits:
a) We cannot finish the image because LIP’s give “limited� support for
proofing and
b) We canot install the Proofing DVD because it is unavailable.
It would be overkill (and result in a very big image) if we would install
all existing LIP’s just for proofing reasons (~250 MB per language!).
Please comment this, and please indicate when we could expect the Proofing
DVD in order to check if this fits in our implementation schedule.
Or, alternatively, please give us a workaround for the problem.

--- Problem 2 ---

Regarding 64 Bits Vista we face additional following problem:
From my software supplier I got following links to download appropriate MUIs.
Unfortunately, the software specialist left the company leaving us with a
serious problem.
As you will see, the 32 bits links work. We downloaded the needed files.
However, the 64 bits links are not working.
Please indicate the correct download location(s) or, alternatively, please
give us a workaround for the problem.

MUI's in order -

Chinese (PRC)
Chinese (Hong Kong SAR)
English
Spanish
Swedish
Japanese
Portuguese (Brazil)
Norwegian
Dutch
Finnish
French-
Russian
German
Danish
Korean
Italian

By purpose I do not post the links here however I can send them.

For direct contact please mail me at jan dot vledder at ganlok dot nl

Thanks in advance,


--
Jan

Goede dag Jan,

> --- Problem 1 ---
> Unfortunately we got stuck when asking for the Proofing tools.
> Please comment this, and please indicate when we could expect the Proofing
> DVD in order to check if this fits in our implementation schedule.
> Or, alternatively, please give us a workaround for the problem.

Unfortunately, you can only get accurate information about the shipping
dates for the Ofice 2007 Proofing Tools media from Microsoft. I'm pretty
sure that as part of Software Assurance, you get access to a Technical
Account Manager ("TAM") at Microsoft. Finding out shipping dates, is exactly
the kind of info a Microsoft TAM should be tracking fown for you. Check with
the guys in charge of your Software Assurance Agreement as see if you have a
TAM; if yes, then contact the TAM to discuss further.

> --- Problem 2 ---
> Regarding 64 Bits Vista we face additional following problem:
> From my software supplier I got following links to download appropriate
> MUIs.

Software Assurance customers can download these MUI packs from
https://licensing.microsoft.com. You'll need the Software Assurance
credentials to log on to this secure site - so again, talk to your local SA
guy in your company, or your Microsoft Technical Account Manager to get the
exact details for your organisation.

The MUIs are not available for public downlaod, except via the Windows
Update interface (which is useless for preparing WIM installations). I don't
know why Microsoft places such a stupid restriction, but there you have it.

Good luck with the project.

Tot staaks,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

Goeden dag Andrew McLaren,

Thanks for the reply.

To shortcut: yes I will try to find “my� TAM.
I thought having one, but she is not so active / knowledgeable.
I succeeded getting lost of additional info via the newsgroups.

By the way, fore some strange reason I cannot download the MUI packs from my
https://licensing.microsoft.com account. They are not there.
I can however download the LIPS for Office 2007. We obviously need both for
such a project.

As you mention, “MUIs are not available for public download, except via the
Windows Update interface (which is useless for preparing WIM installations)�.
I absolutely agree with that.
They are also available in WSUS 3.0, however only non-standard languages are
distributed via that channel.
In WSUS 3.0 e.g. German, French, English, Dutch, Spanish are unavailable.

Not having the proper MUIs and not having the Office 2007 Proofing Tools
media makes our project stop.

Tot straks,

--
Jan


"Andrew McLaren" wrote:

> Goede dag Jan,
>
> > --- Problem 1 ---
> > Unfortunately we got stuck when asking for the Proofing tools.
> > Please comment this, and please indicate when we could expect the Proofing
> > DVD in order to check if this fits in our implementation schedule.
> > Or, alternatively, please give us a workaround for the problem.
>
> Unfortunately, you can only get accurate information about the shipping
> dates for the Ofice 2007 Proofing Tools media from Microsoft. I'm pretty
> sure that as part of Software Assurance, you get access to a Technical
> Account Manager ("TAM") at Microsoft. Finding out shipping dates, is exactly
> the kind of info a Microsoft TAM should be tracking fown for you. Check with
> the guys in charge of your Software Assurance Agreement as see if you have a
> TAM; if yes, then contact the TAM to discuss further.
>
> > --- Problem 2 ---
> > Regarding 64 Bits Vista we face additional following problem:
> > From my software supplier I got following links to download appropriate
> > MUIs.
>
> Software Assurance customers can download these MUI packs from
> https://licensing.microsoft.com. You'll need the Software Assurance
> credentials to log on to this secure site - so again, talk to your local SA
> guy in your company, or your Microsoft Technical Account Manager to get the
> exact details for your organisation.
>
> The MUIs are not available for public downlaod, except via the Windows
> Update interface (which is useless for preparing WIM installations). I don't
> know why Microsoft places such a stupid restriction, but there you have it.
>
> Good luck with the project.
>
> Tot staaks,
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>
>