OfficeRTool

Overview

OfficeRTool is a menu driven utility that does three jobs which normally require three different tools and a configuration file written by hand. It installs an Office release with only the applications you want, it switches an existing installation between the servicing channels, and it applies the licensing. The whole thing runs as a script in a console window with numbered menus, which looks dated and is the reason it is reliable.

The install path uses the official deployment mechanism rather than a repacked installer, which means the files come down from the vendor's own servers and are exactly what a normal deployment would place. What this tool contributes is the configuration: architecture, channel, language, product selection and the list of applications to exclude, all chosen from menus instead of assembled in an XML file. That is why it stays this small.

Installing a clean copy

Pick a product from the menu, choose 32 or 64 bit, choose a channel, choose a language, and then walk down the application list turning off the ones you do not want. Excluding the components most people never open takes an installation from around four gigabytes to under two and removes a handful of background processes at the same time. The tool writes the configuration and hands it to the deployment engine, which does the actual work.

Because it uses the official deployment path, the download is resumable and can be pointed at a local source folder if you have already pulled the files once. On a bench where several machines are being set up in a row, downloading once and installing from the folder repeatedly saves a lot of time.

Channels and version pinning

The channel menu covers the current, monthly enterprise and semi annual channels, and switching between them on an existing installation is a single menu entry rather than a registry edit. There is also a version pin option, which holds an installation at a specific build so an update does not move it. This is the feature that keeps the tool in use in offices where an add-in broke on a newer build.

The update behaviour itself can be turned on or off from the same menu. Turning it off is not the same as pinning: pinning holds a version and still allows a manual update, while turning updates off stops the check entirely.

The licensing side

Licensing is handled through a locally hosted key management approach with a renewal task, or through the digital licence path where the product supports it. The menu shows the current licence state before and after, so it is obvious whether anything changed. If the renewal task is used it is installed as a visible scheduled task rather than hidden, and there is a menu entry to remove it cleanly along with everything else the tool created.

Every scanner flags this file, for the same reason every tool in this section is flagged: modifying licensing state is indistinguishable from tampering as far as a heuristic engine is concerned. Add an exclusion for the folder before unpacking, or the script will fail partway through with a file not found error that has nothing to do with the tool itself.

What you get

• Menu driven install of the Office releases from 2016 onward
• Per application selection so unwanted components are never installed
• Architecture, language and channel chosen before download begins
• Channel switching on an existing installation from a single menu entry
• Version pinning to hold a build against updates
• Update check enable and disable as separate options
• Licence application with the state shown before and after
• Clean removal entry that takes out everything the tool created
• Portable script, under fifteen megabytes, no installation

Inside the archive

• OfficeRTool script package, portable
• Deployment configuration templates for the supported products
• Channel and build reference table
• Readme covering the antivirus exclusion and the removal entry

System requirements

Installing it

1. Add a folder exclusion in your antivirus before unpacking, or the script files will be removed mid run.
2. Unpack the archive. There is no setup.
3. Right click the main script and run it as administrator.
4. Work down the numbered menus: product, architecture, channel, language, then the application exclusions.
5. When the install finishes, use the licensing menu and check the state line before closing.

Mirrors

Release history

Questions about this release

Comments

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