Microsoft Office 2016 has a prerequisite that is not mentioned in the system requirements. If you want to use the Database Compare 2016 program to compare Microsoft Access databases, you must have the Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 installed, or you will get a most unhelpful error message.
On you application staging file share (wherever you put application source files for Configuration Manager to find), create a folder for Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 with Service Pack 1. Mine will be \\fileserver\software$\Microsoft\Report Viewer 2008 SP1 GDIPLUS.DLL Security Update (KB971119).
Download the executable installer from the Microsoft Download Center, and then extract its content into the folder you just created: Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 Service Pack 1 GDIPLUS.DLL Security Update. Using the folder path I stated above, run the following command at an elevated command prompt: ReportViewer.exe /x:"\\fileserver\software$\Microsoft\Report Viewer 2008 SP1 GDIPLUS.DLL Security Update (KB971119)".
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Application Properties | |
| Name | Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 (KB971119) |
| Publisher | Microsoft |
| Version | 2008 (KB971119) |
| Deployment Type Properties | |
| Name | Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2008 (KB971119) – Windows Installer (*.msi file) |
| Technology | Windows Installer (*.msi file) |
| Content location | \\fileserver\software$\Microsoft\Report Viewer 2008 SP1 GDIPLUS.DLL Security Update (KB971119) |
| Installation program | install.exe /q /l “%TEMP%\reportviewer2008KB971119installationlog.txt” |
| Uninstall program | msiexec /x {CED243AB-C7BA-3D42-9609-14EF5A6FC601} /q |
| Detection method | MSI Product Code: {CED243AB-C7BA-3D42-9609-14EF5A6FC601} |
| Installation behavior | Installation behavior: Install for system Logon requirement: Whether or not a user is logged on Installation program visibility: Hidden Configuration Manager behavior: Determine behavior based on return codes |
| Requirements | None |
| Dependencies | .NET 2.0 SP2 (See below for details.) |
Note that although the extracted files are still installed with an executable, deep down, the installer is actually an MSI. I was able to find the MSI’s product code and create an MSI deployment type using that information. For now, I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how to do this, but I may revisit the topic in the future. In any case, I provided the product code above, so you don’t need to go searching for it.
Report Viewer requires .NET 2.0. Since .NET 2.0 is basically a sub-component of .NET 3.5, and since .NET 3.5 SP1 is the minimum supported .NET version on all of our supported platforms except for Windows 7, the most economical way to proceed is to just reuse the .NET Framework 3.5 application package that we already built as a dependency (prerequisite) for this application package. On the Dependencies tab, click Add…, and give the new dependency the name .NET 2.0 SP2. Then (still in the Add Dependency dialog window) click Add… and select all nine of the deployment types from the .NET Framework 3.5 application package.
Coming Up
Now we have all of the prerequisite application packages built and our custom installation settings defined. Next time, we’ll put everything together to build a set of Configuration Manager Applications for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office, Project, and Visio!