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I was playing around the MS office XP security update packs last week. These packages (exe files) can be easily and silently deployed using a /Q switch. All the packages seems going well except Office XP Update KB833858 ( officexp-kb833858-fullfile-enu.exe). The switch /Q is not working completely. Ok, it takes away all the user interfaces during the installation, but after the installation a message box is popping up with the warning that a restart is required, do you want to continue!

Hmm.. strange.. I need to remove this message box to get the whole bench of updates released to the customer.
I extracted the update exe file using Winrar. Alternatively you can use a /C switch to get the files extracted. As a result i got a few files, ohotfix.exe, ohotfix.ini, ohotfixr.dll and VSDEBUGop.msp . Great, the well known Microsoft Office Hotfix Installer ohotfix utility is here. What it will do is install all the MS Patch (.MSP) files in it’s folder according to the settings defined in the ohotfix.ini file.

In the ohotfix.ini file set the following three values for a quiet installation.

OHotfixUILevel=q
MsiUILevel=q
RebootInQuietMode=1

Ah, I got the VSDEBUGop.msp patch file installed silently in my work station. So all the MS Office update packs are ready for deployment!