25th of July, 2014 / / 18 Comments

I’ve recently been working with a customer to deploy OneDrive for Business where Office 2010 is deployed in the SOE (OneDrive for Business is included as part of Office 2013). One of the issues that we faced is that unlike with the old SkyDrive Pro application, there is no offline or redistributable installer package for OneDrive for Business. When deploying to thousands of devices using a tool like SCCM, this is a problem.

There are two obvious ways to install OneDrive for Business:

  • “Click to Run” through Office 365
  • Upgrade the SOE Office version to Office 2013

While it is possible to scour the Internet and download what appears to be a deployable package, it is actually nothing more than a Click to Run stub loader that executes the Office 365 ProPlus installer. The installer then attempts to pull down the components required and install the software for you – in which case as an end user, aside from the rubbish user experience, you’re likely to run into issues with either proxy servers or local admin rights to install software on the device.

An alternative option is to use the Office Deployment Tool for Click to Run, which will allow you to create an Office installer with all of the OneDrive for Business components enabled that can be used with an SCCM distribution point or even just a file share.

It’s worth noting that the package ends up being just over 1GB in size as it’s the entire Office 2013 install with the OneDrive for Business components enabled.

  1. Download the Office Deployment Tool for Click to Run: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778
  2. Run officedeploymenttool.exe
  3. Accept Microsoft Software License Terms
  4. Choose location to extract files to, such as C:\Temp\ODT
  5. Within C:\Temp\ODT this will have extracted the setup.exe and configuration.xml files
  6. Using Notepad, create a new file called onedrive_download.xml with the following content
    [code language=”xml”] <Configuration>
    <Add SourcePath="C:\Temp\ODT\" OfficeClientEdition="32">
    <Product ID="GrooveRetail">
    <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
    </Add>
    </Configuration> [/code]
  7. Open a CMD window with elevated permissions (Run as Administrator) and run:
    cd C:\Temp\ODT
  8. To download the Office package run:
    setup.exe /download onedrive_download.xml

The software will begin downloading which usually takes several minutes and upon completion will return to the command prompt.

  1. Using Notepad, create a new xml file for the software installation called onedrive_install.xml and paste the following text:
    [code language=”xml”]<Configuration>
    <Add SourcePath="C:\Temp\ODT" OfficeClientEdition="32" >
    <Product ID="GrooveRetail">
    <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
    </Add>
    <!– <Updates Enabled="TRUE" UpdatePath="//[your share location]"/> –>
    <!– <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" /> –>
    <!– <Logging Name="OfficeSetup.TXT" Path="%temp%" /> –>
    <!– <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" /> –>
    </Configuration> [/code]
  2. To install the software run the following command (this will cache the installation source to the local machine)
    setup.exe /configure onedrive_install.xml

For further details on the additional configuration options see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426.aspx

Category:
Communication and Collaboration, Office 365, SharePoint
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Join the conversation! 18 Comments

  1. Repe FIN

    Hi, I download that OCT and now I try to start setup.exe /download onedrive_download.xml – but it gives me error: Couldnt install, we’re sorry, we had a problem…. is your internet connection… YES I HAVE! Do you have enough free space… YES I HAVE!

    Any ideas?
    Thanks…

    • Joel Neff

      Apologies, it looks like WordPress has reformatted the text for the XML file and has messed with the quotes. I’ll update the post now but in the meantime you can update the quotes to be the correct format “text” and it should work for you

      Cheers,
      Joel

      • HHelal

        i Have the same problem ” Couldnt install, we’re sorry, we had a problem…. is your internet connection… ”
        i didn’t understand your reply can you explain

    • Dev

      Hi Repe,

      I ran into similar issue today. There was a typo in my Configuration File. I had SourcePath pointed to the wrong location(32bit instead of 64bit) on 64-bit configuration file. Once I fixed the SourcePath, OneDrive installed successfully. I would advise to check if there is any typo. Second set of eyes may be needed sometime to find typo.

  2. Spicer

    Hi,

    I did face the same issue when was trying to download it at my office.
    I manage to do it at home without proxy.
    Main reason is that the files are in a lot of different servers that are not all reachable with our company policy.

    Hope it helps.
    Regards,

  3. Michael McNally

    This looks great, but does installing this way consume an Office 2013 license? I’d like to leave most users on Office 2010 at this time.

    • Michael McNally

      After installing, it looks like the licensing is a non-issue. However, I have run into two problems.
      1. I could not get the install to run with the lines in onedrive_install.xml commented out (<!–). Once I un-commented these lines, the install worked.
      2. I cannot click on the "Sync Now" link in the OWA Onedrive web page. It appears that the grvopen protocol was not registered by this installation.

  4. keith

    Why cant you use the Office Customization Tool for Office 2013 i.e. setup.exe /admin from the Office source files to create an MSP?
    Wouldn’t this be a simple solution for installing OneDrive for Business

  5. Ranjith

    click to run thriough office 365 works only if ur machine doesnt have MS Office 2013 product. i am facing issue with instal the same as my machine got Lync 2013. i managed to install onedrive after uninstalling Lync 2013. but we can install Lync 2013 if u had One Drive. quite Strange. can someone suggest the option to install Onedrive without uninstalling Lync 2013..

    thanks in Advance

  6. Dmitry

    The thing is there is no way to keep the installation compact.
    When you run ODT, no matter what product you specify in the config, it will download full O365 installation. And thus leading the deployment package for OneDrive for Business (using O365 source) be around 1GB for one language UI and +200MB for every additional language.

    In that case, personally I still prefer to use “normal” 2013 ProPlus installation source over O365, which also has much better customization options than O365 installation.

    • Hugh McIntyre (@HughMc)

      As Dmitry mentioned, no matter what you put in the config file it seems to download the entire office dat files. Has this changed recently? Is it now just one source with different install config files for say skype for biz or onedrive for biz? fairly whack.

  7. Clark

    Hi,

    FIrst, thank you! Second, I followed the directions and successfully downloaded the 1GB package but, when I attempt to install, I am told that I can’t install because I lack an internet connection or sufficient space. My computer lacks neither.

    I have not altered the configuration.xml or any of the other text that you give on this page. I am a professor working at a college that has auto-installed Office 2013 on my machine, but without OneDrive client support (the college does have onedrive accounts for all through their Office365 subscription, although the office machines are running Office 2013). Any advice? I am very much hoping to be freed of subservience to DropBox and its fees.

    Clark

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