OFF2000: Custom Maintenance Wizard Cannot Unhide Hidden Features

When you update an Office installation using a .cmw file created by the Custom Maintenance Wizard (CMW), any features that were originally hidden by a transform will remain hidden. In this context, hidden means you cannot see the feature in the Microsoft Office 2000: Update Features dialog box. This is true even if you change the installation state of the hidden feature from, for example, Not Available to Run from My Computer in the .cmw file.

When you hide a feature in a transform using the Custom Installation Wizard, the Display attribute for the feature in the Feature table of the transform is set to 0 (zero). Even though you can create a .cmw file that installs the hidden feature, the Display attribute remains set to 0.

After the transform is applied during the initial Office installation, it cannot be modified or superceded. It is always applied to the locally cached package (.msi) by the Windows Installer before any operations take place. Furthermore, other .msi modifiers, such as patches, are applied prior to applying the transform, so the hidden state in the transform overrides any previous modification.

If you want to unhide a feature, do either of the following:

• Uninstall Office. Then create a new transform where the feature is not hidden and run Setup with this transform. -or-
  
  
• Uninstall Office and then run Setup without the transform.

You can also use the following command line properties to change the installation state of Office features:

• ADDLOCAL
• ADVERTISE
• REMOVE
• ADDSOURCE

Even if you use this approach to stage your deployment of Office, you cannot unhide hidden features.

For more information about using the above command line properties to stage an Office deployment, enter the following URL in your Web browser:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/two/30t5_8.htm (http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/two/30t5_8.htm)