Custom install gone?

I'm going to see if the vla installer is any different on the vla.

From past experience ,some versions of office would behave differently depending upon the sku when it came to things like administrative installs.

I've got a couple of folks I've worked with in the past that are MVP's ,maybe they can kick this up stairs and see what's up.

Knowing MS,I can't say this would be completely out of character by complicating the install process beyond belief. 

So it's not known if this way to have a customized install would cause issues with installing Office updates or not?

After much trial and error, I got it to work for me.

First I had to run the Office scrub vbs file (available from Fix It here: https://support.office.microsoft.com/en-us/article/Fix-Office-365-Office-2016-or-Office-2013-install-errors-54554bb8-aa94-43c7-a685-408dd9868c0b) to remove all traces of any Office installs on my computer (I'm running Win10x64 Pro & Ent).

Reboot

1. I opened the ISO from MSDN and extracted that to D:\Archive\Office2016\ which created subdirectories off of that of \Office\data

-- Note that if you don't have the iso yet, you can can ask setup to download the required files, just skip ahead to step 3 below---

2. rename D:\Archive\Office2016\setup.exe to whatever the heck you like.
3. I downloaded the Office 2016 Deployment Tool (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49117) and extracted the zip to D:\Archive\Office2016.  This will place setup.exe and configuration.xml into that directory (this is why we renamed setup.exe above).  I edited the XML file and put the following in it (deleting everything else that was in it):

<Configuration>

  <Add SourcePath="D:\Archive\Office2016" OfficeClientEdition="64" >

  <Product ID="proplusretail">

  <Language ID="en-us" />

  <ExcludeApp ID="Access" />

  <ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />

  <ExcludeApp ID="Grove" />

  <ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />

  <ExcludeApp ID="skypeforbusiness" />

  </Product>

  </Add>

  <Logging Name="OfficeSetup.txt" Path="%temp%" />

</Configuration>

***NOTE that I wasn't sure about the naming convention for Skype for Business/Lync so I put them both in the config file - I still don't know which one is needed but the above config successfully did NOT install Skype for Business***

4. If you don't have the ISO then run the following:

D:\Archive\Office2016\setup.exe /download configuration.xml

that will create the sub directories and download the files necessary for your desired configuration

5. Now, whether this is from the ISO or the downloaded files, run:

D:\Archive\Office2016\setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

bingo, bango, bongo, you've got a customized install.

I found this

"

Optional.

The following is a list of the supported values for ID:

• Access
• Excel
• Groove
• InfoPath
• Lync
• OneNote
• Outlook
• PowerPoint
• Project
• Publisher
• SharePointDesigner
• Visio
• Word

The value “Groove” is used to exclude OneDrive for Business.

The value "Lync" also applies to Skype for Business."

Here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426

Is it possible to change the installation path with configuration.xml ?

I have a small SDD for Windows so I don't want to install Office on c:\program files

All right folks ,here's the lowdown from one of my contacts @M$ (an office MCT).

It appears as if because of product launch constraints,the functionality for a custom install was left out.

My feedback was, it will be forthcoming in one of the updates.  

So M$ is aware of the issue.

Thanks for the update.

I'm from Missouri (honorary), I'll believe it only when I see it. 

MS has been aware of this "problem" since the CTR versions of Office 2010! aka "Office 2010 Starter". They haven't done anything about it yet.