I’m stealing this from a posting Dave Nickason did in the Public newsgroups
Questions have come up recently about being prompted for the Office CDs while patching with Microsoft Update or WSUS. Since it’s an obvious annoyance for a user or admin to be prompted for the CD while trying to work on something else, here’s a way to avoid being prompted for the CDs.
Office 2003 has a feature called “Local Installation Source.” The last step in the Office install is to choose whether or not to remove the installation files. If you allow the installer to leave the files, they are left on the workstation, typically in C:\MSOCache. (On systems with more than one partition, the files may be cached elsewhere based on space considerations). The recommended practice would be to leave the files after installation, but you may have already installed Office and removed the files, or you may be dealing with an OEM install where the files were not cached.
If you allow the Office installer to create the Local Installation Source, that should keep you from needing the Office CDs for Detect and Repair, Demand Install (features set to install at first use), Maintenance Mode Setup (running a repair or adding features from Control Panel Add/Remove), and patch and SP installations. See this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825933.
If for whatever reason Office has already been installed without caching the installation files, or if you want to change their location, the Office Resource Kit offers a free utility, aptly called Local Installation Source Tool. When you download and run the tool, one option is Enable, which will create a new LIS for an existing Office install. At least theoretically, running this tool should be the last time you’re prompted for the Office 2003 CDs. In addition to providing the CDs for Office, the LIS Tool will want them for any additional Office product installed on the PC, such as OneNote.
Get the Local Installation Source Tool from http://www.microsoft.com/office/orkarchive/2003ddl.htm. (Bookmark this page – it’s where you get all the ORK tool downloads).
Local Installation Source FAQ: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;830168
