If we are going to deploy a patch using a startup script we want a script that will only install the patch if the patch is not already installed. In this walkthrough we are going to determine if the patch is already installed by having the script evaluate the following reg key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\(COMPRESSED GUID)

When Office patches are installed on a machine there will be an entry in this location for each of them. In my example I will be deploying the hotfix from KB978551.

We will need to determine what the compressed GUID is for this patch. I have extracted the MSP out of the EXE for this patch. Then we right click on the MSP, goto properties, goto the details tab. Here we will find a revision #. This first number is the uncompressed GUID for this patch. It is {25DD7329-11CE-403F-884E-EB21D3572BD2}. We need to convert it to determine what the compressed GUID is. The following blog entry discusses converting a GUID to a compressed GUID. http://blogs.technet.com/odsupport/archive/2009/12/17/how-to-convert-an-office-guid-or-office-patch-guid-to-a-compressed-guid.aspx

After converting the GUID we find that the compressed GUID is 9237DD52EC11F30488E4BE123D75B22D. As a result we know that if this patch is installed already the following reg key will exist. We will check for this key in our startup script.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\9237DD52EC11F30488E4BE123D75B22D

Next we need to place our patch in a share that everyone will have read access to. For this walkthrough I created a share named “\\2008r2\patches” and placed the MSP in that location.

I then verified that the computer I want to apply this patch to is in the appropriate OU. I then created a new GPO for that OU and added a startup script under “Computer configuration/Policies/Windows Settings/Scripts/Startup”.

Here is the script I created and added to the default location for the startup scripts for that GPO.

============================================================================

setlocal

reg query HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\9237DD52EC11F30488E4BE123D75B22D
if %errorlevel%==1 (goto Patches) else (goto End)

REM If 1 returned, the patch is not installed. Install the patch here.
:Patches
"%windir%\system32\msiexec.exe" /p \\2008r2\patches\IRMPRTIDNMinus1.msp /qn

REM If 0 or other was returned, the patch is already installed. Do nothing.
:End

Endlocal

============================================================================

The logic behind the startup script is as follows:

Check to see if the reg key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\9237DD52EC11F30488E4BE123D75B22D exists. If it does, than the patch is already installed. Goto end. If the reg key does not exist than this patch needs to be installed. Run the command to install it.

After running a GPUPDATE on my target machine we will find that the patch installs as expected upon reboot.

Here is a step by step video demonstration of this procedure. 

The following steps are taken to convert an Office GUID to its compressed counterpart:

Here is the uncompressed GUID for Office 2003 Professional.

{90110409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}

Here is compressed GUID for Office 2003 Professional.

9040110900063D11C8EF10054038389C

Here are the steps demonstrating how to convert the uncompressed GUID to a compressed GUID.

To convert this Office 2003 uncompressed GUID to a compressed GUID we will first separate the above GUID into 5 sections and drop the brackets.

90110409 6000 11D3 8CFE 0150048383C9

Next we will reverse the order of each of the first three sections.

90401109 0006 3D11

In the forth and fifth sections we will transpose every two characters.

Here is the fourth and fifth sections broke up to every two characters are separated by spaces.
8C FE 01 50 04 83 83 C9
Let’s transpose each section like so:

8C FE 01 50 04 83 83 C9
becomes
C8 EF 10 05 40 38 38 9C

Then lets put the it all together and remove the space 

90401109 0006 3D11 C8 EF 10 05 40 38 38 9C
becomes
9040110900063D11C8EF10054038389C

This is the logic behind how the Office uncompressed GUID is manually converted into a compressed GUID