PC Essentials Deployment Guide for

System Builders

Last Updated: 5/25/10

What is PC Essentials?
The PC Essentials Program brings together a collection of Microsofts software + services as a
valuable offering for OEMs to pre-install on consumer and small-business targeted systems. It
includes Windows Live, Bing Bar, Office 2010, and browser defaults.

What is this document?

This engineering-focused deployment guide will provide you with all the information necessary
to pre-install PC Essentials. All of the necessary programs and installers are included in this
package.

PC Essentials Deployment Summary

The following summary outlines what is required to deploy PC Essentials. The next section
provides detailed step-by-step instructions.
1. Install Windows Live

Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery,
Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Movie Maker, and Microsoft Silverlight at
minimum. This install also includes Windows Live enabling technologies such
as Windows Live Sync.

Windows Live Family Safety, Outlook connector, and Office Live Add-in are
optional

Windows Live Toolbar must be installed in markets for which Bing Bar is not
supported (see list below)

2. Install Bing Bar if it is supported in your market (see list below)

3. Set Bing as Browser Search Default and MSN (http://syb.msn.com) as Browser Home
Page
4. Install Office Starter 2010
5. Include all OEM IDs as directed in this deployment guide

PC Essentials Deployment Instructions

1. Determine your Toolbar based on the market in which it will be sold

Bing Bar may only be shipped to the following markets: Australia,

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China (PRC), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Windows Live Toolbar must be shipped in all other markets.

2. Install Windows Live Essentials

Note: These are the QuickStart installation instructions. For the full deployment
guide with options such as extensibility, please refer to the Windows Live OPK
available at OEM Partner Center (OPC):
http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentpage.aspx?pageid=563582
The PC Essentials OPK includes an installer package used to pre-install Windows
Live Essentials in Audit Mode (click here for more info on Audit Mode:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722413(WS.10).aspx)
a.

Boot to audit mode:

For an attended installation, at the Windows Welcome screen, press

CTRL+SHIFT+F3.

In unattended installations, configure the Microsoft-Windows-Deployment

| Reseal | Mode setting to audit.

Run sysprep/audit to configure the system to boot to audit mode on the

next reboot. For more information, see the "Sysprep Technical Reference"
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766049.aspx).

b. Type the following at the Audit Mode command prompt:

If shipping Bing Bar (see step above, Determine Your Toolbar):
wlsetup-all.exe /q /noHomepage /noSearch /noMU /noToolbarCEIP
/AppSelect:ALL,!FamilySafety,!OLC,!Toolbar /OEMID:MASB

If shipping Windows Live Toolbar (see step above, Determine Your Toolbar):
wlsetup-all.exe /q /noHomepage /noSearch /noMU /noToolbarCEIP
/AppSelect:ALL,!FamilySafety,!OLC /OEMID:MASB

c. Check the return code:

3010 : Successful installation but needs to reboot.
0 : Successful installation
1 : Failed installation
d. Display the Microsoft Service Agreement and Notices in the OEM EULA
All partners that distribute Windows Live must present the Microsoft Service
Agreement and appropriate privacy and update notifications to users prior to the
first launch of the programs. You must ensure that customers have access and
agree to the Microsoft Service Agreement and appropriate privacy and update
notifications before any Windows Live applications are run on the customers
machine. The Windows Live Wave 3 installer package does not include the
Microsoft Service Agreement for display to customers. The Microsoft Service
Agreement must be displayed separately from any Windows EULA.
Instructions:
i. Create a new oobe.xml file. Cut-and-paste the following script into a
Notepad document:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<FirstExperience>
<oobe>
<oem>
<eulafilename>MS_Service_Agreement.rtf</eulafilename>
</oem>
</oobe>
</FirstExperience>

The pivotal setting is bolded (<eulafilename>). Other settings may be

added for further customization, per the Windows OPK.
ii. Save the Notepad document as oobe.txt.

iii. Close Notepad, find your oobe.txt file, and rename it to oobe.xml.
Now the file can be opened in Internet Explorer for editing, and it can
run as a script at Windows startup.
iv. Using My Computer or Windows Explorer, navigate to the
C:\windows\system32\oobe folder.
v. Create a new folder called info.
vi. Move your oobe.xml file into the info folder.

NOTE: The info folder will have priority automatically over the oobe folder, so theres no need
to delete any files in the oobe folder that might also be called oobe.xml or something similar.
Those simply wont execute as long as an oobe.xml file exists in the info folder.
NOTE: If you opted to customize other settings within the oobe.xml file that require images or
files to be called, then you should also place that dependent files inside the info folder. For
example, if you chose to include the setting
<logopath>%windir%\system32\oobe\info\My_Logo.png</logopath> because you wanted to
customize the Logo, then the file My_Logo.png must be in the info folder.

vii. Open the PDF file named Windows_Live_Localized_TOU from the

Windows Live folder. This file contains the EULA text.

viii. Open a blank Wordpad document (Start Menu > Programs >
Accessories > Wordpad), and copy-paste the text segment of the
appropriate language in Windows_Live_Localized_TOU from the PDF
to the Wordpad document:.
ix. Save the new Wordpad document as MS_Service_Agreement.rtf.
x. Move this document to the C:\windows\system32\oobe\info folder.
xi. Boot the system into sysprep mode by doing the following:

Open an elevated (Run as Administrator) command prompt

(its in the Accessories folder in the Start Menu Program list)

Navigate to the C:\windows\system32\sysprep folder

Type sysprep and hit the Enter key. The computer will enter
sysprep mode, as indicated by the System Preparation Tool UI

xii. Click OK to restart the computer in OOBE mode.

xiii. While going through OOBE, notice the changes that have been made
to the EULA, and that users must now accept the Microsoft Service
Agreement along with the OS licensing terms (see below).

e. Validate the Windows Live Essentials installation (after Sysprep and OOBE).
The Start Menu should include the following Windows Live links at minimum
(see image below):

3. Install Bing Bar

Note: You may only ship Bing Bar into one of the supported markets listed in step 1. If
you are shipping to a market not in this list, you must pre-install Windows Live Toolbar
in step 2 instead.
a. Prepare to install Bing Bar
Note: You must wait for the Windows Live install to complete before starting the
Bing Bar install. wlsetup-all.exe should not be in the active process list when you
start the Bing Bar install. Failing to do so may interrupt the Windows Live
installation causing installation failure or a partial install.
The PC Essentials OPK includes an installer package used to pre-install Bing Bar in
Audit Mode. This installer is named InstallManager_MSB_MSB.exe, located in
the Bing Bar folder.
b. Boot to audit mode:

For an attended installation, at the Windows Welcome screen, press

CTRL+SHIFT+F3.

In unattended installations, configure the Microsoft-WindowsDeployment | Reseal | Mode setting to audit.

Run sysprep/audit to configure the system to boot to audit mode on the

next reboot. For more information, see the "Sysprep Technical Reference"
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766049.aspx).

c. Type the following at the Audit Mode command prompt:

InstallManager_MSB_MSB.exe /oem
d. Check the return code:
0 : Successful installation
1 : Failed installation

Note: This application returns before the installation is actually complete. This
will allow multiple installs to occur at once. Not all applications will successfully
install in parallel. To be absolutely sure, make sure that the install manager
completes its install before moving onto the next application.
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4. Browser: Set Bing Search Default and MSN Home Page Default
Note: For Internet Explorer, browser settings are customized using either the Internet
Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK) or unattend.xml. Instructions for both methods are
provided below. For other browsers, such as Firefox, please refer to the
documentation provided by the browser manufacturer.
a. Set browser Home Page settings.
For all browsers installed on the machine, set the browser Home Page to
http://syb.msn.com
For IEAK, use the Important URLs Home page and Support dialog to set

the Home page.

For unattend.xml, use the Home_Page tag in Microsoft-Windows-IE-

InternetExplorer to set the Home page.

b. Configure browser Search settings.
For all browsers installed on the machine, set Bing as the Default Search
Engine and set the URL as follows:
For PCs NOT landing in Peoples Rebublic of China:
http://www.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}&form=MSBTDF&pc=MASB&src=IESearchBox
For PCs landing in Peoples Republic of China only:
http://cn.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}&form=MSBTDF&pc=MASB&src=IE-SearchBox

For IEAK IE7 or IE8, use the Search Provider dialog. In this dialog, 1) set
Bing as default., and 2) set the URL for Bing to the appropriate search URL
listed above.

For IEAK IE6, use the Important URLs dialog. Set the Search Bar URL to
the above.

For unattend.xml IE7 or IE8, use the SearchScopes tag in MicrosoftWindows-IE-InternetExplorer | SearchScopes | Scope to set Bing as
default using the following configuration:

ScopeURL
For PCs NOT landing in Peoples Republic of China:

http://www.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}&form=MSBTDF&pc=MASB&src=IE-SearchBox
Or for PCs landing in Peoples Republic of China ONLY:
http://cn.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}&form=MSBTDF&pc=MASB&src=IE-SearchBox
ScopeDisplayName
Bing
ScopeDefault
True
ScopeKey
Bing
SuggestionsURL
http://api.bing.com/qsml.aspx?query={searchTerms}&src={referrer:source?}&maxwidth=
{ie:maxWidth}&rowheight={ie:rowHeight}&sectionHeight={ie:sectionHeight}&FORM=IE8SS
C&market={Language}
FaviconURL
http://www.bing.com/favicon.ico

For unattend.xml IE6, set [URL] Search_Page=www.bing.com

c. Set browser User Agent string.

For all browsers installed on the machine, add a new user agent string with
Name = MASB (the Value is ignored).

For IEAK IE8, use the Compatibility View dialog to create the custom
User Agent string. Simply type the string MASB into the Append to user
agent string: text box.

For IEAK IE7 or IE6, use the User Agent String dialog to create the
custom User Agent String. Add the string MASB to the box.

For unattend.xml, use the UserAgent tag in Microsoft-Windows-IEInternetExplorer | UserAgent to create the custom User Agent string
MASB.

d. Verify that Search and Home Page function properly (after Sysprep and OOBE).
Open a window for each installed browser, including 32-bit and 64-bit
versions.
Verify that the browser home page is set to http://syb.msn.com. Note
that this is a vanity URL which will automatically redirect to either MSN or
Bing, depending upon timing and location of the user.
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 Verify that the browser search box is defaulted to Bing. Perform a search
using the browser search box and verify that it sends the search to Bing.
Verify that the appropriate search URL contains the strings
&form=MSBTDF and &pc=MASB
Type javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) into the Browser address bar.
Ensure that MASB is in the list in the popup window.

5. Install Microsoft Office 2010

a. Install Microsoft Office 2010 OPK following the OPK Guide included in the
disk image.
b. Add the registry key to enable Services Inclusion and compatibility between antMalware software shipped in your PC and the virtualization technology used by
Office Starter 2010.
Instructions:
i.

Set up Service Inclusion by creating a REG_SZ value with the service name
of each service that needs to access the Q: drive. The name of the value
does not matter. Note that you must restart the service after setting the
Service Inclusion keys.
For 32-bit systems, create the key under:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\AppFS\ServiceIn
clusions]

For 64-bit systems, create the key under:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\App
FS\ServiceInclusions]

ii.

Service Inclusions are only supported on Windows Vista and later.

iii.

OEMs can set up the Service Inclusion keys before or after installing the
Office 2010 OPK during the production process.

Example:
For a 32-bit OS, the service inclusion for two services called NIS and ABC (as
examples) would look like this:

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SoftGrid\4.5\Client\AppFS\Se
rviceInclusions]
Service1=NIS
Service2=ABC

Screenshot details instructions above:

c. Optionally, run the Q: Drive labeling script following the documents instructions.
The document can be found here: http://labelc2rdrive.codeplex.com

FAQs
Question: What if I have questions that are not answered here?
Answer: Please check the OEM Partner Center(OPC) website
(http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentpage.aspx?pageid=503766) for answers to your
questions. If you cannot find an answer there, please email msoemnet@microsoft.com.

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