It seems that Microsoft sent Service Pack slipstreaming, at least for Office, into the happy ground. Nontheless, they offer a new and very convenient way to
“integrate” (which is not really true, but more on that later) their service packs.

When you take a look at the Office 2007 folder structure, wether from the original disc, or a download from eOpen, it contains a folder called “Updates”. when you take a closer look at this folder, you´ll find a readme.txt with the following content:

Any patches placed in this folder will be applied during initial install.

Sound rather interesting, doesn´t it? So, you have to download the Service Pack 2 from here. Fire up a console session, and type in the following command (assuming, you saved the file to c:\temp\):

Extract the Service Pack 2 files onto your harddisk.

After that, you´ll be prompted to agree to the EULA. You have to in order to go further. The files are beeing extracted to the mentioned location (change it to suite your needs):

Service Pack 2 files are beeing extraced.

Really?

No, it isn´t. Now you have to copy all the .msp-files to the before mentioned Update-Folder. After that, you can start your installation of Office 2007 as ever, and the Service Pack files are applied afterwards.

The only drawback is, that the files aren´t integrated into the installation, so you may encounter (much) longer installation time. Also, it cannot be used to upgrade existing installations. For this, you still have to use your downloaded file.

But for me the ease of use is much more important than saving some minutes in installation time. Just in case I find a real slipstreaming procedure, I will keep you updated.