Q: I virtualized Office 2010 using Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). Can I remove the MSOCache and Windows Installer folders to reduce the size of the .sft file?

A: Office 2010 stores its installation files in the MSOCache file on the root of the system drive on the computer where Office is installed to aid in updates or changes in installed features. Additionally, any updates and patches are written to the WindowsInstaller folder. Because you'd never update or modify the virtualized Office 2010 on clients directly, you can delete both the MSOCache and WindowsInstaller folder from the version of the virtualized application you deploy to clients, as shown below, by deleting CSIDL_WINDOWSInstaller and SFT_MNTMSOCache. When you want to update the virtualized Office you would do so on the sequencer machine then push out that updated version to the clients.

It's important to keep a version of the virtualized Office 2010 application that has the WindowsInstaller and MSOCache folders intact, because you'll need that version when you want to update the virtualized Office 2010 with patches, service packs, or any other changes. Once again, you would copy that updated sequenced application and make a version without MSOCache and Installer to deliver to clients.