I have created an add-in for outlook but I cannot get it installed on one person's computer.
Here is the message she gets:
I am posting this on stack as opposed to another site because we are the developers so it might be a development issue.
Here is what I have tried to get rid of this message:
exiting outlook.
uninstalling plugin from control panel.
rebooting computer.
starting outlook and observing that the add-in is gone.
install the add-in using the setup.exe that is generated by visual-studio
observe that add-in is not active and that the error message above is displayed.
This add-on works on several other people's machines.
What is different for this person is that she was the first to have it installed so she had a version that did have a startup issue that I would expect this error.
I suspect that somehow outlook is "remembering" the add-in rather than the add-in is still failing.
Two questions:
What can I do to get it installed?
What can I do to detect this in the add-in so I can report it automatically?
Set your addin's key to 1 in
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\AddinList
and
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DoNotDisableAddinList
and delete it from
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems
"16" in the keys above refers to the Outlook version (16 for 2016, 15 for 2013, etc.)
Related
My TTS Turbo Macro Excel COM add-in was working before I uninstalled Logi Options Plus for the second time.
I tried cleaning up related registry items and reinstalling TTS Turbo Macro add-in and Logi Options Plus but it didn’t help. The load behavior value of 3 for TTS add-in was correct; load count also matches the number of times I launched MS Excel, though the add-in never loaded. To further troubleshoot, I added paths related to TTS add-in to trusted location, but to no avail. I had ran into the similar situations where TTS add-in does not load; reinstalling the OS would fix it but I’d rather not waste that much time on it again. The TTS add-in also has an Excel (non-COM) add-in. When I launch Excel, I could see it’s been loaded, but nothing appears on the ribbon like before. Is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot and fix the issue?
By default, if a VSTO Add-in attempts to manipulate the Microsoft Office user interface (UI) and fails, no error message is displayed. However, you can configure Microsoft Office applications to display messages for errors that relate to the UI. You can use these messages to help determine why a custom ribbon does not appear, or why a ribbon appears but no controls appear. See To show VSTO Add-in user interface errors for more information.
Also Microsoft Office applications can disable VSTO add-ins that behave unexpectedly. If an application does not load your VSTO add-in, the application might have hard disabled or soft disabled your VSTO Add-in.
Hard disabling can occur when a VSTO add-in causes the application to close unexpectedly. It might also occur on your development computer if you stop the debugger while the Startup event handler in your VSTO add-in is executing.
Soft disabling can occur when a VSTO add-in produces an error that does not cause the application to unexpectedly close. For example, an application might soft disable a VSTO Add-in if it throws an unhandled exception while the Startup event handler is executing. Read more about that in the How to: Re-enable a VSTO Add-in that has been disabled article.
But I'd suggest contacting add-in developers instead.
I've seen tons of posts and sites that address this issue. I've tried every solution I've found but none of them work (I've been trying to figure this out for days now). I have seen many posts with the same exact sounding issue, but either the solution didn't work for me or isn't applicable. With that said...
I have an add-in for Outlook 2007 that is intended to add text to the an email's title and body. It is installed for all users using an .msi file. There is an older version that I deployed last year that works fine. The new version I created has only a few minor input/output changes, nothing major. This new version works perfectly on my development computer in both debug from Visual Studio and from an actual install. However, I can't get it to work on a non-development computer. Here are the details on the program and target computer (development computer and target computer details are the same other than the fact that the target computer doesn't have Visual Studio):
-Using Visual Studio Professional 2013
-Written in Visual Basic
-Target Framework is .NET 4.0
-The add-in is only run once the "send" button on an email is clicked.
-Outlook version is Outlook 2007
-Operating system is Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 32-bit
The problem is that the add-in won't load on the target computer(yes, I know, a bazillion other people have had the same issue). As I said previously, it works fine on my computer in both debug and installed versions. This made me think that the other computer is missing something, so I tried installing the .NET 4.0 framework onto the target computer but it told me that it was already installed. I ran through everything I could think of to get it to work with no avail. Here's how it behaves:
-Installs fine with no errors.
-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Office/Outlook/Addins/EmailMarkTool/LoadBehavior = 3 after installation.
-VSTO_LOGALERTS = 1
-VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS = 0
-Outlook opens with no apparent errors.
-LoadBehavior = 0 immediately after Outlook is opened.
-Shows up in the Add-ins under "Inactive Application Add-ins."
-Never shows up under "Disabled Add-ins."
-In the "COM Add-Ins" dialog where I can check which add-ins to use, it shows the correct directory and the Load Behavior is "Unloaded."
-The add-in can be checked. When I click "OK" I don't get any errors. When I go back to the Add-ins, it is unchecked and "Unloaded" again.
-Setting the LoadBehavior to 3 doesn't help because it goes back to 0 as soon as Outlook is started again.
-I inserted a try-catch block into the New() function of the add-in that has a MsgBox pop-up and a Throw.
-I get absolutely no errors anywhere.
-No log file is generated.
I have tried uninstalling, rebuilding, and reinstalling multiple times all with the same result. I just can't figure out why it will work on my development computer but not the target computer. Thanks for reading all of this. I know it's a lot, but I needed to get the details out. Thanks in advance for any input!
[UPDATE]: I just created a brand new minimal add-in just to test if it would work but got the same results.
I found the problem!
The problem may be unique to Outlook 2007. It turns out Microsoft Office 2007 SP1 and SP2 had a bug that prevented it from running VSTO addins. Microsoft released a hotfix that fixes this issue (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/976477). This was added in to the release of Microsoft Office SP3. However, to activate the fix, a new registry flag must be created but that isn't automatically done with the fix, making the fix useless until you manually activate it (instructions and download here). So...
To enable VSTO addins in Outlook 2007, you have to add a subkey to this registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General\
and add a DWORD "EnableLocalMachineVSTO" with the value set to 1.
I did this, restarted the computer for good measure, installed my addin for the 23rd time, and it installed and ran perfectly! I'm not sure how previous versions worked, though. It's possible that our system admins removed that subkey in an effort to bolster security at some point.
The loadbehaviour key problem you are experiencing is strange. Whilst I think this is probably not your solution, it could be, so its worth a try.
The target computer will need to have VSTO tools for office runtime installed.
You can download these tools are the following link - https://www.microsoft.com/en-GB/download/details.aspx?id=48217
Its a long story. I had a simple VSTO excel solution that i build in VS 2005 and Excel 2003. Few years ago we upgraded to Excel 2010 and VS2010. The VSTO solution was upgraded to .xlsm file and everything worked fine.
Recently we upgraded to Office 2013 and VS2013. (Office 2010 was uninstalled and then Office 2013 was installed). I opened the VSTO project and it forcibly upgraded the solution. I published the new version which created the setup.exe in the publish folder. I install the new customization on my dev PC and then open the .xlsm file that was installed on c:\user\abc\appdata\local... on my dev machine and everything works fine.
However, when i install setup.exe on a user machine and open the .xlsm file, even though i dont get any errors, the customizations (buttons etc) are all greyed out. Its as if it didn't even install. I banged my head with this all day today and cant figure it out. PLEASE HELP.
Thank you in advance.
Tarun,
Make sure that all the required prerequsites were installed properly. See Deploying an Office Solution by Using Windows Installer or Deploying an Office Solution by Using ClickOnce for more information.
Also I'd suggest checking the COM Addins list in the application. Is it enabled?
Microsoft Office applications can disable add-ins that behave unexpectedly. If an application does not load your add-in, the application might have hard disabled or soft disabled your add-in.
Hard disabling can occur when an add-in causes the application to close unexpectedly. It might also occur on your development computer if you stop the debugger while the Startup event handler in your add-in is executing.
Soft disabling can occur when an add-in produces an error that does not cause the application to unexpectedly close. For example, an application might soft disable an add-in if it throws an unhandled exception while the Startup event handler is executing.
When you re-enable a soft-disabled add-in, the application immediately attempts to load the add-in. If the problem that initially caused the application to soft disable the add-in has not been fixed, the application will soft disable the add-in again. See How to: Re-enable an Add-in That Has Been Disabled for more information.
I have an add-in for MS Word. One of my users, who is on Word 2007, reports that the add-in is not being loaded. When she checks the COM add-ins list, it says "Load Behavior" is "Unloaded; Load at Startup" (value of 2 in LoadBehavior registry entry).
Yet when she checks the add-in's registry entry, LoadBehavior is set to 3 (Loaded; Load at Startup). The add-in is also not loaded at all.
Is there some reason for the discrepancy between what Word is reporting for the add-in, and what's in the registry, and is there a way to resolve it?
I have a hunch that Word has set a LoadBehavior value somewhere else on her system after the add-in crashed, but she is remote from me, and doesn't want me to remote control her computer to check myself.
Edit: Some additional info: if the user runs a macro to check my add-in in Application.COMAddins, Connect is set to False. However, updating this to True doesn't seem to have any effect. The property will stay True as long as Word is running, but if Word is restarted then it will revert to False (and the add-in is never loaded).
More information: The add-in had been disabled due to a crash, and put in the disabled add-ins list. The user enabled the add-in from the COM add-ins drop-down list, but the load behavior was then stuck on 2, despite the registry value being 3. WinWord.exe doesn't have any compatibility settings.
Also, I provide three add-ins: one for Word, one for Excel, and one for PowerPoint. The Excel and PowerPoint add-ins work fine on the user's computer. I test the add-in myself on XP, Vista, and 7 (32 and 64 bit). The user is on Vista 32 bit.
The Word add-in was working on the user's computer for about two years, but after a crash it was disabled, and the LoadBehavior was stuck on 2. The user actually tried uninstalling and reinstalling Office, but that didn't change the behavior.
Solution
0xA3's solution wasn't complete, but on the right track. It turns out that the user had installed a new antivirus program, which was disabling the add-in (silently! ::insert rant about overzealous AV::).
I also learned a valuable lesson: to some users, "Have you installed any new software" doesn't include antivirus programs. I'll have to change that question to, "Have you installed any new software, or any antivirus programs?"
As said by Otaku, the problem seems to be that the add-in cannot be loaded and therefore is disconnected. It might due be an incomplete/corrupt installation of the add-in, a missing dependency or incorrect/missing registration of a COM component.
It's hard to give you more concrete tips, but here is a list of trouble-shooting tools that you might want to use during Word startup:
DebugView from Sysinternals, run as Administrator, with Capture Global and Capture Kernel enabled.
fuslogvw.exe to check for missing assemblies (assuming your add-in is written in .NET)
DependencyWalker to see for missing native dlls
Process Monitor to check for missing files/registry entries
Is there some reason for the discrepancy between what Word is reporting for the add-in, and what's in the registry, and is there a way to resolve it?
The reason for the discrepancy between the Registry and the actual Word setting is most likely that the current add-in state (loaded, but disconnected) is not stored in the Registry at all because the user has no sufficient permissions to change the HKLM Registry key. The LoadBehavior remains 3 in the Registry, and on next Word startup Word will try again to load and connect the add-in.
Addins can be registered in the USER hive or the LOCAL MACHINE hive, same folder in each.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Your addin name
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Your addin name
be sure to check both.
FYI : I was having similar issue with Excel AddIn. Excel "blacklisted" the add-in due to an error (which has not necessarily generated any error message). Go to: AddIns > "Disabled items" > Enable Addin resovled the issue for me.
I'm trying to diagnose why my Outlook plugin written in C#/VSTO 3.0/VS 2008 doesn't load after being installed.
The plugin works awesomely on my development machine, which has Visual Studio 2008 installed. I can't expect all my users to have all the prerequisites though so I went through these steps to write an installer:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc563937(loband).aspx
I installed the add-in on a fresh Windows XP SP 2 machine with a fresh install of Outlook 2007. It installs all the prereqs ok (.NET 3.5, VSTO 3.0 runtime, Windows Installer 3.1, 2007 PIAs). Outlook starts but the add-in isn't run. If I go to the Add-ins tab in the Trust Center, I see my add-in in the "Inactive Application Add-ins" section with the message "Not loaded. A runtime error occurred during the loading of the COM Add-in.".
Not sure how to find the specific error so I can fix it.
The reg keys look ok. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\BlahAddin I see Description, FriendlyName, LoadBehavior (set to 3 until it fails after which if becomes set to 2), and Manifest.
Tried the VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS environment variable trick and then launched Outlook from the command line but no output came out.
I have remote debugging more or less working but I'm not sure what to look for. I don't see my DLL loaded when I attach to Outlook, but then again maybe managed DLLs don't show up the same way in VS.
Any other ideas on next steps I could follow to produce a specific error I can diagnose?
Solved my problem after weeks of pain. The "Manifest" reg key was getting corrupted to some junk value during the setup build. It was a known Visual Studio bug that supposedly got fixed in Visual Studio 2008 SP 1, but apparently wasn't for me. Renaming the project name to be different from the plugin name fixed the problem. Random, huh?
Make sure you have try-catch handlers at the top level of all methods called by Outlook and log any exceptions you are unable to handle in some way. Focus your troubleshooting on methods like the Startup method and other methods called during initialization.
You probably want to debug this using the remote debugger. Share out the MSVCMON.EXE folder from your developer machine (in your Visual Studio folders in Program Files) on your test machine (share it with a UNC path), and launch Outlook under the debugger trapping (.NET) exceptions in your modules and putting breakpoints in your methods.
If you need to clean your test computer each time before you install your solution, you should probably run XP under a Virtual PC 2007 VM (free download) and switch to a differencing HD after setting up everything but your plugin to snapshot your pre-installed state once so you don't have to keep uninstalling/reinstalling as you make changes to your program to fix bugs.
Are you installing Debug builds or Release builds? Perhaps one flavor has different requirements. Just guessing.
-Mike [MSFT Office Dev]
On your machine, when you run the addin from Visual Studio, it should create a registry key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VSTO\Security\Inclusion{SomeGuid}. Make sure that these registry settings are also being deployed with your addin. They are the ones that allow your code to be trusted.