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Add-in Express Home > Add-in Express for Office and .NET > Online Guide > Deploying Office solutions > Office add-in deployment: things to consider

Office add-in deployment: things to consider

Per-user or per-machine?

An Office extension can be per-user or per-machine. By default, you Add-in Express project creates a per-user Office extension.

Neither the Everyone option of an MSI installer nor the InstallAllUsers property of your setup project relates to installing Office extensions in the "for all users on the PC" way. Please see InstallAllUsers Property of the Setup Project for details.

To let your Office extension work for all users on the machine you need to set the RegisterForAllUsers property of the corresponding Add-in Express module. To find that property, you open the module's designer, click the designer surface and see the Properties window in VS. Note that if the module doesn't expose the RegisterForAllUsers property, then the Office extension you create cannot be registered for all users on the PC; this is by design from Microsoft. The table below describes the availability of the "for all users" registration for Office extensions.

	Per-user Registers to HKCU Standard User permissions	Per-machine Registers to HKLM Requires administrative permissions Cannot be installed via ClickOnce
COM Add-in	+	+
Excel RTD Server	+	+
Excel Automation Add-in	+	-
Excel XLL Add-in	+	-
Smart Tag	+	-

Per-machine extensions cannot be installed via ClickOnce, which is a deployment technology targeted to non-administrator-privileges installations.

Installing and registering

When you run the installer on the target machine, the question arises: where to install the add-in? Note that per-user extensions are called so because a standard user is able to install them; that means that the user may install a per-user extension to any folder accessible for the user. Note that ClickOnce installers always install to ClickOnce Application cache. A per-machine extension requires administrative permissions and, consequently, only administrators can install it; the target folder must be accessible by all users of the extension.

Although, in the general case, you cannot prevent the user from choosing an incorrect folder, you can provide a valid default installation location. If you create a setup project using Add-in Express (see Creating MSI installers), the setup project wizard analyzes RegisterForAllUsers of the Add-in Express module used in your project and creates a setup project that is ready to install the files mentioned in Files to deploy to the following default locations:

RegisterForAllUsers = True	RegisterForAllUsers = Flase
[ProgramFilesFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]	[AppDataFolder][Manufacturer]\[ProductName]

Still, installing an Office extension isn't enough. To get loaded to the corresponding Office application, your Office extension must be described correctly in the Windows Registry; see Registry keys for exact registry locations. Add-in Express writes all required information to the correct registry locations so that you usually don't even think about this.

You cannot deploy an Office extension using XCOPY because this does not create required registry entries.

Permissions required

An Office extension having RegisterForAllUsers set to False or not having that property at all, writes to HKCU when it is being registered and thus it can be registered by a standard user. Since writing to HKLM requires administrative permissions, only administrators can install (and register) a COM add-in or RTD server for all users on the PC; only these Office extension types have the RegisterForAllUsers properties in their modules.

But before being registered, the Office extension must be installed. Only the user having corresponding permissions can do this. Of course, this applies to any other software.

Deployment technologies

Table 1. Deployment technologies. Short descriptions.

Windows Installer	You create a regular .MSI installer to install both per-user and per-machine Office extensions. To update your Office extension, you uninstall its current version and install the new one.
ClickOnce	This technology is targeted at non-admin installations; only per-user Office extensions can be installed in this way. When the user updates your Office extension, its previous version is uninstalled automatically.
ClickTwice :)	This is a custom MSI-based Web deployment technology. ClickTwice :) allows standard users and admins to run MSIs from the web (Internet and Intranet) for installing and updating per-user and per-machine Office extensions.

Detailed comparison

Table 2. Deployment technologies. Detailed Comparison.

Feature	ClickOnce	Windows Installer	ClickTwice :)
Update from the web	Yes	No	Yes
Post-installation rollback	Via Add/Remove Programs	No	No
Security permissions granted	Grants only permissions necessary for the application (deploying COM add-ins, it always requires Full Trust).	Grants Full Trust by default	Grants Full Trust by default
Security permissions required	Internet or Intranet Zone (Full Trust for CD-ROM installation)	Standard user or Administrator	Standard user or Administrator
Installation-time user interface	Single prompt	Multipart Wizard	Multipart Wizard
Installation of shared files	No	Yes	Yes
Installation of drivers	No	Yes (with custom actions)	Yes (with custom actions)
Installation to Global Assembly Cache	No	Yes	Yes
Installation for multiple users	No	Yes	Yes
Add an entry to Start menu	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add an entry to Startup group	No	Yes	Yes
Add an entry to Favorites menu	No	Yes	Yes
Register file types	No	Yes	Yes
Install time registry access	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM) accessible only with Full Trust permissions	Yes	Yes
Binary file patching	No	Yes	Yes
Installation location	ClickOnce application cache	Changed by the user during the installation	Changed by the user during the installation

What technology to use?

Table 3. Deployment technologies. Links to step-by-step instructions.

	Per-user extensions COM add-ins, RTD servers, Smart tags, XLL add-ins, Excel Automation add-ins	Per-machine extensions COM add-ins and RTD servers
A user runs the installer from a CD/DVD, hard disk or local network location	Windows Installer ClickOnce ClickTwice	Windows Installer ClickTwice
A corporate admin uses Group Policy to install your Office extension for a specific group of users in the corporate network; the installation and registration occurs when a user logs on to the domain. For more details, please refer yourself to the following article on our blog: HowTo: Install a COM add-in automatically using Windows Server Group Policy	Windows Installer	-
A user runs the installer by navigating to a web location or by clicking a link	ClickOnce ClickTwice	ClickTwice

Files to deploy

The tables below contain minimal sets of files required for your Office extension to run.

Office add-ins, XLL add-ins

File name	Description
AddinExpress.MSO.2005.dll	Command bar and Ribbon controls, COM add-in and XLL
Interop assemblies	All interops required for your add-in
extensibility.dll	Contains the definition of the IDTExtensibility2 COM interface
adxloader.dll	32-bit loader; required for Office 2000-2007, and Office 2010 32-bit
adxloader64.dll	64-bit loader; required for Office 2010 64-bit
adxloader.dll.manifest	Loader manifest
adxregaddin.exe	Add-in registrator

For an XLL add-in, the loader names include the assembly name, say, adxloader.MyXLLAddin1.dll (adxloader64.MyXLLAddin1.dll).

Excel Automation add-ins

File name	Description
AddinExpress.MSO.2005.dll	Excel automation add-ins
Interop assemblies	All interops required for your add-in
extensibility.dll	Contains the definition of the IDTExtensibility2 COM interface
adxregaddin.exe	The add-in registrator

RTD servers

File name	Description
AddinExpress.RTD.2005.dll	Excel RTD Server
adxloader.dll	32-bit loader; required for Office 2000-2007, and Office 2010 32-bit
adxloader64.dll	64-bit loader; required for Office 2010 64-bit
adxloader.dll.manifest	Loader manifest
adxregaddin.exe	Add-in registrator

Smart tags

File name	Description
AddinExpress.SmartTag.2005.dll	Smart Tag
adxloader.dll	32-bit loader; required for Office 2000-2007, and Office 2010 32-bit
adxloader64.dll	64-bit loader; required for Office 2010 64-bit
adxloader.dll.manifest	Loader manifest
adxregaddin.exe	Add-in registrator