Outlook Addin Stopped Working

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Outlook Addin Stopped Working
 
ludwigvan


Guest


We have an addin that works in all Office apps, but for some reason, the Outlook addin stopped working. It is not in the COM addin list, I have tried registering and unregistering the addin several times.

Could you provide some pointers on how to solve this?

Best,
Posted 27 Feb, 2018 12:43:08 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18819
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello ludwigvan,

Most probably, it fell to the Disable Items list. I suggest that you check section Troubleshooting add-in loading, see the PDF file in the folder {Add-in Express}\Docs on your development PC. Or visit https://www.add-in-express.com/docs/troubleshooting-tips.php.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 28 Feb, 2018 03:57:31 Top
ludwigvan


Guest


Thank you Andrei. I tried everything in that list, but none of them helped. The addin was not in the disabled list, it did not appear in Outlook at all. As a last resort, I removed all things pointing to the addin in the registry, changed the addin name and now it seems to have sorted itself.

I'll let you know if I can reproduce the issue. My guess is somehow Outlook blacklisted the addin and disabled it being registered. I checked the security macro settings, disabled addins, deleted addin load time related entries in registry, but those didn't help.

I think Outlook is more aggressive in disabling addins compared to other products, is that true? I think it can easily disable the addin if there is a performance related issue.
Posted 28 Feb, 2018 05:02:49 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18819
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Look in File | Info | Manage COM Add-ins.

ludwigvan writes:
I think Outlook is more aggressive in disabling addins compared to other products, is that true? I think it can easily disable the addin if there is a performance related issue.


Correct. They introduced this feature in Outlook 2010; see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vba/outlook-vba/articles/support-for-keeping-add-ins-enabled and https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/emeamsgdev/2017/08/02/outlooks-slow-add-ins-resiliency-logic-and-how-to-always-enable-slow-add-ins/


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 28 Feb, 2018 06:52:58 Top
ludwigvan


Guest


Thank you very much for the pointer Andrei.

Looking deeper down, I found two keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\AddinClassidata.AddinModule

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\AddinClassidata.AddinModule

Putting LoadBehavior in the first one has no effect, putting LoadBehavior=3 properly loads the addin.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2778964/addins-for-office-programs-may-be-registered-under-the-wow6432node

I think in my case, a 32 bit Office was installed in a 64 bit Windows, hence setting it at the normal path would not help.

Is my assumption correct, and what should I do during installation? Make the registry change in both locations?

Thank you very much.
Posted 01 Mar, 2018 02:55:04 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18819
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello ludwigvan,

These keys are created by adxregistrator.exe when your add-in is being installed; adxregistrator.exe is run as a custom action of your installer.

We describe these and other keys in section Locating COM add-ins in the registry at https://www.add-in-express.com/docs/net-deploying-addins.php.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 01 Mar, 2018 04:12:28 Top
ludwigvan


Guest


Hello Andrei,

We are using adxregistrator.exe from an external script as such :

Filename: "{app}\OfficeClassification\adxregistrator.exe"; Parameters: "/uninstall=AddinClassidata.dll /privileges=admin /returnExitCode=true /generateLogFile=true /logFileLocation=C:\temp\"; Flags: runascurrentuser

We ended up creating the registry keys manually. Is it any option that we should pass to adxregistrator.exe so that it can register relevant regedit keys automatically ?
Posted 05 Mar, 2018 05:41:15 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18819
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello ludwigvan,

ludwigvan writes:
privileges=admin


Are you installing a per-machine add-in? If not, you should use privileges=user. Independent of this, you should re-check if these parameters as well as other settings follow one of the instructions that we give in the manual; see the PDF file in the folder {Add-in Express}\Docs on your development PC. The sections to check are:
- Deploying a per-user Office extension via an MSI installer
- Deploying a per-machine Office extension via an MSI installer


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 05 Mar, 2018 08:04:50 Top