Project templates for creating plug-ins / add-ins for
Outlook Express and Windows Mail in C#, VB.NET, C++

Add-in Express™
for Outlook® Express and Microsoft® .net

Project template for Outlook Express extensions

Add-in Express adds to your Visual Studio IDE a wizard that helps you quickly create new Outlook Express solutions. Each of them is an ActiveX library (DLL, in-process COM server) that implements interfaces required by the supported technology, such as IDTExtensibility2, as well as some internal Outlook Express specific interfaces. In the Visual Studio IDE, the wizard is available via the "Other Projects | Extensibility Projects" item on the "New Project" dialog box.

Outlook Express add-in project template

The wizard directly supports C#, Visual Basic, C++ and RemObject Chrome, and generates complete Outlook Express solutions based on the extension project template delivered by Add-in Express.

Outlook Express add-in project settings

Outlook Express solution architecture - isolation and deployment

By default, all your Office solutions based on Add-in Express consist of two projects: the add-in project itself and its setup project that you can use to deploy your completed Outlook Express add-in.

Outlook Express add-in solution

The Add-in Express project template makes your plugins:

  • Secure and isolated - your solution is signed with a strong name and isolated into its own AppDomain by a special loader, ADX Loader, included in your Outlook Express solution.
  • Deployable and updatable - your solution contains a setup project based on the standard Visual Studio deployment solution.