Custom Access Add-ins do not seem to work for multiple users

[Nando]

Hi all!! I'm creating a very simple Access add-in. I have created the MDA
file. I installed the add-in browsing through the Access->Tools->Add-In
Manager. After installing the add-in everything works great. However, when I
switched to use another user profile in my computer (WindowsXP: Start->Log
Off), I could not use the add-in. The menu link is there, but when clicking
on it says "Microsoft Access can't find the wizard, or the wizard has not
been installed, or there is a syntax error....."

This happened under Access XP. I have researched and discovered that the
"Library" key under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Access\Menu Add-Ins"
points to the MDA path where the add-in was originally installed. Actually
Access seemed to have it copied onto my user profile path. I see the path
as:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Nando\Application
Data\Microsoft\AddIns\MyAddIn.MDA" That explains why I'm getting an error
when trying to call the add-in from another user profile (Cindy instead of
Nando).

I tried to work around this unreasonable Access behavior with different
tricks:
1. One was to manually create the add-in's registry keys myself, but under
the HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of the Access default's HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
However, Access always ignored this.
2. The second thing I tried was to edit the "Library" key and change it from
"C:\Documents and Settings\Nando\Application
Data\Microsoft\AddIns\MyAddIn.MDA" to "%USERPROFILE%\Application
Data\Microsoft\AddIns\MyAddIn.MDA" but this didn't work either as Access
does not perform the translation of the environmental variable.

I give up! So Access add-ins do not work on multi-user environments? That's
a shame! Unless I'm doing something wrong (and I hope I am). I'm using
Access XP under Windows XP SP2.

Any replies will be appreciated. Thanks!

-Nando

 

[Alex Dybenko (MVP)]

Hi,
perhaps USysReginfo table is missing in your addin, have a look here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/201735/en-us

 

[Nando]

Hi Alex, Nope... I have done everything as instructed. My add-in has a valid
USysReg table. I'm just looking for an explanation for this faulty add-in
architecture, since it seems it has missed the multi-user element. I have
noticed that when you use the Add-In Manager, Access automatically copies
the MDA file from its original location to the user's add-in directory
(C:\Documents and Settings\Nando\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns\) and
creates a global registry key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

This is a bad design, because the addin will show for ALL the users on the
machine, but the MDA file will be referenced from the user's add-in
directory who originally installed the add-in. Not good, because most likely
users won't have access rights to other's add-in directories or any other
directory under other user's profile. Even worst, other users won't be able
to install/deinstall the add-in from the Add-in Manager (because it seems it
only lists the add-ins at the users's directory).

Another thing is that for simultaneous users/logons I found that XP limited
accounts won't be able to run the add-in if this is being used by another
user sessions on the same machine (you know, the XP log off-switch user
screen).