Excel 2003, .Net 1.1, Office Addin not loading

[KeithM]

[3rd reposting as requested by support]
Hi
Have recently had to return to an office 2003 addin dll project. Basically
I have got it working fine, it loads up in Word and Powerpoint fine. But
try what I may I cannot get it to load in Excel.
I have the dll registered with COM ok (I presume as it works with Word and PP)
I have the registry setup in this place for all 3 apps:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\my-prog-id
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\my-prog-id
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Powerpoint\Addins\my-prog-id

beneath all those keys I have 3 values:
Description: "No Descriptin provided."
FriendlyName: "OfficeAddin"
LoadBehaviour: "Ox00000003"

I have created another "dummy" addin and that works fine with all 3 apps
dscussed.

Can anyone advise why my original is failing to load up or how to find out?

Thanks

 

[Colbert Zhou [MSFT]]

Hello Keith,

Let me redescribe the issue to make sure we understand it the same way.

1. You have an Office COM AddIn, and it's loaded in Word and PowerPoint,
but not Excel
2. Your AddIn exists in the Excel addin registry hive,
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins
3. The keys in Excel addin registry hive has the right value, LoadBehaviour
is 3
4. But the AddIn is not loaded.

This symptons described above usually indicates the AddIn is hard disabled
by Excel application. We can re-enable it from the disabled item list.

Here is the documentation,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268871(VS.80).aspx

-------------------------------------------------
Hard-Disabled Add-ins
Hard disabling occurs when user code that runs while the add-in is loaded
causes the application to close unexpectedly, and when you stop the
debugger while the constructor or the Startup event handler is executing.

To re-enable an add-in that has been hard disabled by a Microsoft Office
2003 application
On the Help menu, click About Microsoft Office <ApplicationName>.

Click Disabled Items.

Add-ins created with Visual Studio Tools for Office appear in the list of
disabled items as "Addin:<add-in name>AddinLoader.dll"

Select the add-in and click Enable.

-------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps!


Best regards,
Ji Zhou - MSFT
Microsoft Online Community Support

 

[KeithM]

Thankyou for your reply Ji Zhou.

I have checked the disabled items as you suggest in Excel 2003.
The disabled items dialog inder the "Help, About" reports:
"There are no disabled items"

I followed your link and after that also tried to check "soft disabled
add-ins".
This directed me to Tools-Options and the "Other" tab and Advanced options.
However I do not have an "Other" tab under Tools-Options.

My problem remains.

Regards

 

[Colbert Zhou [MSFT]]

Hello Keith,

The issue is very strange. Actually, from all of the information you share
above, I think the addin should work. If you install the problematical
addin onto another machine, does the Excel on another machine load it? We
first need to isolate the problem to be addin specific or machine specific.

And to give better help on this, we'd better see the reproduce project in
my side. So, would you mind sharing the problematical addin's msi setup? I
will find a Excel 2003 machine and test and investigate locally!

Best regards,
Ji Zhou - MSFT
Microsoft Online Community Support

 

[KeithM]

Thankyou for your reply Ji Zhou.

Unfortunately I cannot give the msi as in its distributed state it is a
merge module (msm) inside a much larger install package which my company
would not want distributed as it involves classifed material.

I have created a new msi installer package and added the Addin in to this
in order to try the installation on another machine. This I can now install
but the addin does not run in word or excel on the other machine!(powerpoint
not installed on spare machine).

I think I need to get this newer install working so that I can try it on
different machines before proceeding. Although I am again at a loss as to
why its is failing.