Excel: How to uninstall a COM add-in built with VB .NET

[Howard Kaikow]

I am using Office 2003 and VB .NET 2003.

MSFT KB article 302896 includes a step by step example demonstrating how to
build a COM add-in using VB .NET.
The example works with Access, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word.

For Excel, the add-in works as advertised.
However, using the add-in's uninstall project does not uninstall the add-in
from Excel.
Note that VB .NET add-ins cannot be listed in the Office COM Add-ins menu.

How does one remove a VB .NET add-in from Excel?

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Suddenly, the problem has corrected itself, at least temporarily.
I made no code changes.
As we speak, I will do the following:

1. Install the COM add-in.
2. Run Excel.
3. Uninstall the COM Add-in.
4. Run Excel.

For the 2nd straight time, the COM item was uninstalled in Excel.
But problem returned for Outlook (see my other thread on Outlook).

It would appear that there are two possibilities:

1, Uninstall of COM does not always work correctly using the setup project
in a VB .NET solution.
2. There's a bug in the code supplied in the KB article, or the code
generated for the setup project is incorrect.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Hi Howard,

Let's me, myself and I continue this discussion.

I spoke to OUR partner, WE.
WE seems to believe that HE found the cause of the problem.

After using the uninstall project in the add-in's solution, WE located an
orphan key in the registry at:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\AddIns\VBNETMyCOMAddin.C
onnect]

WE deleted the key and since then, none of US has encountered the problem
described in YOUR posting in this thread.

It appears to US that a registry got corrupted for Excel.
Deleting the key seems to have fixed the problem.

And the likely related OUTLOOK problem has also gone away.

Howard, hope this was of some help.