Outlook Add-in only loading on my development machine

[Guest]

Hello,

I'm currently developing an Outlook Add-in with Visual C# 2005 Express. It
loads and run on my development machine but it does not on any other machine,
and Outlook changes LoadBehavior property on my registry from 3 to 2.
I've coded an Add-in from scratch (on another machine) , an empty Outlook
Add-in that shows a popup box on OnConnect method, but it also loads and run
on the development machine.
Basically, I think that the problem is that any Add-in only runs on the
development machine.

Has anyone the same problem?
Any suggestions?

Regards,

Bernat.

 

[Guest]

Oh, I installed the following in the client machine and development machine.

* Windows XP
* Microsoft Office 2003
* MS PIA
* lockbackRegKey.msi
* extensibilityMSM.msi

And yes, I've written all the registry entries needed for the Add-in to work
and on the development machine I'm installing the Add-in using NSIS
installing software, i mean that i'm not running it through the debugger.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Did you make sure to deploy any other dependencies you might be using? The
most common missing one on a machine that doesn't have VS installed is
stdole.dll.

 

[Guest]

I've deployed all dependencies on my client machine, including stdole.dll but
the add-in doesn't load.
When I open Outlook on my client machine, the Add-in doesn't execute the
OnConnection method and changes the LoadBehavior from 3 to 2 on the registry.
Every time I change the LoadBehavior to 3 and then execute Outlook, it
changes the property to 2.
I'm not using VSTO, instead, I've written the Add-in from scratch,
implementing Extensibility.IDTExtensibility2 and writing all registry keys
needed for the add-in to work.
Today i've been developing a simple/dummy outlook addin on the client
machine, the add-in shows a popup box when outlook starts, and it works! but
it works only on the developing machine. If I put this simple/dummy addin on
my original machine, it doesn't load nor run.
No matter the complexity of the add-in, for me, an outlook add-in only runs

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm wondering if that's due to using VS Express rather than the full-blown
version. I recall something about limitations of VS Express. According to
the feature comparisons at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa700921.aspx addins aren't
supported by VS Express, so that might be the problem.

FWIW, I've never had any problems deploying extensibility addins for Outlook
as long as the requirements were installed on the target computer. It's not
like with VSTO, which can make deployment a real chore.

If OnConnection isn't being fired it's one of 2 things:
missing prerequisites or requirements or limitations in the Express
package.

 

[Helmut Obertanner]

Hello,

as I know you should create a COM Shim for a .Net Extensibility AddIn.
Thats a native COM wrapper for your .Net AddIn.

See
http://blogs.msdn.com/mshneer/archive/2006/06/09/com-shim-wizard-for-visual-studio-2005.aspx
Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...DB-84DD-4C62-B3BD-E79194D83494&displaylang=en

Also make sure that on the Target machine there is no other .Net Addin wich
maybe causes problems by referencing another framework version (1.1)

Hope this helps,
greets, Helmut

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Hi Helmut

Although if there are no other addins or none creating a problem the addin
should load and run with no problems even without a shim.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Could someone please point me to a website where all the pre-requisite for
IDTExtensibility2 are listed?

I have two versions of the same Outlook Add-In.
One created using VS2003 (.Net 1.0) and the other with VS2005 (.Net 2.0).
Both using IDTExtensibility2 and are to be run Outlook 2003 SP2.

I'm experiencing some very strange unexpected behaviours.

VS2003 Add-In - When installed on a machine, some users can use it while
others cant (ie. problem is user dependant)

VS2005 Add-In - Works on development machine but not others (ie. machine
dependant).

I've already spent 2 days tracing this but have not success so far.

Any help are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
An Chi

 

[Guest]

For those interested, I've solved the problem with "VS2005 Add-In only
running on the developement machine" (but not the VS2003 issue).


To solve this problem I've had to:

1) Download hotfix 870924 (vs2005-kb908002-enu-x86.exe) from
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/908002

2) Install hotfix on the development machine

3) Include as a pre-requisite in [AddIn]Setup project as explained in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/908002

4) Rebuild [AddIn]Setup project

5) Copy the [addin]Setup.msi as well as a KB908002 folder (auto-generated by
the [AddIn]Setup project) to destination machine

6) Run [addin]Setup.msi as well as the extensibilityMSM.msi and
lockbackRegKey.msi from KB908002 folder on destination machine


HTH
An Chi

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

How is the Outlook 2003 addin installed, per user in HKCU or for the machine
in HKLM? If it's per user then each user needs an entry for the addin in
their HKCU hive.

 

[Guest]

Hi Ken,

The Outlook Add-In is installed for the machine in HKLM.
Besdies the registry, are there any other security settings I need to look
into?
I've checked the Outlook Security, which is set to High as the company
default. Thus cannot explain the problem with VS2003 Add-In.

Thanks
An Chi

How is the Outlook 2003 addin installed, per user in HKCU or for the machine
in HKLM? If it's per user then each user needs an entry for the addin in
their HKCU hive.

For those interested, I've solved the problem with "VS2005 Add-In only
running on the developement machine" (but not the VS2003 issue).


To solve this problem I've had to:

1) Download hotfix 870924 (vs2005-kb908002-enu-x86.exe) from
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/908002

2) Install hotfix on the development machine

3) Include as a pre-requisite in [AddIn]Setup project as explained in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/908002

4) Rebuild [AddIn]Setup project

5) Copy the [addin]Setup.msi as well as a KB908002 folder (auto-generated
by
the [AddIn]Setup project) to destination machine

6) Run [addin]Setup.msi as well as the extensibilityMSM.msi and
lockbackRegKey.msi from KB908002 folder on destination machine


HTH
An Chi

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Is it possible that the addin problems are on Vista machines, possibly where
UAC has been turned off?

Any difference if you change the registration from HKLM to HKCU?

For the VS2003 code are you using any Framework 1.1 methods that are
deprecated in Framework 2.0 in case those machines are starting Framework
2.0 and your code ends up using that version? Have you tested that code
running on a machine where Framework 2.0 is being used?