Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III) | MS Office Security Watch

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:09:18 GMT

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Conference Follow-Up Post

OBA Ramblings — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:06:56 GMT

Over the past few weeks, I've attended and presented at a number of conferences (specifically VSLive,

Correction!

See what I see. — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:18:29 GMT

I got ahead of myself and thought it was one week later than it really is (sort of good because I was

VSTO 3.0 Add-Ins für alle User installieren

Open XML, VSTO, Deployment, .NET und anderes — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:20:15 GMT

Das Office 2007 Security Modell erlaubt es nicht, unter HKLM registrierte Managed Add-Ins zu verwenden.

Deploying VSTO 3 solutions

Andrew Coates ::: MSFT — Fri, 16 May 2008 05:04:19 GMT

While the default mechanism for deploying VSTO v3 Add-Ins is ClickOnce, there there's now also a documented

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

dwarfnebula — Wed, 21 May 2008 01:33:54 GMT

Misha,

Thanks for this fantastic post. I have it *almost* working with a custom Word Add-In (done in VSTO 3.0), except for one weird problem. In the registry entry for the add-in under the HKCU hive, I set the value for the 'Manifest' entry to the '####.vsto|vstolocal' setting. But as soon as I compile the installer, it changes the setting to the .dll.manifest file. I can't seem to get around it. Once I install it, if I change it back directly in the registry, everything works fine. But I can't figure out how to get the build operation to leave that setting alone? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Gary

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

dwarfnebula — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:07:29 GMT

Misha,

Okay, I figured it out, but I'm not sure why this fixed it. I was just comparing my settings to those of the VSTO 3.0 installer samples, and noticed something strange about how they named their add-in key. What I had to do was change the name of the AddIn under the AddIns key.

The original key was: AddIns\BCG.Office.Greenhouse.WordAddIn

* This did not work (it is the same name as that of my add-in assembly)

I changed it to: AddIns\BCG Systems.BCG.Office.Greenhouse.WordAddIn

* The compiler then left this setting alone, and everything seems to work fine.

Really strange, but hopefully this will help someone else having this sort of issue.

Any insight to this behavior would be great.

Thanks again for this post, it's just what I needed,

Gary

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:30:01 GMT

Hi Gary,

The solution you have found is absolutely correct :).

Some insights on why this is happening. This strange behavior is something that is left from previous versions of VSTO aka VSTO2005SE which did maintain setup projects - it is a bug and will be fixed by a service pack. The behavior there was that upon project recompilation we woud scan the current solution for any deployment projects, look for the registry key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\<Application>\AddIns\<ProjectName> and update the registry values with the most up to date settings.

Obviously, if you went and renamed the reg key to something different from .....\<ProjectName> - our scanning code would not be able to make the connection and leave this registry key alone.

Now, if you are trying to get All-Users deployment working you might still have some work to do . Part of this article teslls to move all HKCU registry keys under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\ User Settings\MyCompany.MyAddIn\Create hive. Once the reg keys are there - you should not be hitting this bug.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

dwarfnebula — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:32:29 GMT

Misha,

Thanks for the quick response. I followed your article, and migrated the key for security to the HKLM hive, and I get the all users deployment with no problem. The install works so far on both XP, Server 2003, and Vista! Vista was the main reason I wanted to go to VSTO 3.0 to get around that whole CASPOL nightmare. This is the ideal solution!

Thanks again,

Gary

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

asurachman — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:10:06 GMT

Hi Mishaa,

Thank you for your articles. My Addins has been successfully deployed. And also I have noticed that the application creates new record in GAC\download each time it is loaded. The new one doesn't suppress the previous one.

Please your suggestion how we can handle this.

Regards,

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:27:41 GMT

Hello asurachman,

Sorry, but I do not understand what you mean by "application creates new record in GAC\download" and why this is a problem.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

cyberbyber — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:59:57 GMT

Hi Misha, I am working on a VSTO2005SE based Word 2003 add-in. I developed it in VS2008. During development and testing everything was fine on my machine. I followed all the articles on deployment of application wide add-ins using deployment packages and have developed a deployment pack from the template generated by VS, that deploys the assembly for use by all users(by registering under the HKLM hive) and sets proper security settings in CAS, by granting full access to the strong name of the assembly.

But when I test it on a separate user station, even though the setup runs just fine, i do not see the menus that the add-in creates. In addition the LoadBehavior value in the registry switches from 3 to 2 after word opens, which according to the documentation is due to a failure upon loading the add-in. I examined the fusion logs, but there was not a single attempt of even trying to load the add-in assembly. I do not get any error messages in Word either. I even went a step further and extracted the necessery Office 2003 PIAs from the GAC and substituted the references that VS had created for me with them, just to be on the safe side on referencing the very same assemblies. VSTO as well as PIA were of course installed on the testing station prior to installing the add-in.

For me it seems that I have no means to find out what exaclty the cause of this failure might be and would be very thankful if you could come with some tips.

Both the development and testing environments are XP SP2 with Office 2003 Pro with Norwegian locale.

Thanks in advance!

Svetoslav

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:37:18 GMT

Svetoslav, can you contact me offlne using the email link at top of this page?

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Nas — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:25:14 GMT

My Addin for Outlook 2003 works great on XP machines but not on Terminal server. I am creating registry key under HKLM hives and on XP machines Loadbehavior values remains 3 but on Terminal server it is 2 after addin deployment. If I change it to 3, my Addin works but as soon as another outlook session starts on terminal server, loadbehavior switches to 2 and addin doesn't work at all.

I dont't have much knowldge about Addin deployment on terminal server. I think it is not code security issue as I have given FullTrust to addin. Should I create registry entry under HKLM or HKCU? If HKCU then how I can create registry for all users?

Many thanks

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:15:33 GMT

Hi Nas,

I am not sure how Terminal Servers come into play. It is possible thought that the add-in throws exceptions on startup - you can use VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS setting to enfore failure logging or just attach a debugger under the failure scenario.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Nas — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:06:14 GMT

Hi Misha,

Many thanks for your response. I forgot to mention that my Addin is a shared IDTExtensibility2 based and not a VSTO one. I don't think so I can be able to use VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS but do you know any other method or tool to trace Addin load failure.

Many thanks

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:22:12 GMT

Debuggers work pretty well to trace failures :)

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Nas — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:41:45 GMT

Hi Misha,

I found following article very helpful regarding COM Addin deployment for Office 2003 applications.

http://blogs.msdn.com/vsod/archive/2008/04/22/Troubleshootin g-com-add-in-load-failures.aspx

Thanks anyway for your prompt response.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Andy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:01:57 GMT

Hi Misha,

Thank you for useful post.

But what about deploying Add-In to one standard user?

We have some Outlook Add-in and an installer for its deployment.

The installer works fine on XP and on Vista when I install it under an Administrator user account.

But, when I install it for a user without administrator privileges, it doesn't work.

If User Account Control (UAC) is off we have an error.

The error occurred at registration step.

Vista says: 'The module "MyAdd.dll" was loaded but the call to DllRegistredServer failed with error code 0x80004005'.

Running the installer via "Run as Administrator" (form the context menu) gives the same error.

If UAC is on, the "An unidentified program wants access to your computer" window appears.

We must type UserName and Password for some administrator.

As a result Add-In will be installed for this admin!!! Not for the target user!!!

Is it possible to make Add-In deployment for a user without administrator privileges?

Please, help!

Andy Blanch

P.S. NSI-installer is used for deployment.

The "RequestExecutionLevel highest" command in nsi-script has no effect.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Josh S. — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:08:11 GMT

I created an Outlook 2007 add in in VS 2005 for allUsers following all the steps you have described in previous articles. It worked great.

Suddenly, the organization that I work for has rolled out a new image of Windows XP with I don't know what Office SP 2007, and the add in is no longer active.

I checked the registry and the registry keys were properly copied & the runtime security parameters appear to be correct.

What would have changed that might have caused my add in to suddenly become inactive for allUsers.

Thanks

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:53:00 GMT

Josh,

I am sorry but nothing rings a bell. If you wish you can contact me offline and we could try to troubleshoot it over email.

VSTO v3 Deployment Session

Andrew Coates ::: MSFT — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:54:24 GMT

I had a great time over the last couple of days hanging out with Christen Boyd and some of the other

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Jon H. — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:06:15 GMT

Thanks for a very useful series of articles. I have what is probably a very simple problem, I'm no doubt over looking something.

I'm using VSTO3 with VS2008 and have created my own setup project. After much reading I have my setup project with a custom action as described above calling the appropriate routines; I've added all the right project output into the setup project and manually included the .vsto and .manefest files which seem to be omitted as part of 'project output'. The installer runs fine, copies the files, generates the 'create' registry key and the subsequent HKCU key appears as expected. When I run Outlook, however, the addin doesn't appear. If I double-click the .vsto and hit 'install' it works perfectly.

Could you tell me what double-clicking the vsto is doing that my installer isn't?

Many thanks for any assistance.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Jon H. — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:42:11 GMT

A bit more info, I've double checked and cleared out the old inclusion entries from development. It looks doesn't like the count value is being created in the addin 'create' key, however when I add this manually (and make sure the keys are being 'copied' to HKCU) Outlook still doesn't start up with my addin so my original question remains.

Many thanks.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Abhinav — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:30:21 GMT

Hi Misha,

I created a ribbon in Excel using VSTO 2008. My ribbon contains a button, on which I have provided screen tip & super tip as well as keyboard shortcut, after deploying it to excel; I am getting an extra tag in screen tip pop-up asking user to “Press F1 for more help”. While pressing F1 key it is opening MS online help; is it possible to customize this shortcut, I want a *.chm file to be opened which provide context help with perspective of my project.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Vitor Navarro — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:45:43 GMT

Hi Misha,

This is not related to the deploy to all but its related to vsto deployment.

It is possible to deploy an VSTO application without using a setup, .msi or any exe files, just by copying files or anything like it?

thx a lot.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Taryon — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:13:44 GMT

Hi Misha!

I used your articles (specially the Part III) and the http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc563937.aspx, parts 1 and 2.

My addin is for the outlook 2007 and it will be installed for just one user. This is a regular user and the installation needs to be done by the administrator.

Ok. In the registry view of my setup project, I create the keys for the HKCU with FriendlyName, LoadBehavior and Manifest, as you suggest and for the HKLM all the keys for the Inclusion.

When I install the addin in the target machine, The first one is created but the Inclusion isnt. If I create the Inclusion by manual, when i execute the outlook it asks me to install the addin, but it doesnt.

Could you help me?

Oh. If I install the Visual studio in this machine and compile the addin in it, it works fine.

thx in advance

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Taryon — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:43:27 GMT

Hey, one more detail. The installation is not registering the formregions.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:06:41 GMT

Taryon,

I asked Kris Makey to look into your question and hre are some tips from Kris him:

This statement is a big clue to his problem:

Ok. In the registry view of my setup project, I create the keys for the HKCU with FriendlyName, LoadBehavior and Manifest, as you suggest and for the HKLM all the keys for the Inclusion.

Inclusion list only exists in the HKCU, if he's using the replication functionality he needs to check the "end result" on the user's machine, ignoring the add-in keys all-together.

He might actually have better luck copying the certificate into the trusted publisher's store and the root certificate authority store. He should discuss with the "administrator" this option though since putting "arbitrary" certificates is not recommended.

If he still needs help after investigating that he should try the following things:

Is he including the |vstolocal flag after the .vsto file in the manifest path?

Is the .vsto file on an internet site for the user and did he sign with the temporary certificate (user needs to add the hosting website to trusted web sites list in internet options. Or he needs to get a "valid" certificate. If he's using vstolocal this may not work anyway, but I'm not 100% certain about that).

Has he tried setting VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS = 0 so he'll get error messages, these may help him far more to debug the issue.

Is he installing to Windows XP or Server 2003 -> Are the PIA's installed?

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Taryon — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:21:41 GMT

Hi Misha!

Thx for your attention.

1. I will try it with certificates. How I am the "admin" and the addin will be used in the internal network, I will use my own certificate because I do not need to be certified to my users, ok?

2. the replication funcionality is working ok.

3. yes, I am including the vstolocal flag

4. The PIA's are installed. 2007 in XP SP3 and Vista Clients

The workaround:

1. I install the vs2008 + SP1 + VSTO for the client into my profile then, compile and execute the addin one time.

2. after that, I create a directory in <drive>:\Program files\Microsoft\<addin> with the bin\debug stuff

3. Create the keys in registry for this

4. Working ok for the profile

5. After any change, I need to update the addin directory into the program files.

After that, I uninstall the vs2008

its ugly but works ok!

thx again for your cooperation!

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Taryon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:42:33 GMT

Hi Misha!

Using the VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS=0 I got this:

************** Exception Text **************

System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException: Unable to load one or more of the requested types. Retrieve the LoaderExceptions property for more information.

at System.Reflection.Module._GetTypesInternal(StackCrawlMark& stackMark)

at System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes()

at Microsoft.Office.Tools.AddIn.CreateRibbonObjects()

at Microsoft.Office.Tools.AddIn.GetRibbonObjects()

at Microsoft.Office.Tools.AddIn.CreateRibbonExtensibilityObject()

at Microsoft.Office.Tools.AddIn.get_RibbonExtensibility()

at Microsoft.Office.Tools.AddIn.Initialize()

at oSistema.ThisAddIn.Initialize()

at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.EntryPointComponentBase.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.IEntryPoint.Initialize(IServiceProvider hostContext)

at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.AddInAdapter.ExecutePhase(ExecutionPhases executionPhases)

at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Internal.OfficeAddInAdapter.InitializeEntryPointsHelper()

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Edward — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:52:46 GMT

Hi Misha,

Currently, I am working on a VSTO based Word 2003 Addins developed by using VS2005. The addins consists of 2 buttons on a Toolbar. One button to show a Form, and the other one to publish/upload the Word document to a remote directory. During development the addins works fine. Then I created a setup project for the add-ins. I installed it on several machine in my office and it works just fine. Well, the publish button works on Word 2003 runs on Windows XP, but not on Vista. But that's just a small problem I guess.

When I tried to install it on a Terminal Server, the toolbar did not show up. There was nothing wrong with the installation process. I made sure that the prerequisites are already installed (such as the Office PIA and VSTO Runtime). I even tried to install it locally from the terminal server but still no luck.

It seems our Word 2003 addins doesn't work under Vista and Terminal Server. Do you have any advice or sources of information about this?

I would be very thankful if you could help. Thanks in advance.

Edward

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:19:32 GMT

Edward,

I am not sure what the issue is. Please contact me offline (use the email link at the top of this page) and we will see what can be done.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Kapil — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:45:21 GMT

Hi Misha,

I have an Outlook2007 add-in which is registered in HKCU(as expected)but this creates a problem as the Non Admin users can also disable the Add-in. Is there any way, I can restrict the non admin users from disabling the add-in?

-Thanks,

Kapil

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:53:54 GMT

Kapil,

I can not think of any way to restrict non-admin users from disabling their add-ins.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

BZ — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:07:57 GMT

Hi Misha,

I am creating VSTO add-in under Excel 2003 and 2007 versions. I want the setup/deployment steps to be command line scripts so it'll be easier to integrate into another product setup. But I could not find a complete list of commands for Excel 2007 VSTO add-in deployment.

What does the ClickOnce application do specifically on file, registry, security, etc? Is this process scriptable? Thank you for your help!

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Swissguy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:55:30 GMT

Hi Misha

Thx man - ur tutorials (part I-III) helped me a lot. I really was in a mess, before I found them ;)

Keep on the good work!

Greets from Switzerland

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Dag Arve — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:44:09 GMT

Hi Misha, thanks for your very useful articles regarding VSTO deployment. I still experience problems using the technique, and have struggled for a time now trying to resolve the problem.

I have this Visual Studio 2008 Solution, containing 3 projects:

1. WordAddIn

2. ExcelAddIn

3. SetSecurity

The two first are VSTO add-ins (Office 2007 add-ins) which in turn are depending on several additional components (which are compiled and built in a separate solution) doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes, and which are referenced under each project. The third project contains code to add the add-ins to the inclusion list and cope with the registry counter incrementation (most of the code copied and modified from the articles mentioned later).

The solution works perfectly fine before deploying it (running directly from Visual Studio 2008), both the Word add-in and the Excel add-in are correctly loaded and works as expected.

The challenge is to be able to deploy the solution using an .msi file. To do this, I have added a setup project named AddInSetup, following the guidelines given in both Misha Sneersons three articles Deploying your VSTO Add-In to All Users (Part I - III) as well as Deploying a Visual Studio Tools for the Office System 3.0 Solution for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Using Windows Installer (part 1 and 2) by Wouter van Vugt, Code Counsel and Ted Pattison, Ted Pattison Group.

What happens when I run the Install command from VS (or the generated setup.exe file) is that the installation seems to complete correctly; no error messages are shown, the registry is updated in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive, setting the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\User Settings\MyCompany.MyAddIn\Create\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\MyCompany.MyAddIn” registry path correctly, as well as the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\User Settings\MyCompany.MyAddIn\Create\Software\Microsoft\VSTO\Security\Inclusion\2cbfd73c-c011-4248-b6b0-641db5da43fc”inclusion list entry. At this point, the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive has not yet been modified, which is also correct.

When I start Word (or Excel) the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive gets updated; the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\WordAddin” key (and the corresponding for the ExcelAddin) has correctly been copied from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive. The Manifest entry has the value “C:\Addovation\Code\OfficeAutomation\Addo.OfficeAddIn\OfficeAddIn\CommonRelease\AddoWordAddIn.vsto|vstolocal”. The “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\User Settings\<company>.WordAddin” Counter key (and the corresponding for the ExcelAddin) is created / incremented correctly. The only thing that does not happen is: the add-ins never gets loaded.

What seems odd is that when I check for installed programs under “Add or remove programs” (Control Panel), I can see that an application called AddinSetup has been installed. However, the WordAddIn (and ExcelAddIn) component is not installed. If I subsequent run the WordAddIn.vsto file (from the installation location where it correctly is placed), the addin correctly installs (no error messages whatsoever) and when I start Word, it loads and everything works correctly. When I then check for installed programs again, the WordAddIn has been installed, so now both the AddinSetup and WordAddIn exist in the list of installed programs.

Could somebody please give a clue on what is done wrong?

Regards

Dag Arve

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Farzad — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:31:45 GMT

Hi Misha,

I have some problems for VSTO 3.0 .

Is it possible give us a link to download your solution?

It will be great helps.

Thanks,

Farzad

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Bryan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:02:32 GMT

Hi there Misha,

This series of posts has been invaluable for me getting my AddIn deployed, thanks for taking the time to post it.

I've come across an interesting quirk however, I have a user log on to thier account and the registry keys are created as normal and everything works awesomely. When the user logs into a machine without the AddIn installed the loadBehavior is set to 2 as its not present. When the user subsequently logs into a machine with the AddIn installed it no longer loads. Short of changing that registry value everytime the user logs in I'm at a bit of a loss to work this one out.

Again Thanks for the info :)

Cheers,

Bryan

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:50:58 GMT

Bryan,

Sounds like this particular user has roaming HKCU registry... I never heard about this being possible thinking that HKCU is always bound to one single machine. I am curious what are you using to do this?

Anyway, once add-in is disabled it can only be enabled manually (either through the regkey to by using Office's COM Add-Ins dialog).

One option to consider is to write a simple logon script (i.e. the program registered at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) that would restore the value of registry key.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Dan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:58:35 GMT

I have used the code presented here(all parts) but i have a small problem.

At uninstall the InstallState of the custom action to install to all users project is not removed.

What could be the problem?

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

sandeep yadav — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:45:50 GMT

Hi Misha,

Article is really very useful. Just need a little guidance on following area.

My add-in project has Form Region of adjoining type created in vs 2008. (Its not desgined by Outlook 2007) .. Form region appears in development environment but does not appear when i prepare i Installer kit and install it for AllUsers mode. Any help /guidance on thsi will be really great !!

Thanks!!

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Roy — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:56:05 GMT

Hello Misha,

Can i edit the registries of the target machine with VS 2008. As you explained in your post that there will be a setup file created in VS 2005. But we cant find the setup file in VS 2008, so we cant actually right click and say" edit target registry". Like can we Deploy our Outlook Addins to multiple clients with Click once deployment using VS 2008.

Please do answer immedietly. Thanks in Advance

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:44:00 GMT

I just added a little "Update" to the blog with the location of a tutorial showing how to add the setup project.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Roy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:52:57 GMT

Hello Misha,

I ve gone through the update...But i still have a problem.Can i add the registries into the target machine programmatically with ClickOnce deployment?? Just confirm me whether we can deploy MS Outlook Add In's with CLickOnce to multiple users??

When i try to publish with clickonce on a network share, and try to access the setup on a client machine , it is throwing an error saying some exception and it cant install.?? Is there any solution for this or i need to go for another alternative deployment technique?? I require Auto update option....

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:54:21 GMT

Roy,

ClickOnce deployment is only suitable for per-user installation and you do not have the flexibility of adding your own registry keys.

You must create an MSI package (like described in this article) if you pursue a model where the add-in deployed once by the administrator is automatically available to all users on the machine.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Roy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:34:38 GMT

HI Misha,

Thanks Alot for the response. I deployed an outlook Addin and published it on my local drive D. Now i shared the drive and tried to click on setup from another machine by accessing the share path. But iam thrown wth the following error:

"Customized functionality in this application will not work because the certificate used to sign the deployment manifest for ClickOnce is not trusted. Contact your administrator for further assistance."

Why is this not possible??

Thanks in advance

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:40:28 GMT

Roy, due to my limited capacity I strongly encourage you to use search engines to find answers.

Below reference came up first in google when searching for VSTO and the keywords from the error message:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb772087.aspx

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Roy — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:49:10 GMT

Thanks a ton for your support Misha....

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Alex — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:24:23 GMT

Hi there,

too bad for me I found this link after hours of eperimenting with a setup porject. But anyway, it helped me to figure out the last step :-) so thanks a lot for this guide on this topic.

One question is hanging around in my case though. The whole solution works when after installation I start for example Excel. But I was working on a an add-in for MS Project. And it seems it does not scan the registry to disribute the required keys from HKLM. I was just wondering if this is only my case or thi is a feature of MS Project no being an inborn office product (i quess). Or did I missed something ?

Thanks for any answers.

re: Deploying your VSTO 2008 Add-In to All Users (Part III)

Misha Shneerson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:04:42 GMT

To Alex,

Indeed, I believe the only app that does not do the registry propagation is MSProject. This is unfortunate ... It was noted before by other commenters as well.