COM-Addin Installation problems

Question

Hi All

I have created a COM add-in for Outlook 2010 and have created an install package using MSVS 2010 and when users try to install it most of the time it works.

However on a few occasions it doesn't and you end up with it showing in the Add/Remove programs and in the Options>Manage Com-Addins (but UNTICKED)

Ticking the box and restarting outlook does not help

Right click and Run as Administrator on the setup does not help

One of the (drastic) ways around it I have found is you add the current user to the Administrators group.

Install the add-in and then remove them from the admin group afterwards

So it seems like some sort of permissions issue ?

But why does the installer not throw an error saying I can't write this file or cant add x to the registry ?

As I have just ticked some boxes in MSVS to create the setup.exe installer it's all a bit of a black box to me

Any help much appreciated as this is being installed on many sites and I have no control over those networks or PC setups

Thanks

Answer 1

after installation where is does not work, please check if registry entries that were set in installer project are indeed added to registry.

Answer 2

Hi Damian

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Could you please tell me where I should be looking ?

The plug-in itself does not do anything with the registry in terms of 'my code'

Thanks again

Answer 3

i assumne you have installer project in your VS solution? Look at RegistryEditor in that project to see where it adds entries.

Answer 4

Hi MiniEggs2,

Thanks for posting in the MSDN Forum.

it most of the time it works.

I would recommend you show me some snippet for further research. In your scenario I assume that you lost some assembly on specific machine. Or have some confilct options in your add-in. a detailed snippet will help we on. If you have trouble to show snippet in the forum due to business issue. I would recommend you contact Microsoft's experts via phone for deep support.

Have a good day,

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 5

Hi Tom

Thanks for the reply.

Having done a bit of looking around the web I can see there are two types of install. ClickOnce and Full msi

We are using the click once and this seems to have some restrictions in so far that you can only install for the current user

So I suspect it is some sort of permissinsions issue

As I say We have worked around the problem a couple of time by temporarily adding that user to the Administrators group but this does seem a bit drastic.

So lets say it is a permissions problem. How should you use ClickOnce to install a plugin for a user that has limited access permissions ?

Thanks

Answer 6

Hi

I've just had feedback from the user to say these resitry entries do exist

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\xxxxxx]

"Description"="....."

"FriendlyName"="......"

"LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003

"Manifest"=...

But the button is still not visible

Answer 7

Hi MiniEggs2,

As usual, the add-in will work fine if the registry entry link what you said. I would recommend you do some trouble shooting via http://blogs.msdn.com/b/haahmadi/archive/2010/05/26/my-vsto-add-in-does-not-load.aspx. Please follow this blog's setp and provide me more information for further research.

Have a good day,

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 8

Hi Tom

Thanks for the feedback

Unfortuneatly when I click the link I get a server error ?

Cheers

Answer 9

Hi MiniEggs2,

Please recheck this hyperlink which I provide. I noticed that has error in a tag. It fixed now.

Have a good day,

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 10

Hi Tom

Thanks I can now se the page and those are the things i've been checking.

I've also been doing some more digging and the area of permissions and add-ins is very grey but I think i've found the crux of the trouble

ClickOnce and Add-ins do not need any more user priveldges to install

HOWEVER if the add-in relies on the .NET framework (ours and I suspect most do) then although you can make this part of the install this does need admin privledges to install

The problem is that ClickOnce does not give you any errors at the point it tries to install the .net tools

So either these have to be installed separately by the admin user or the current user has to be added to the admin group because click once is installing the add-in for them

Right clicking on the ClickOnce setup.exe and Run as Administrator does not appear to be enough

The biggest problem in all of this is there are never any error messages to say that it cannot install .net components

I can't believe we are the first to come across this but there does not seem to be much on the web about it

Thanks 

Answer 11

Hi MiniEggs2,

As far as I known that it will create log file in system. Would you please try to find them out?

Have a good day,

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 12

Hi MiniEggs2,

Any update?

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 13

Hi Tom

Not beyond my 3rd of May post in the sense that if the logon on as Admin, install the addin, logoff, logon as user, install button again it seems to work

I have send the details of the enironment variable but as yet have not heard back

I have to say the ClickOne install does seem a somewhat 'clunky' process

Thanks

Answer 14

Hi MiniEggs2,

OK, I will involve some experts into this issue to see whether they can help you out. There migth be some time delay, thanks for you patience.

Have a good day,

Tom

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Tom Xu [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 15

Hi,

What you post on May 3 hits the problem.  ClickOnce installation doesn't require admin privilege, but .NET Framework as prerequsite installation needs admin privilege.  I assume that you specify .NET Framework as prerequsite in publish the addin, after this you need to run the setup.exe to install the addin. This way the ClickOnce installation will check the prerequsite.

When a normal user install the VSTO addin, it will download .NET Framework and ask for admin privilege to install it.

best regards,

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Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager

Answer 16

Hi Forrest

Thanks for the prompt reply and confirmation

I do think this could be better handled by the ClickOnce install process

I dont have VS infront of me at the moment but yes I checked the box to say it was a prerequsite and I ALSO checked the box that includes the prerequsite files as part of the install

This is to make the install as smooth as possible

If you are the administrator then everything auto installs as all of the prerequsite files are to hand and the add-in works

However as the user even though the prerequsite files are there is can not install them due to lack of admin rights ... fair enoligh ... BUT there are NO error messages ... NO option to provide admin details etc etc

This install just 'appears' to work but no addin is displayed, all of the registry entries are there it's even shown in the list of COM add-ins (but without the box ticked) 

Not really a very satifactory install process outcome I hope you will agree.

Perhaps something could be improved for the next VS service pack etc

Answer 17

Hi,

You mentioned that as a user, you didn't get error message when install prerequsite .NET Framework. Would you let me know which OS are you on?  Is it possible that the .NET you want to install has been installed already?  I just try this scenario again, when the ClickOnce install prerequisite, and the prerequisite needs admin, I got authentication dialog to ask for admin account.

I totally agree that the ClickOnce should not skip the prerequisite, and it's not expected it complete installation process without error.

best regards,

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Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager

Answer 18

Hi Forrest

Just had a slightly different error with the install come back from a customer this morning

They maybe related ? ...

Answer 19

Hi,

Please make sure two conditions match:

1. If the addin targets .NET 4, NOT the Client profile, please make sure end user has full .NET Framework installed.
2. If the addin was developed on VS 2010 SP1, please make sure end user has VSTO 2010 SP1.

best regards,

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Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager

Answer 20

Hi Forrest

I've just had this feed back from the user

Cheers

I've
had a look back through the emails and she does not mention (that I can see)
that she was ever prompted to enter admin auth details ?

In
short I can’t remember exactly as I’ve not been in work for 10 days, win 7 I
think prompted for admin details if logged on as user, xp I don’t think it
prompted but failed because couldn’t install .net

She
obviously tells us of problems trying to install on some XP machines but the W7
and W7x64 she says she is installing as admin but still not seeing the button
... but then the next message suggests she can.

I
did the usual start from scratch and then I could, perhaps it was the config of
the machines?

Answer 21

Bump

Hi Forrest and Tom

This thread seem to have gone a bit quiet now ?

Have you been able to assertain if this is an XP only problem ?

Thanks

Answer 22

Hi,

I have been setting up Windows XP environment to verify this. ClickOnce installer setup.exe pops up credential dialog during install. So XP is not a problem.  I suggest you focus on one customer who run into the problem(clickonce installer skips .NET Framework without notification)

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Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager

Answer 23

In other words, I don't reproduce the problem. You may look into other areas.

best regards,

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Forrest Guo | MSDN Community Support | Feedback to manager