To avoid AddIn going to disable mode, What should be done?

Question

Hi,

We have an outlook which goes to <g class="gr_ gr_32 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" data-gr-id="32" id="32">disabled</g> list. I am not able to find out the root cause yet. But, I don't believe that this <g class="gr_ gr_47 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" data-gr-id="47" id="47">addin</g> has any performance hazard. I want to keep my outlook <g class="gr_ gr_118 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" data-gr-id="118" id="118">addin</g> always enabled. While exploring the options, I came across that I need to update few registry entries for this as below. Is it a good practice to update registry for this? Does the update to registry crash my Addin if it's in use or outlook?

code snippet:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\AddinList]
"Woodruff.Claims.OutlookAddIn"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\Woodruff.Claims.OutlookAddIn]
"LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems]
"Woodruff.Claims.OutlookAddIn"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DoNotDisableAddinList]
"Woodruff.Claims.OutlookAddIn"=dword:00000001

Regards,

Praveen.V.Nair

Answer 1

Review the messages in the Application event log.  There will be entries from Outlook identifying the addin being disabled and the reason. 

Generally, addins are disabled due to errors during execution or because they fail to meet Outlook's performance criteria.

Answer 2

What about the registry script I shared and my question around it?

Answer 3

What about the registry script I shared and my question around it?

I suggest you find and correct the root cause why Outlook disables your addin.  You can use the Outlook UI to re-enable a disabled addin.    Outlook also provides UI to always enable an addin even if it does not meet the performance criteria.  I don't recommend editing the registry directly. 

Answer 4

Hi,

I understand that it's not a good practice. But, big problem is that I can't ask 100 odd users to manually enable the addin. That is the reason, I am thinking about script option which we could push to all the machine in off-hours.

Regards,

Praveen.V.Nair

Answer 5

I understand that it's not a good practice. But, big problem is that I can't ask 100 odd users to manually enable the addin. That is the reason, I am thinking about script option which we could push to all the machine in off-hours.

Assuming that the addin is being disabled for performance reasons and not due to execution errors you can use Outlook's UI to cause the addin to always be enabled.  I expect you can do this in your development environment.   Then you can inspect the registry to determine the keys/values that were added and/or changed and push that out as a temporary solution until the real problems are resolved. Unless this is done Outlook will just disable the addin again the next time that performance criteria are not met.

Answer 6

What about the registry script I shared and my question around it?

I suggest you find and correct the root cause why Outlook disables your addin.  You can use the Outlook UI to re-enable a disabled addin.    Outlook also provides UI to always enable an addin even if it does not meet the performance criteria.  I don't recommend editing the registry directly. 

Can you please answer my subsequent question?

Answer 7

What about the registry script I shared and my question around it?

Well, you should test your script.  As a general practice it would be better if you made registry changes when Outlook was not open.  I don't know how a running instance of Outlook will handle the registry changes made by your script.   I doubt that a running instance will reload and re-enable a previously disabled addin based on external registry changes but I have not tested this.

Answer 8

Hi All,

Further to my analysis, it's been identified that my AddIn boot time was high and changed outlook add-in behavior to load on demand. Also, made <g class="gr_ gr_242 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" data-gr-id="242" id="242">lot</g> of code optimization to avoid the disabling of Add-In and it's been hugely successful.

But, <g class="gr_ gr_307 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" data-gr-id="307" id="307">still</g> I am getting one or two users disabled out of my 200 ODD users. Further analysis into this, it's been identified that initial load of .net framework on Add-In start-up causing this issue. 

Delay Loading of CLR

I am not able to understand this article completely. If anyone can help to enable, delay loading of CLR, it would be of great help.

Regards,

Praveen.V.Nair

Answer 9

Delay Loading of CLR

I am not able to understand this article completely. If anyone can help to enable, delay loading of CLR, it would be of great help.

Well, if you post specific questions about the things you don't understand you are more likely to receive helpful responses.  I also suggest you start a new thread for greater visibility since this is actually a different topic.