outlook addin goes straight to inactive application addins

Question

My Outlook addin MSI installs the addin (It is listed in Add\Remove programs) but sends it straight to inactive application addins.

How can I fix this?

Solution 1

Check the LoadBehavior key value for your plugin.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\%your add in%\LoadBehavior

If you see the registry hive for you add-in - it's most likely to be installed correctly. The LoadBehavior value should be 3 before you start Outlook. If it's not, set it to 3. If it goes to 2 when you start Outlook - it is definitely trying to run it, so it's good news in a way.

You will need to do some diagnostics there - try instantiating your add-in from vbs

set c = CreateObject("EnthusiasticDeveloper.OutlookAddIn")

This should give you no errors. If it doesn't and the object is instantiated - you need to put diagnostics in your add-in. It is being called by Outlook and your most likely to get enough control to instantiate log4net.

HTH

Solution 2

It seems the MS Outlook started evaluating the add-ins that directly affect product overall performance and set them as inactive. I found this article that indicates the windows registry entry for DisabledItems (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems). It is much likely to your add-in be listed on this folder. Backup the related entry before removing it.

See detailed information on this accessing: http://www.outlook-apps.com/inactive-outlook-add-ins/

Cheers, Vieira

Solution 3

This probably happens because the load behavior is not set correctly. This article can help you: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsto/ff937654.aspx#Create

Comments

[Shnerka Zoid]

I have followed this step-by-step to the letter and my load behavior is set to 3 as required. It still installs the addin to inactive.

[Bogdan Mitrache]

Is the addin working correctly if you place the file manually in a folder and also manually create the registry entries, without using a setup package?

[Shnerka Zoid]

I don't know how to do that. Do you know a good step by step I can follow?