If you’ve got an extension that keeps disabling itself every time you close Word/Excel/Outlook etc then here’s something you could give a try:
Firstly, verify that the extension is actually disabled from the start by going to:
File -> Options -> Add-In’s and then click on the “Go” button next to “COM Add-In’s”
From there you’ll get a huge list of all the add-ins you have enabled/available on your system. Highlight the one you’re having trouble with and take a peek at the “Start-up Behaviour” as shown below:
The above is how it should look. But this isn’t how it looks for you – so we’ll need to do a bit of messing around in the registry. Before we do that though, you will need 3 bits on information:
- Is your version of Office Click-To-Run or not?
- Is your version of Office 64bit or 32bit?
- Is your version of Windows 32bit or 64bit?
So let’s start with number 1:
Click “File” at the top and click “Account/Office Account”
In there you will see something that looks like this:
If your version says “Click-to-Run” at the end then guess what? If the version simply ends with the build number then you have the regular/non-click-to-run version. I could explain this but it’s really not important and you’re only here for answers and not a lot of unnecessary filler.
Onto Number 2:
You will also need to know if your version is 32-bit or 64-bit which you can get by clicking the “About Outlook” button shown above. This will show you a window with the following information:
and finally, number 3:
Hold the Windows Key and press R this will bring up the Run window. In there type “MSINFO32” and hit return. this will return a big window full of information about your system. The bit of information we’re interested in however looks like this:
So now that you have those 3 bits of information together we need to go to the registry:
Open the Registry Editor by holding the Windows Key and pressing R this will open the run dialogue and from there type in “regedit” and smash the return key; this will open the registry editor. (Note: Be careful in here)
Now, this is where things could get a tad confusing but stay with me; here is a handy table telling you where you need to go based on the information you have just gathered:
| Windows Version | Office Version | Click-To-Run? | Registry Location (Below) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32-Bit | 32-Bit | Yes | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Registry\Machine\Software\Microsoft\Office\ |
| 32-Bit | 32-Bit | No | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ |
| 64-Bit | 32-Bit | Yes | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Registry\Machine\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\ |
| 64-Bit | 32-Bit | No | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\ |
| 64-Bit | 64-Bit | Yes | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Registry\Machine\Software\Microsoft\Office\ |
| 64-Bit | 64-Bit | No | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ |
Once in here simply go a bit deeper by clicking into the application you are having a problem with so if you’re having issues with an Excel add-in – expand the Excel folder.
Then open the “Addins” folder and this should show the add-in’s you have available, including the one that won’t load for you.
From here you should have an entry called “LoadBehavior” – double-click on it and you’ll see this window:
Change the “1” to a “3” and hit OK.
Close the Registry Editor and re-load the application. Your add-in will now (hopefully) load as normal from the start.
If you want more information on what the LoadBehavior numbers mean then you can go here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/vsto/registry-entries-for-vsto-add-ins?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=vs-2019#LoadBehavior
