Outlook add-in is constantly being disabled

q3537wh · External Since: Apr 11, 2006 Posts: 2

One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
back again.

Some (but not all) of these users have
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.

Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
constantly disabled?

TIA

Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlo · External Since: Oct 17, 2003 Posts: 3355

Unhandled exceptions is the #1 cause.

Disabled addins can usually be re-enabled only by deleting the registry key
for disabling addins or by removing the addin from the disabled items list
in the Help, About, Disabled Items dialog.

Another cause of disabling can be script stoppers. If you use "New" or
"CreateObject" in your code or access Windows Scripting your addin might be
disabled because the script stopper causes that to fail, the exception is
unhandled and the addin gets disabled. Also very common.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

<q3537wh.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1159386597.223076.295610@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
> Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
> users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
> back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
> add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
> Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
> back again.
>
> Some (but not all) of these users have
> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
> set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.
>
> Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
> constantly disabled?
>
> TIA
>

Michael Tissington · External Since: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 11

I did not know there was a registry key that did the same as removing it
from the list in Help About ... What is the registry key ?

--
Michael Tissington
http://www.oaklodge.com
http://www.sqlview.net

"Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" <kenslovak.TakeThisOut@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%23DeGEAn4GHA.3512@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Unhandled exceptions is the #1 cause.
>
> Disabled addins can usually be re-enabled only by deleting the registry
> key for disabling addins or by removing the addin from the disabled items
> list in the Help, About, Disabled Items dialog.
>
> Another cause of disabling can be script stoppers. If you use "New" or
> "CreateObject" in your code or access Windows Scripting your addin might
> be disabled because the script stopper causes that to fail, the exception
> is unhandled and the addin gets disabled. Also very common.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> <q3537wh.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1159386597.223076.295610@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>> One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
>> Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
>> users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
>> back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
>> add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
>> Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
>> back again.
>>
>> Some (but not all) of these users have
>> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
>> set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.
>>
>> Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
>> constantly disabled?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>

Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlo · External Since: Oct 17, 2003 Posts: 3355

It's all or nothing though. If the key is deleted all disabled addins are
re-enabled. Maybe not such a good idea.

Disabling adds a binary value for each addin with a name that's randomly
generated. The Resiliency key exists if there is at least one disabled item,
but if you re-enable the addin then the Resiliency key and DisabledItems
subkey are both deleted. So the presence of the Resiliency key serves as a
general test for the existence of disabled items. You can re-enable the
addin by deleting the specific binary reg value, or by removing the whole
key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems

11.0 would be 10.0 for Outlook 2002, 12.0 for Outlook 2007.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

"Michael Tissington" <mtissington.DeleteThis@newsgroups.nospam> wrote in message
news:u4NYfSn4GHA.1668@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I did not know there was a registry key that did the same as removing it
>from the list in Help About ... What is the registry key ?
>
> --
> Michael Tissington
> http://www.oaklodge.com
> http://www.sqlview.net

q3537wh · External Since: Apr 11, 2006 Posts: 2

In my situation the disabled add-in does not appear in Help | About |
Disabled items. Instead it's missing from the COM Add-Ins window.
According to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms269003.aspx and
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268871.aspx , that's called
a "soft disable". These articles also square with your contention that
an unhandled exception is the likely culprit.

Most of our customers do not encounter this problem. It's just this one
organization. At the risk of sounding like I'm fishing or being too
general, is there anything that is environment specific that can
trigger an unhandled exception like this that is practically
unreproducible anywhere else?

Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook] wrote:
> Unhandled exceptions is the #1 cause.
>
> Disabled addins can usually be re-enabled only by deleting the registry key
> for disabling addins or by removing the addin from the disabled items list
> in the Help, About, Disabled Items dialog.
>
> Another cause of disabling can be script stoppers. If you use "New" or
> "CreateObject" in your code or access Windows Scripting your addin might be
> disabled because the script stopper causes that to fail, the exception is
> unhandled and the addin gets disabled. Also very common.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> <q3537wh RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1159386597.223076.295610@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> > One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
> > Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
> > users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
> > back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
> > add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
> > Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
> > back again.
> >
> > Some (but not all) of these users have
> > HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
> > set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.
> >
> > Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
> > constantly disabled?
> >
> > TIA
> >

Michael Tissington · External Since: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 11

Hmm, how do I know which binary value relates to my add-in ?

--
Michael Tissington
http://www.oaklodge.com
http://www.sqlview.net

"Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" <kenslovak.TakeThisOut@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:ulrIjqn4GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> It's all or nothing though. If the key is deleted all disabled addins are
> re-enabled. Maybe not such a good idea.
>
> Disabling adds a binary value for each addin with a name that's randomly
> generated. The Resiliency key exists if there is at least one disabled
> item, but if you re-enable the addin then the Resiliency key and
> DisabledItems subkey are both deleted. So the presence of the Resiliency
> key serves as a general test for the existence of disabled items. You can
> re-enable the addin by deleting the specific binary reg value, or by
> removing the whole key.
>
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems
>
> 11.0 would be 10.0 for Outlook 2002, 12.0 for Outlook 2007.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> "Michael Tissington" <mtissington.TakeThisOut@newsgroups.nospam> wrote in message
> news:u4NYfSn4GHA.1668@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>I did not know there was a registry key that did the same as removing it
>>from the list in Help About ... What is the registry key ?
>>
>> --
>> Michael Tissington
>> http://www.oaklodge.com
>> http://www.sqlview.net
>

Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlo · External Since: Oct 17, 2003 Posts: 3355

It could be other addins causing a fault, it could be a script stopper, it
could be some other addin interfering with something your addin is doing
causing a fault in your own addin.

Shared addins in .NET that aren't shimmed to use their own namespaces will
disable all other shared addins like that if they fault.

About the only things that you can do are a thorough code review and using
an error log file as well as remote debugging and examining the event logs.
I can't offer anything more specific.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

<q3537wh DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1159403180.500427.239400@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
> In my situation the disabled add-in does not appear in Help | About |
> Disabled items. Instead it's missing from the COM Add-Ins window.
> According to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms269003.aspx and
> http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268871.aspx , that's called
> a "soft disable". These articles also square with your contention that
> an unhandled exception is the likely culprit.
>
> Most of our customers do not encounter this problem. It's just this one
> organization. At the risk of sounding like I'm fishing or being too
> general, is there anything that is environment specific that can
> trigger an unhandled exception like this that is practically
> unreproducible anywhere else?

Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlo · External Since: Oct 17, 2003 Posts: 3355

You don't. That's why it's all or nothing.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

"Michael Tissington" <mtissington.TakeThisOut@newsgroups.nospam> wrote in message
news:OTZYlmp4GHA.2264@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hmm, how do I know which binary value relates to my add-in ?
>
> --
> Michael Tissington
> http://www.oaklodge.com
> http://www.sqlview.net

JJ · External Since: Sep 30, 2006 Posts: 1

You can look at my post in microsoft.public.developer.outlook.addins titled
"What sets LoadBehavior back to 2?".

I had a problem where a COM add-in I was using was always getting disabled
if another program (not an add-in, a VB app which accessed Outlook via via
automation) ran without Outlook running.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to do any further analysis of the
problem - for now I just stopped running the other program. If it sounds
like it might apply to your customer, make sure there are no programs being
started (perhaps via the Startup folder) that access Outlook via automation
before Outlook is started. If there are, try disabling them and see if that
has any effect. I know it shouldn't matter, but that was the cause in my
case.

<q3537wh DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1159386597.223076.295610@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
> Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
> users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
> back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
> add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
> Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
> back again.
>
> Some (but not all) of these users have
> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
> set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.
>
> Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
> constantly disabled?
>
> TIA
>

Andy · External Since: Jun 08, 2006 Posts: 1

Hi,
Experiencing the follow issue: We have an outlook addin. When opening a
certain .msg, Outlook will hang. On 're-launch' of Outlook, and choosing
[YES] to disable our addin, this .msg file is opened without issue.

I am trying to work with our developers, but wanted to throw this scenario
out here just in case there is something obvious. I know that the short term
solution (to re-enable out addin) is to delete the resiliency key, but am
banging my head trying to find the root cause of the hanging. I.e. is there
any extra logging, channels for investigation i can pursue? I've tried
regmon, and process-explorer, and netiher seem to have too much 'obvious'
information...

Any words of wisdom appreciated....

Thanks
Andy

"Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:

> Unhandled exceptions is the #1 cause.
>
> Disabled addins can usually be re-enabled only by deleting the registry key
> for disabling addins or by removing the addin from the disabled items list
> in the Help, About, Disabled Items dialog.
>
> Another cause of disabling can be script stoppers. If you use "New" or
> "CreateObject" in your code or access Windows Scripting your addin might be
> disabled because the script stopper causes that to fail, the exception is
> unhandled and the addin gets disabled. Also very common.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> <q3537wh RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1159386597.223076.295610@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> > One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
> > Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
> > users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
> > back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
> > add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
> > Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
> > back again.
> >
> > Some (but not all) of these users have
> > HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
> > set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.
> >
> > Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
> > constantly disabled?
> >
> > TIA
> >
>
>

Andy · External Since: Mar 23, 2006 Posts: 253

Hi,
Experiencing the follow issue: We have an outlook addin. When opening a
certain .msg, Outlook will hang. On 're-launch' of Outlook, and choosing
[YES] to disable our addin, this .msg file is opened without issue.

I am trying to work with our developers, but wanted to throw this scenario
out here just in case there is something obvious. I know that the short term
solution (to re-enable out addin) is to delete the resiliency key, but am
banging my head trying to find the root cause of the hanging. I.e. is there
any extra logging, channels for investigation i can pursue? I've tried
regmon, and process-explorer, and netiher seem to have too much 'obvious'
information...

Any words of wisdom appreciated....

Thanks
Andy

"Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:

> Unhandled exceptions is the #1 cause.
>
> Disabled addins can usually be re-enabled only by deleting the registry key
> for disabling addins or by removing the addin from the disabled items list
> in the Help, About, Disabled Items dialog.
>
> Another cause of disabling can be script stoppers. If you use "New" or
> "CreateObject" in your code or access Windows Scripting your addin might be
> disabled because the script stopper causes that to fail, the exception is
> unhandled and the addin gets disabled. Also very common.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> <q3537wh RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1159386597.223076.295610@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> > One of my company's customers is experiencing a strange problem with an
> > Outlook add-in we built. The add-in is often disabled when some of the
> > users start Outlook, and they have to go into COM add-ins to add it
> > back. The problem is that this happens pretty regularly. They'd add the
> > add-in, it'd work for a while, but some days later, when they start
> > Outlook again, the add-in disappears again, and they have to add it
> > back again.
> >
> > Some (but not all) of these users have
> > HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OurOutlookAddin.OutlookAddin
> > set to 0 or 1. But changing it to a 3 hasn't worked.
> >
> > Are there any known causes that leads to an Outlook addin being
> > constantly disabled?
> >
> > TIA
> >
>
>

Andy · External Since: Mar 23, 2006 Posts: 253

Hi,
Experiencing the follow issue: We have an outlook addin. When opening a
certain .msg, Outlook will hang. On 're-launch' of Outlook, and choosing
[YES] to disable our addin, this .msg file is opened without issue.

I am trying to work with our developers, but wanted to throw this scenario
out here just in case there is something obvious. I know that the short term
solution (to re-enable out addin) is to delete the resiliency key, but am
banging my head trying to find the root cause of the hanging. I.e. is there
any extra logging, channels for investigation i can pursue? I've tried
regmon, and process-explorer, and netiher seem to have too much 'obvious'
information...

Any words of wisdom appreciated....

Thanks
Andy

"Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:

> It's all or nothing though. If the key is deleted all disabled addins are
> re-enabled. Maybe not such a good idea.
>
> Disabling adds a binary value for each addin with a name that's randomly
> generated. The Resiliency key exists if there is at least one disabled item,
> but if you re-enable the addin then the Resiliency key and DisabledItems
> subkey are both deleted. So the presence of the Resiliency key serves as a
> general test for the existence of disabled items. You can re-enable the
> addin by deleting the specific binary reg value, or by removing the whole
> key.
>
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Resiliency\DisabledItems
>
> 11.0 would be 10.0 for Outlook 2002, 12.0 for Outlook 2007.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> "Michael Tissington" <mtissington DeleteThis @newsgroups.nospam> wrote in message
> news:u4NYfSn4GHA.1668@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> >I did not know there was a registry key that did the same as removing it
> >from the list in Help About ... What is the registry key ?
> >
> > --
> > Michael Tissington
> > http://www.oaklodge.com
> > http://www.sqlview.net
>
>

Andy · External Since: Mar 23, 2006 Posts: 253

Hi,
Experiencing the follow issue: We have an outlook addin. When opening a
certain .msg, Outlook will hang. On 're-launch' of Outlook, and choosing
[YES] to disable our addin, this .msg file is opened without issue.

I am trying to work with our developers, but wanted to throw this scenario
out here just in case there is something obvious. I know that the short term
solution (to re-enable out addin) is to delete the resiliency key, but am
banging my head trying to find the root cause of the hanging. I.e. is there
any extra logging, channels for investigation i can pursue? I've tried
regmon, and process-explorer, and netiher seem to have too much 'obvious'
information...

Any words of wisdom appreciated....

Thanks
Andy

"Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:

> It could be other addins causing a fault, it could be a script stopper, it
> could be some other addin interfering with something your addin is doing
> causing a fault in your own addin.
>
> Shared addins in .NET that aren't shimmed to use their own namespaces will
> disable all other shared addins like that if they fault.
>
> About the only things that you can do are a thorough code review and using
> an error log file as well as remote debugging and examining the event logs.
> I can't offer anything more specific.
>
> --
> Ken Slovak
> [MVP - Outlook]
> http://www.slovaktech.com
> Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
> Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
> http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm
>
>
> <q3537wh.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1159403180.500427.239400@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
> > In my situation the disabled add-in does not appear in Help | About |
> > Disabled items. Instead it's missing from the COM Add-Ins window.
> > According to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms269003.aspx and
> > http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268871.aspx , that's called
> > a "soft disable". These articles also square with your contention that
> > an unhandled exception is the likely culprit.
> >
> > Most of our customers do not encounter this problem. It's just this one
> > organization. At the risk of sounding like I'm fishing or being too
> > general, is there anything that is environment specific that can
> > trigger an unhandled exception like this that is practically
> > unreproducible anywhere else?
>
>

Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlo · External Since: Oct 17, 2003 Posts: 3355

Only one post was necessary and it wasn't necessary to start a brand new
thread also with the same problem.

--
Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

"Andy" <Andy @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A1710299-FF34-403F-B737-663B94EF6B17@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> Experiencing the follow issue: We have an outlook addin. When opening a
> certain .msg, Outlook will hang. On 're-launch' of Outlook, and choosing
> [YES] to disable our addin, this .msg file is opened without issue.
>
> I am trying to work with our developers, but wanted to throw this scenario
> out here just in case there is something obvious. I know that the short
> term
> solution (to re-enable out addin) is to delete the resiliency key, but am
> banging my head trying to find the root cause of the hanging. I.e. is
> there
> any extra logging, channels for investigation i can pursue? I've tried
> regmon, and process-explorer, and netiher seem to have too much 'obvious'
> information...
>
> Any words of wisdom appreciated....
>
> Thanks
> Andy

KalinZ · Joined: Apr 13, 2009 Posts: 1

I do have a question for everyone that can help. Is there a difference of the add-in being disabled (placed under the Disabled items in the Outlook trust center), or the add-in being turned as inactive. Everywhere that I read, I usually see issues related to the add-in being disabled. However from the problems that I've had and the testing that I've done, it seems to me that when my users are having the problem, the add-in is actually turned inactive. Moreover, the Load Behavior of the add-in seems to be changed from 3 to 2 only when the add-in becomes inactive. The load Behavior still shows 3 if the Add-in was disabled and shows under the disabled items. I developed the add-in using VSTO 2008 and my users are running Outlook 2007. I have proper exception handling throughout all of my application even in "ThisAddIn.vb" methods. So I am not quite sure what I am looking for? Do you know of any differences between inactive and disabled? How come Load Behavior is still 3 when the add-in is disabled?

Thanks in advance.

roberthir · Joined: Aug 11, 2009 Posts: 1