Excel "remembers" wrong location for add-in

[MrShorty]

This is a problem on only one of my computer (office 2007 on Window's Vista) that I do not use very often, so it is not a pressing issue, but it is irritating. I installed a program that comes with an Excel add-in to make the program's functions available to Excel. On most of my computers, it installed to the C:\Program Files X86\ folder. On this computer, it somehow installed in the C:\Program Files\ folder instead, and I did not discover the error until I had installed the add-in in Excel. "No big deal" I thought, I will just uninstall the add-in from Excel, uninstall it from the computer, then reinstall in the correct location. The uninstall/reinstall process went smoothly, and everything works just fine -- except that Excel insists on looking in C:\Program Files for the add-in whenever Excel is opened. It is as if Excel cannot seem to remember the new location for this add-in.

It is a quick short term fix. Simply go into the manage add-ins dialog, uninstall the add-in, Excel observes that the file no longer exists, so it is deleted from the list, then Browse to the new location and re-install the add-in in Excel, and everything works just fine until Excel is closed and re-opened.

Does anyone know where (in the add-ins dialog or the registry) where Excel stores information for installed add-ins, and how I might get into that location to permanently change the location for this add-in?

[LJMetzger]

Hi MrShorty,

The following link may point you in the right direction:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/articles/Addi...tupFactory.asp

Lewis

[MrShorty]

Thanks, Lewis. This may be it. I can find these locations in the registry on my current machine. When I have access to the other computer, I will pull up the registry and see what is there. Perhaps I can edit the file name/location registry entry in the add-in manager registry. Or, delete both the registry location and the open command (in options) and then reinstall the add-in and it will get them correct.

[MrShorty]

I examined the registry and made sure that the file name and path were deleted from the registry before opening Excel, and it seems to be working correctly now. Only time will tell for sure, but I am cautiously optimistic.

[tichtich]

It is a quick short term fix. Simply go into the manage add-ins dialog, uninstall the add-in, Excel observes that the file no longer exists, so it is deleted from the list, then Browse to the new location and re-install the add-in in Excel, and everything works just fine until Excel is closed and re-opened.

I've been having the same problem, in Excel 2016. I eventually found a simpler solution. Instead of deleting from the list and then immediately installing from the new location, I... (1) delete from the list, (2) close and re-open Excel, and then (3) install from the new location. After that, Excel remembers the new location the next time I re-open Excel.