Installing an Add-in from outside Excel

[[email protected]]

I would like to to add an Add-in to Excels Add-in list and activate it
from outside of Excel, specifically using an installer program. The
only registry entry that I can find
(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Add-in Manager)
has a list of Add-ins but changing it does not appear to have any
effect. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks, Seisman.

[Robin Hammond]

Siesman,

The simplest way to do this is to launch Excel and install the add-in using
Excel automation. Excel will then handle any reg entries you need. This is
from a larger VB installation routine that handles file installation using
the windows installer, and registration of the add-ins. I've clipped bits of
this so haven't bothered with all the declarations which I am sure you can
fill in.

'larger routine has calls that look like this
Sub Control
If InstallMSI("myInstallerFile.msi") = false then
'installation failed, handle it
End If
InstallAddIn
End Sub

Sub InstallAddIn()
'this might fail if the user has insufficient machine rights
'I did it this way to avoid problem with environ on WinNT
strAddInPath = GetRegSetting(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, _
"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion", "ProgramFilesDir",
"C:\Program Files")
strAddInPath = strAddInPath & "\MyProgramName"
strAddInPath = strAddInPath & "\MyAddIn.xla"

nExcelCount = 0
TestForExcel:
On Error Resume Next
Set oXL = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")
On Error GoTo 0
If Not (oXL Is Nothing) Then
If nExcelCount = 0 Then
Call MsgBox("Please save any files and quit Microsoft Excel then
press OK", _
vbOKOnly, msgTitle)
Else
Call MsgBox("You still have Excel running. To register this add-in
with Excel " & _
"you need to exit Excel first" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"If you can't see a running instance of Excel you may have a
hidden instance running" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"To close a hidden instance, press ALT-CTRL-DEL and remove Excel
from the list of running processes", _
vbOKOnly + vbInformation, msgTitle)
End If
nExcelCount = nExcelCount + 1
Set oXL = Nothing
GoTo TestForExcel
End If

Set oXL = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
'must have a workbook open to use this
oXL.Workbooks.Add
Set oAddin = oXL.addins.Add(strAddInPath)
oAddin.installed = True
oXL.Quit
Set oXL = Nothing
Call MsgBox("Install complete", vbInformation + vbOKOnly, "Enhanced
Datasystems")
End Sub

And to launch an msi installer within the same vb project you can use
something like this:

Private Sub InstallMSI(strMSI As String) As Boolean
Dim oWI As WindowsInstaller.Installer
On Error Resume Next
Set oWI = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
On Error GoTo 0
If oWI Is Nothing Then
Call MsgBox("You must have the Microsoft Windows Installer system " & _
"installed for this installation to work" & l2 & "Please contact " &
_
"your IT department and notify them of this message", vbCritical,
msgTitle)
Install = False
Exit Function
End If
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
oWI.InstallProduct (strMSI)
On Error GoTo 0
Install = True
EndRoutine:
Set oWI = Nothing
Exit Function
ErrHandler:
On Error GoTo 0
Err.Clear
Install = False
Resume EndRoutine
End Function

Robin Hammond
www.enhanceddatasystems.com

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I would like to to add an Add-in to Excels Add-in list and activate it
> from outside of Excel, specifically using an installer program. The
> only registry entry that I can find
> (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Add-in Manager)
> has a list of Add-ins but changing it does not appear to have any
> effect. Does anyone know how to do this?
>
> Thanks, Seisman.
>

[okaizawa]

Hi,

in excel 2000, 'OPEN' and 'OPENn' (n is a number from 1) in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Excel\Options
have add-in's path that will be opened automatically.

--
HTH,

okaizawa


[email protected] wrote:
> I would like to to add an Add-in to Excels Add-in list and activate it
> from outside of Excel, specifically using an installer program. The
> only registry entry that I can find
> (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Add-in Manager)
> has a list of Add-ins but changing it does not appear to have any
> effect. Does anyone know how to do this?
>
> Thanks, Seisman.

[seisman]

Thanks Robin,
In a similary way to your technique I use Tarma Installer to create
installation packages and that uses a Shell call to run any program or
document you specify at the end of the installation. I use that to run
an "Activate.xls" workbook with code in the AutoOpen subroutine to
install and activate the addin in Excel. I was hoping to streamline
this a bit by accessing the registry directly (something that the Tarma
Installer allows you to do). Okaizawa's post provides the clue to
dointg this however it is not as straight forward as I had hoped as you
have to count thenumber of OPEN keys in the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mic=ADrosoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Option=ADs
folder and add the next one in the sequence. Tarma allows you to link
a dll to the installation routines it produces so I'd probably be able
to do it that way. (I Downloaded XspandXL by the way - it looks
interesting).
Seisman.

[seisman]

Thanks okaizawa, that was the path I was looking for. Unfortunately
it makes things a bit more complicated that I had hoped as the
installation program that I am using will only allow me to add a fixed
path. It will allow a .dll to be linked to it so it can probably be
done that way.
Thanks again,
Seiscons

[Robin Hammond]

seisman,

It's not just the issue of enumerating the registry keys, you also have to
watch out for version differences if you try and do it direct. The technique
I use (I think I probably found the base idea in one of Stephen Bullen's
books then elaborated it a bit), works across NT, 2000, XP and Excel
97-2003.

Robin Hammond
www.enhanceddatasystems.com

"seisman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Thanks Robin,
In a similary way to your technique I use Tarma Installer to create
installation packages and that uses a Shell call to run any program or
document you specify at the end of the installation. I use that to run
an "Activate.xls" workbook with code in the AutoOpen subroutine to
install and activate the addin in Excel. I was hoping to streamline
this a bit by accessing the registry directly (something that the Tarma
Installer allows you to do). Okaizawa's post provides the clue to
dointg this however it is not as straight forward as I had hoped as you
have to count thenumber of OPEN keys in the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mic*rosoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Option*s
folder and add the next one in the sequence. Tarma allows you to link
a dll to the installation routines it produces so I'd probably be able
to do it that way. (I Downloaded XspandXL by the way - it looks
interesting).
Seisman.