Enable Office Add-In via Powershell?

net1994 · 2021-05-14T20:03:42.000Z

After we install an Office Add-In on a PC, it doesn’t enable itself in excel by default as an active add-in. I’d like to do this via PowerShell if possible so thousands of users don’t have to manually do it. This is the closest thing I’ve found that would seem to work, but it doesn’t:

$xl=New-Object -ComObject excel.application
$xl.Application.COMAddIns | ?{$.Description -eq ‘Azure DevOps Add-in’} |%{$.Connect=$true}
$xl.Quit()
exit

Has anyone had any experience doing something like this. I’ve tried to manually change the start behavior in the registry and that doesn’t work at all.

Neally · 2021-05-14T20:50:19.000Z

Welcome.

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I had to do both things to get it to work

install the plugin
Set connect to true
set reg key to 3

Make sure to run it as admin

$xl=New-Object -ComObject excel.application
$COMAddIns = $xl.Application.COMAddIns | where {$_.Description -eq 'Azure DevOps Add-in'}
$COMAddIns | foreach{$_.Connect=$true}
Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\$($COMAddIns.ProgId) -Name "LoadBehavior" -Value 3 -Verbose
$xl.Quit()

net1994 · 2021-05-15T01:50:56.000Z

Hi Neally,

Thanks for the assist. However when I run the script, I’m getting an error ‘Cannot find path…’ and Object not found. Is there something else to try? I am running this as local admin on the PC. Thanks again!

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> $xl=New-Object -ComObject excel.application
$COMAddIns = $xl.Application.COMAddIns | where {$_.Description -eq 'Azure DevOps Add-in'}
$COMAddIns | foreach{$_.Connect=$true}
Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\$($COMAddIns.ProgId) -Name "LoadBehavior" -Value 3 -Verbose
$xl.Quit()
Set-ItemProperty : Cannot find path 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\TFCOfficeShim.Connect.16' 
because it does not exist.
At line:4 char:1
+ Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\$($COMA ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (HKCU:\Software\...Shim.Connect.16:String) [Set-ItemProperty], 
    ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetItemPropertyCommand

Neally · 2021-05-15T02:02:25.000Z

Did you actually install the Azure DevOps Add-in ?
Maybe it’s in a different location for you?

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net1994 · 2021-05-15T15:31:53.000Z

Yes it’s installed. We are using 64 bit office.

Neally · 2021-05-15T16:18:24.000Z

net1994:

Yes it’s installed. We are using 64 bit office.

Same.

Did you install it for ‘everyone’ (all users) or just for a single user?

what do you get when you run this?

$xl=New-Object -ComObject excel.application
$COMAddIns = $xl.Application.COMAddIns | where {$_.Description -eq 'Azure DevOps Add-in'}
$COMAddIns