<path> is not a valid office add-in vs2005 and outlook 2003

<path> is not a valid office add-in vs2005 and outlook 2003

• arm

  Hi All,

  This appears to be a really challenging problem! In my case I had a working Outlook 2003 Add-in which needed a shim before I deployed it. I added the shim, had some problems and then went back to the 'working' version. It would not longer work, and when I tried to add it I saw the '<path> is not a valid Office Add-in' message. (As an aside, as a result of this, another working Add-in would also no longer load, even though I had made no changes to it.)

  In my case the add-ins are VS2005 Outlook 2003 ones with no VSTO.

  I have tried everything - there are no blocked programs, the registry entries appear to be Ok (but I am not sure), and I have even tried starting over from scratch without success.

  In desperation I have installed the beta 2 of VS2008 and began all over again - in this case a very simple add-in with a button and one click event - as per the Microsoft example code. My code now has VSTO and targets Outlook 2003, and while it compiles OK, it does not appear in the 'Addin directory'. When I navigate to the dll in the debug directory and try to add it the error message is the same. (i.e. Options>Other>Advanced>COM Addins)

  It would seem to me that this error message is too generic, and the actual problem is something different from what it says - I base this on the fact that my other add-in stopped working even though I had not changed it.

  I suspect that this has something to do with the Registry, however MSDN says that they correct entries will be inserted in the development environment. Perhaps something has blocked their addition Perhaps I have missed some step in the install of VSTO, as I really only did a full install of VS2008 and nothing specific for VSTO.

  Given that this is the 'most useful' thread I can find on this problem it would be great if we could document how to fix this.

  In your case Hiren, what did you actually do to resolve your problem

  I'd appreciate any thoughts.

  Alan

  
  

• dops

  It might have been "hard disabled". Check the "Help"->"About.."->"Disabled Items.." list.
  
  

• tim2005

  I too have the above problem, but my add-in is not listed in the disabled add-ins. I am trying this with as simple an addin as possible. I am adding a handler for one event (AddHandler olApp.Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox).Items.ItemAdd, AddressOf newMail) ThisAddIn_Startup, then showing a message box when new mail arrives. Any help

  
  
  

• Fiorina81

  Hello,

  I have the same problem. If i compile the outlook add-in project, the add-in gets installed properly and works as expected. But if i tried to choose the output dll file from my /bin/debug folder, it says the DLL is not a valid office add-in.

  Also When i run the Setup file, i cannot check the check-box in front-of my outlook addin.

  Do i have to make any changes to the project properties of the add-in project and add-in setup project

  Please advice

  Thanks

  Kishore

  
  

• Natallica

  Thanks, that worked.
  Regards, Mark
  

• Cleverp

  The Blacklist system can happen if you stop code in the startup method and if this is then debugged and stopped the process at this point outlook/office will think the application has caused an issue in this point and blacklist If you are using VSTO 2 this will black list all VSTO 2 Outlook Addins albeit to be enhanced and be Managed Code aware in VSTO 3 and Office 12
  
  Regards
  
  

• Alemir

  Hey Hiren,

  try these links out..hey are not about deployment, but things that might help u generally...

  this msdn link contains all the information about the ojects..u wont find details, but you can find the objects and properties of each object..

  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa271384(office.11).aspx

  -- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221870(office.11).aspx

  My fourm

  http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx postid=1778567&isthread=false&siteid=1

  adding context menu items.

  http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx id=526

  and the famous deployment manual

  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332052.aspx

  those are the ones i found...i had some other few, but i couldnt find them.. sorry..

  anyway, u should find almost anything u need here...or atleast a link that points u to the correct direction

  Good luck

  Bassem Murad

  
  
  

• rjstinyc

  Hello Hiren,

  i had the same problem for a long time. Regarding the issue of adding the plugin manually by going to the tools menu --> options etc. , this is probably becuase you dont have the right version of VSTO that is compatible with outlook.

  When installing my plugin, it would apear in the menu, but i couldnt add it manually too. I searched alot on the net and couldnt find a solution. i downloaded working samples and tutorials but none of them worked. The most logical explanation was that the VSTO version we had wasnt the correct one.

  good luck with ur work. if u need help with this outlook thing, reply to this post...i had a few links u might find useful..

  Bassem Murad

  
  
  

• AshokKumarTD

  cant really remember...but i recall trying to something like that and it was not possible..maybe it was because u cant edit the folder item...
  
  

• majid12345

  thx so much. i went like crazy today that my outlook add-ins didn't work
  
  

• acobo

  Hello Mike,

  i have the same problem but the disabled items window says no disabled items. what do i do

  thanks,

  
  
  

• C.R. Hinners

  Hi,

  I have a similar problem, I have a Outlook 2003 based VSTO SE add-in project which works fine on my development machine. I am trying to deploy the same onto a different machine with Outlook 2003 Professional installed.

  I have ensured that all the necessary registry keys are prepared, all the pre-requisites are installed and the CAS policy is in place. Now, once I run the setup on the client computer, and open outlook, my add-in does not appear in the list of add-ins (i.e. Tools --> Options --> Other --> Advanced Options ---> COM Add-ins).

  Also, when I try to manually add the add-in to the list, it gives me a message saying "not a valid Office add-in". I have checked whether the add-in is hard-disabled by looking up the Help->About->Disabled items list ... its not there.

  Any pointers

  -Hiren.

  
  

• AJerman

  Hi Bassem,

  Appreciate all the help

  Actually I managed to fix my issue some minutes back, it was concerning the Registry Keys. I followed the way it was created in the Office.CRMIntegration project and things are now working.

  I've been thru the most of these links throughout my experience with VSTO-based developments so far. Yeah, they do sum up a lot of stuff in detail.

  Also regarding the context-menu link, I have a requirement where I need to attach a context-menu to my Outlook Folders (i.e. in the tree-view), heard thats just not possible. Would like to have any opinions on that.

  Thanks again

  - Hiren.

  
  

• KoalaGerch

  Hi Bassem,

  Thank you for the quick reply.

  Would surely love to have those links, as I feel quite disoriented with this VSTO Outlook Add-in setup and deployment thing.

  We are developing this Outlook 2003 add-in project using VS.Net 2005 + VSTO SE.

  I have also gone through several steps regarding creation of the relevant registry keys + implementing a CAS policy + checking and installing the pre-requisites etc for this setup project. And they seem to work fine (i.e. the pre-reqs are installed, the registry keys are created, the add-in dll is installed etc.)

  On the client machine, I have Windows 2003 and Office 2003 Professional Edition SP1.

  The problem is that when I am done with installing the setup on the client machine, the Add-in is just not loaded into its Outlook. It wont show in the list of add-ins, neither is it disabled. Dont quite know what i am missing here.

  - Hiren.

  
  
• <path> is not a valid office add-in vs2005 and outlook 2003