Installing VSTO Outlook addin for All Users to drive other than C: results in Microsoft Office Customization Installer dialog

1
votes

First let me get this stuff out of the way:

  • This happens with my own addin, as well as another third party VSTO add-in, so I don't think I'm doing anything incorrect
  • .net 4.0. VSTO runtime 10.0.50701
  • Windows 8. Also tried Windows 7
  • I am using the |vstolocal suffix in the HKLM registry for the addin
  • I have also tried adjusting the 'program files' paths in the registry here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion to point to my new 'F:' location, and that didn't change any behavior

Here are the steps I'm taking:

  1. Create a new volume on a separate disk other than C:. I called mine 'F:'
  2. Add the program files structures F:\program files and F:\program files (x86)
  3. Install your VSTO addin (I'm using Outlook but it will happen with Word too) to "F:\program files (x86)" instead of the 'C:' drive
  4. Launch Outlook.

Result is this dialog: enter image description here

According to this, I shouldn't be getting this since its an all users install (see the Inclusion List section):

Is this a Microsoft issue? I realize I can add to the Inclusion myself however then I would be subscribing to more of a per-user approach, and that seems like a bad approach. Is this coming up because anything other than the 'real' program files folder cannot really be trusted by VSTO loader?

2
vstooutlook-addinoffice-addins.net-security

2 Answers

1
votes

The dialog window belongs to the ClickOnce installer. But the link goes to the Windows Installer section in MSDN.

It is up to you where to install the add-in, there is no need to use the Program Files folder.

Make sure that you did all the steps described in the Deploying an Office Solution by Using Windows Installer article. It describes all the required steps for creating add-in installers.

0
votes

I recently went through the same thing, i got this when i just published the vsto from vs2015. I tried using installshield, yielded the same issues, eventually i switched to wix installer, now i don't have any update checks running and its a clean install. These are some customization updates and our client actually had a firewall blocking it so the install failed. Try wix it worked great for me. Hopefully you don't end up with my current issue of not seeing the add-in if i am not running outlook as Administrator, driving me nuts, good luck.