Need assistance deploying native (c++) Outlook add-in

Question

I'm looking for Outlook 2007+ add-in deployment assistance. To deploy on a Win7 x64 and Office 2013 x64 machine, I added the registry keys from my Visual Studio 2013 native COM Outlook add-in project (.rgs file) and then copied the add-in library to the add-in directory on the client machine. Outlook is not loading the add-in on launch. Trying to load the library manually using the COM add-in dialog invokes an error ' like c:\Users\505hpc6z06\appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns\MyAddin.dll is not a valid Office add-in'.

These are the registry keys I added (not in wow64 registry node). In place of %MODULE% , I put the absolute path of the MyAddin.dll. something like c:\Users\505hpc6z06\appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns\MyAddin.dll

    HKCR
    {
        NoRemove CLSID
        {
            ForceRemove {EB824C19-380D-417E-A9E2-28E77B2F3026} = s 'CompReg Class'
            {
                InprocServer32 = s '%MODULE%'
                {
                    val ThreadingModel = s 'Apartment'
                }
                TypeLib = s '{B0A51D8E-5E5A-447B-B935-765F3BC5C79F}'
                Version = s '1.0'
            }
        }
    }
    HKCU
    {
        NoRemove Software
        {
            NoRemove Microsoft
            {
                NoRemove Office
                {
                    NoRemove Outlook
                    {
                        NoRemove Addins
                        {
                            FromCloud.Connect
                            {
                                val Description = s 'My Outlook Addin'
                                val LoadBehavior = d 3
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

This is not a VSTO or .NET project/add-in. How can I deploy a native COM Outlook add-in to a client machine (win7, win8, win10, Outlook 2007+)?

Nikolay Nikolay · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-29T20:53:52

Your unmanaged (c++) add-in needs to be compiled as 64-bit to be usable in Office 64-bit. Simply speaking, a 64-bit program cannot use 32-bit dll.

Does not matter what you write to the rigistry, 64-bit outlook will not load 32-bit COM addin. See similar question here: Using 32bit COM addin under MS Office 64 bit

Need assistance deploying native (c++) Outlook add-in

1 Answers