VSTO Addin for Outlook install via WIX

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votes

My goal is install VSTO Outlook Addin for all users on local PC instead of current user. I used Publish method from Visual Studio and result is exe file, which means ClickOnce method. (not posible for install for All)

Well i start my research i found Wix.

My first question is, when i create Build from Visual Studio from my VSTO addin, i have 2 dirs and 20 files, is possible to assign dirs in product.wxs file in WIX Directory ref?

Second question, when files and dirs are "installed" to target directory, (program files for example) how can be VSTO be assigned to Outlook ? Its becouse to add VSTO to registry HKLM ?

Im asking if im closer to my goal

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wixwindows-installerregistryvsto

1 Answers

1
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Not sure if I understood your first question but I will try to answer it anyway. The only files you have to bring to a user's PC are those that are located under bin/Release folder, except for those that have the *.pdb extension. There are 2 ways how you can add them into the installation:

  • First way is to manually add each file you want to include in your installation as the file component in you Product.wxs. You can find a good example of that in their official tutorial.
  • Second way is to utilize the harvest tool (Heat) from Wix Toolset. This tool can generate a list of components automatically during a build.

As for your second question. To make Word or Outlook see your add-on you have to create an entry in Windows registry during installation. For example for Microsoft Word you have to create a new key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\MySuperAddOn with the following entries:

Entry Type Value
Description REG_SZ Required. A brief description of the VSTO Add-in. This description is displayed when the user selects the VSTO Add-in in the Add-Ins pane of the Options dialog box in the Microsoft Office application.
FriendlyName REG_SZ Required. A descriptive name of the VSTO Add-in that is displayed in the COM Add-Ins dialog box in the Microsoft Office application. The default value is the VSTO Add-in ID.
LoadBehavior REG_DWORD Required. A value that specifies when the application attempts to load the VSTO Add-in and the current state of the VSTO Add-in (loaded or unloaded). By default, this entry is set to 3, which specifies that the VSTO Add-in is loaded at startup. For more information, see LoadBehavior values. Note: If a user disables the VSTO Add-in, that action modifies LoadBehavior value in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive. For each user, the value of the LoadBehavior value in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive overrides the default LoadBehavior defined in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.
Manifest REG_SZ Required. The full path of the deployment manifest for the VSTO Add-in. The path can be a location on the local computer, a network share (UNC), or a Web server (HTTP). If you use Windows Installer to deploy the solution, you must add the prefix file:/// to the manifest path. You must also append the string |vstolocal (that is, the pipe character | followed by vstolocal) to the end of this path. This ensures that your solution is loaded from the installation folder, rather than the ClickOnce cache. For more information, see Deploy an Office solution by using Windows Installer. Note: When you build a VSTO Add-in on the development computer, Visual Studio automatically appends the

You may want to read the official documentation to see more details.

Wix Toolset does allow to do that as well. You have to declare the RegistryKey component in your Product.wxs.