Disabling Windows "Copy addin to Addin folder" dialog

[goblin]

I have an Excel Addin that I deploy as a read-only addin on a server share. I instruct my co-workers to add the Add-In as they would any other Add-In, but I tell the to answer NO to the Windows question "Copy 'AddinName' to the Addins folder for John Doe?".

That way, everyone will be working with the server version of the addin, and any time I want to roll out an updated version I just place a new addin file on the server. The next time the users restart Excel, the new version is loaded.

Except users never follow directions and some of them click the default 'Yes' when asked and get a local copy of the addin and never receive updated versions of the addin.

How do I disable the "Copy Addin" question completely? I don't want to depend on the user. I know this is possible because I have this 3rd party addin that we use that is installed from c:\Program Files\ and it just stays there and you're never asked to copy the addin when you install it in Excel.

I've Googled this to death but cannot find anything helpful.

 

[goblin]

Bump

 

[goblin]

Last bump. Honest

 

[RoryA]

where exactly does the third party addin live?

 

[goblin]

C:\Program Files\Agresso Report Engine 8\agrxl8.xla

In Excel, you just install it like any other addin, and it just stays there. You're never asked to copy it.

 

[goblin]

I see however, that in the Registry, under:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options
there is a key called OPEN with value:
"C:\Program Files\Agresso Report Engine 8\agrxl8.xla"

If I uninstall (untick, do not remove from list) the addin, the registry entry is still there. Perhaps that is how they avoid the copy issue. I'm going to experiment with this but am not sure how it would help me (as I would need to deploy a registry mod file and the users do not have admin rights to use it). That means going to IT to deploy which is not what I want).

 

[goblin]

Scratch that last one. The rest of my addins are under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Options

Including the addin I'm trying not to copy.

 

[RoryA]

If the addin is on a local drive you won't get prompted to copy it. If it's on a network drive, you will.

 

[goblin]

Why on earth have I not noticed this before?

That changes the way I've been approaching the problem. It seems even Windows is confused, as my Windows addin folder is a network drive (i.e. the path that Excel wants to copy all addins is itself a network path).

Thus, if I take one of my existing addins that resides in my "safe" network addin folder, delete it, uninstall it from Excel completely, paste it back to the "safe" network addin folder, and try to install it again, it still asks to copy the addin. If I say Yes, it fails as it is trying to copy the addin over itself and it doesn't notice that the addin already resides in a safe/correct location.

I guess that kind of indicates that there is no solution to this. If it is a network path, it will try to copy the addin, even though the current addin location already is perfect.

 

[goblin]

Thanks for the effort though .
It has taken me ages to research this and I never figured out that it was the network drive that was the trigger.