How to enable an Excel automation add-in through the registry?

Question

I have an Excel Automation add-in that is registered in COM by my installer. By registering with COM, my add-in appears in (Excel 2007) under Excel Options> Add-Ins> Manage Add-in Add-Ins ...> Automation. Users should still go to the dialog box and select my add-in to enable it.

Is it possible (through the registry key) to enable my automaton add-in in my program class (or in VBA) after the types are registered in COM?

Thanks in advance - Frank

Answer 1

I did not do this on purpose, but the link I'm using has this to say about your question:

Add-on add-ins are loaded in the same way as regular .xla add- .xla , but using ProgID instead of the file name, as in the following code:

 Sub installAutomationAddIn() AddIns.Add Filename:="Excel2007ProgRef.Simple" AddIns("Excel2007ProgRef.Simple").Installed = True End Sub 

If you are creating an installation procedure for your add-in, you may want to write it directly to the registry in order to install the automation add-in as installed. To do this, you need to create the following registry entry (which already exists if you used the above code).

 (In the Registry Key:) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOftware\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options (Create the string value:) Name = the first unused item in the series: Open, Open1, Open2, etc. Value = /A "Excel2007ProgRef.Simple"