WD2002: Some COM Add-Ins Are Not Listed in COM Add-Ins Dialog Box (307479)

SYMPTOMS

The COM Add-Ins dialog box does not display all COM Add-Ins that are loaded in Microsoft Word. This is most easily seen when the Word in Works Suite Add-In is loaded but does not appear in this dialog box.

NOTE: To view the COM Add-Ins dialog box, you must add the COM Add-Ins button to a toolbar. To do this, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, click Customize.
Click the Commands tab, and then click Tools in the Categories list.
In the Commands list, drag COM Add-Ins to the toolbar that you want.
Click Close to close the Customize dialog box.

CAUSE

Some COM Add-Ins, such as the Word in Works Suite Add-In, are loaded into Word at startup, but because they are loaded as machine-level add-ins (in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE portion of the registry) rather than user-level add-ins, they do not appear in the COM Add-Ins dialog box.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, you can use the following macro to display a message box with all currently loaded COM Add-Ins.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.
For more information about how to use the sample code in this article, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290140 OFFXP: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

Sub ListAddins()

   Dim MyAddin As COMAddIn
   Dim i As Integer, msg As String

   For Each MyAddin In Application.COMAddIns
      msg = msg & MyAddin.Description & " - " & MyAddin.ProgID & vbCrLf
   Next

   MsgBox msg

End Sub