Outlook 2007 AddIn being disabled rob_tt08 11/10/2008 4:51:00 AM Our company has been working on an Outlook AddIn using VSTO which has a number of issues which we have not been able to resolve yet. We would appreciate any insight or assistance you can offer. We have sometimes experienced errors which cause Outlook to disable the AddIn even when no errors have occurred in the managed code or been caught by our exception handling. How can we most easily diagnose the causes of these errors and track their occurrence? Thanks

Re: Outlook 2007 AddIn being disabled "Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" <kenslovak[ at ]mvps.org> 11/10/2008 3:36:42 PM Are the errors occurring when your addin is loaded or when it's already running? You can set up an exception handler for unhandled exceptions and see if that helps at all. Or if the problem is during loading you can check the Fusion logs to see where that occurs. See http://blogs.msdn.com/vsod/archive/2008/04/22/Troubleshooting-com-add-in-load-failures.aspx for more troubleshooting information. -- Ken Slovak [MVP - Outlook] http://www.slovaktech.com Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007. Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options. http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm "rob_tt08" <robtt08[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:63D56859-D6BB-4FFF-98AC-8C465E752457[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Our company has been working on an Outlook AddIn using VSTO which has a > number of issues which we have not been able to resolve yet. > > We would appreciate any insight or assistance you can offer. > > We have sometimes experienced errors which cause Outlook to disable the > AddIn even when no errors have occurred in the managed code or been caught > by > our exception handling. > > How can we most easily diagnose the causes of these errors and track their > occurrence? > > Thanks >

Re: Outlook 2007 AddIn being disabled rob_tt08 11/11/2008 6:01:00 AM Ken, The addin installs and loads successfully and works at first but sometimes when the user starts Outlook at a later date the addin does not start and needs to be re-enabled. Users have not reported anything out of the ordinary immediately prior to experiencing this problem so we are unsure of its cause. I will follow your advice and add more exception handling (using the System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadException event) in case there are still unhandled exceptions, and see if the problem is reported again. Outlook has sometimes crashed during ordinary use for these users but the addin was not disabled after this. The error handling code which we are already using (try/catch blocks around the code in the event handlers and methods of our addin) did not catch or log any errors on these occaisions. Will the ThreadException event catch all possible errors or is it possible that the addin could be causing problems for Outlook which make it unstable without actually throwing an exception? Thank you for your advice. "Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" wrote: [Quoted Text] > Are the errors occurring when your addin is loaded or when it's already > running? You can set up an exception handler for unhandled exceptions and > see if that helps at all. Or if the problem is during loading you can check > the Fusion logs to see where that occurs. > > See > http://blogs.msdn.com/vsod/archive/2008/04/22/Troubleshooting-com-add-in-load-failures.aspx > for more troubleshooting information. > > -- > Ken Slovak > [MVP - Outlook] > http://www.slovaktech.com > Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007. > Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options. > http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm > > > "rob_tt08" <robtt08[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:63D56859-D6BB-4FFF-98AC-8C465E752457[ at ]microsoft.com... > > Our company has been working on an Outlook AddIn using VSTO which has a > > number of issues which we have not been able to resolve yet. > > > > We would appreciate any insight or assistance you can offer. > > > > We have sometimes experienced errors which cause Outlook to disable the > > AddIn even when no errors have occurred in the managed code or been caught > > by > > our exception handling. > > > > How can we most easily diagnose the causes of these errors and track their > > occurrence? > > > > Thanks > > > >

Re: Outlook 2007 AddIn being disabled "Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" <kenslovak[ at ]mvps.org> 11/11/2008 2:28:25 PM I usually also add a handler for unhandled exceptions this way: AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += new UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(CurrentDomain_UnhandledException); private static void CurrentDomain_UnhandledException(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e) { } One thing to look at is if those users with problems are running any code that integrates with and starts Outlook with no UI (no Explorers or Inspectors). Some applications that do that include synching software that synchs with PDA's, IPods or IPhones, etc. That's also called "headless" mode. The earlier versions of the VSTO runtime terminated the addin if Outlook was started in headless mode, a fix for that was made in the latest version of the VSTO runtime. Make sure your users have the latest VSTO runtime, and see if what I mentioned applies to any of them. -- Ken Slovak [MVP - Outlook] http://www.slovaktech.com Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007. Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options. http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm "rob_tt08" <robtt08[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:296D3229-35E6-4D24-9ED1-C43B24374E50[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Ken, > > The addin installs and loads successfully and works at first but sometimes > when the user starts Outlook at a later date the addin does not start and > needs to be re-enabled. > > Users have not reported anything out of the ordinary immediately prior to > experiencing this problem so we are unsure of its cause. I will follow > your > advice and add more exception handling (using the > System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadException event) in case there are > still unhandled exceptions, and see if the problem is reported again. > > Outlook has sometimes crashed during ordinary use for these users but the > addin was not disabled after this. The error handling code which we are > already using (try/catch blocks around the code in the event handlers and > methods of our addin) did not catch or log any errors on these occaisions. > > Will the ThreadException event catch all possible errors or is it possible > that the addin could be causing problems for Outlook which make it > unstable > without actually throwing an exception? > > Thank you for your advice.

Re: Outlook 2007 AddIn being disabled rob_tt08 11/13/2008 6:36:01 AM Ken, I have added a handler as you suggest. I have previously added code to allow for Outlook being started in headless mode and have tested it on one of the machines which suffers from the problem. It appears to be functioning correctly when started with no UI, so I do not think this is the cause. We will release a new version with the improved error handling and see if the problem occurs again. I will repost if it has not been resolved. Thank you for your assistance. "Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" wrote: [Quoted Text] > I usually also add a handler for unhandled exceptions this way: > > AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += new > UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(CurrentDomain_UnhandledException); > > private static void CurrentDomain_UnhandledException(object sender, > UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e) > { > } > > One thing to look at is if those users with problems are running any code > that integrates with and starts Outlook with no UI (no Explorers or > Inspectors). Some applications that do that include synching software that > synchs with PDA's, IPods or IPhones, etc. That's also called "headless" > mode. > > The earlier versions of the VSTO runtime terminated the addin if Outlook was > started in headless mode, a fix for that was made in the latest version of > the VSTO runtime. Make sure your users have the latest VSTO runtime, and see > if what I mentioned applies to any of them. > > -- > Ken Slovak > [MVP - Outlook] > http://www.slovaktech.com > Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007. > Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options. > http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm > > > "rob_tt08" <robtt08[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:296D3229-35E6-4D24-9ED1-C43B24374E50[ at ]microsoft.com... > > Ken, > > > > The addin installs and loads successfully and works at first but sometimes > > when the user starts Outlook at a later date the addin does not start and > > needs to be re-enabled. > > > > Users have not reported anything out of the ordinary immediately prior to > > experiencing this problem so we are unsure of its cause. I will follow > > your > > advice and add more exception handling (using the > > System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadException event) in case there are > > still unhandled exceptions, and see if the problem is reported again. > > > > Outlook has sometimes crashed during ordinary use for these users but the > > addin was not disabled after this. The error handling code which we are > > already using (try/catch blocks around the code in the event handlers and > > methods of our addin) did not catch or log any errors on these occaisions. > > > > Will the ThreadException event catch all possible errors or is it possible > > that the addin could be causing problems for Outlook which make it > > unstable > > without actually throwing an exception? > > > > Thank you for your advice. > >

Re: Outlook 2007 AddIn being disabled "Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]" <kenslovak[ at ]mvps.org> 11/13/2008 2:41:44 PM The headless mode fix is in the latest version of the VSTO runtime, If you aren't using and deploying that version the addin would terminate when started in headless mode before you even get a crack at the code in startup. With the latest version of the runtime you'd need to test for UI (Explorers and/or Inspectors) to decide if you want to instantiate various parts of your addin. I usually wait on that in those cases until a NewExplorer() or NewInspector() event fires and I know I have UI. -- Ken Slovak [MVP - Outlook] http://www.slovaktech.com Author: Professional Programming Outlook 2007. Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options. http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm "rob_tt08" <robtt08[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:64D1E25B-EC8A-4A75-ACD1-F6AE5DFC65A8[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Ken, > > I have added a handler as you suggest. I have previously added code to > allow > for Outlook being started in headless mode and have tested it on one of > the > machines which suffers from the problem. It appears to be functioning > correctly when started with no UI, so I do not think this is the cause. > > We will release a new version with the improved error handling and see if > the problem occurs again. I will repost if it has not been resolved. > > Thank you for your assistance.