Microsoft Office

Office – Force Add-ins activation by GPO

When you install plugins / Add-in for Microsoft Office, this add-in could be automatically disabled by Office depends on the ressouces needed, time to load, etc. This feature could be great, but sometime, this add-in must be enabled all the time. Fortunately, Group Policy can forces the Add-ins activation. Moreover, we can allow the user to change it or not.

Office Add-ins Activation

Office Add-ins Activation

Let’s see how to do that with an example: The Symantec Enterprise Vault Add-in:

Find the Name

Before setting any Group Policy, we need to find the ClassID for the Plugin / Add-in. This is also the Value Name used in the GPO.

With a user profile with the Office Add-in, go to the registry:

Office Add-in ClassID

Office Add-in ClassID

The ClassID is the name of the Key under : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins

In the example, the ClassID for Symantec Enterprise Vault Add-in is: EnterpriseVault.DesktopUI

Add-ins Activation

Once you get the ClassID, we can create the GPO to Add-ins Activation. You must add the Microsoft Office ADMX files.

GPO Office Addin Activation

GPO Office Addin Activation

  • Path: User Configuration/Policies/Administratives Templates/Microsoft Office 2013/Miscellaneous
  • Setting: List of managed add-ins.
  • State: Enabled
List of Managed add-ins Enabled

List of Managed add-ins Enabled

Enter the ClassId and the value for the activation:

  • Value Name: ClassID.  (EnterpriseVault.DesktopUI)
  • Value: 
    • 0: The add-on is disabled and your employees can’t change it.
    • 1: The add-on is enabled and your employees can’t change it.
    • 2: The add-on is enabled and your employees can change it.
Office Add-ins Activation ValueName

Office Add-ins Activation ValueName

Once the computer executes the Group Policy processing:

Office Add-ins Activation

Office Add-ins Activation

More

You can get more information about Microsoft Office Group Policy ADMX here.

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