Add / install an addin via the registry
If you need to create an installer for your PPA or PPAM add-in, you'll need to have it carry out a few simple steps:
Copy the PPA/PPAM file (add-in) and any other necessary files to the appropriate folder (which might be one that the installer creates or one that the user chooses or some other folder). If your add-in will write to any files (config/ini for example), be sure to choose an installation folder that the user will have read/write privileges to.
Create registry entries that tell PowerPoint to load the add-in at startup and where to find the add-in's PPA/PPAM file:
Create this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\X.X\PowerPoint\AddIns\ADD-IN-NAME
Change ADD-IN-NAME to the name of your add-in
Change X.X to the correct version number of the copy of PowerPoint on the computer where you're installing it.
- For PowerPoint 97, substitute 8.0
- For PowerPoint 2000, substitute 9.0
- For PowerPoint 2002, substitute 10.0
- For PowerPoint 2003, substitute 11.0
- For PowerPoint 2007, substitute 12.0
- Note: There's no 13.0
- For PowerPoint 2010, substitute 14.0
- For PowerPoint 2013, substitute 15.0
There doesn't seem to be any harm in creating all of these keys if you want to create an installer for any version of Office the user might have.
And under this key (or keys), create these values:
AutoLoad, Reg_DWORD, ffffffff hex Path, Reg_SZ, Full path to your PPA/PPAM file
Once you do this, PowerPoint will automatically load your add-in at startup and in most cases, will bypass any security warnings that your users would normally see when trying to install an add-in.