Cannot remove add-in's

L

Llama25or624

System: Office 2003 Professional.

Situation: My company *was* using a product called "Previa" to facilitate
groupwork. It was installed on my PC. Now, we no longer use it, and I have
used the Control Panel to uninstall the Previa product. All directories
associated with it are gone.

However, every time I start an Office application, I receive the message that:
"C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application
Data\Microsoft\AddIns\C:\Program Files\Privia 3.6\preOfficeAddIn.dll is not a
valid Office Add-in.

I have confirmed through the tools menu that there are no add-ins installed,
but it appears that Office is still attempting to start this removed
application.

Ideas, short of reinstalling the entire Office suite?
 
B

Beth Melton

Reinstalling will not correct this issue. The message is telling you
the application is attempting to use a file as an add-in but is unable
to load it. So it wouldn't be in your Add-ins list since it isn't
loaded.

All you should have to do is remove "preOfficeAddIn.dll" from the
folder noted in the error message.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
L

Llama25or624

Deleted the folder, same message. :(

Llama25or624 said:
Beth,

Thanks for the help, alas, I think there may be more to it. I do indeed
have a C:\Porgram Files\Privia 3.6 folder, but it does not contain any *.dll
files (and I adjusted the view to show system and hidden files).

I then ran a search on my entire system for the dll in question, and it did
not find it. Do you think deleting the folder itself may correct the
problem? I can't see how, but then again my MCSE is about 6 years out of
date ;)

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
L

Llama25or624

Beth,

Thanks for the help, alas, I think there may be more to it. I do indeed
have a C:\Porgram Files\Privia 3.6 folder, but it does not contain any *.dll
files (and I adjusted the view to show system and hidden files).

I then ran a search on my entire system for the dll in question, and it did
not find it. Do you think deleting the folder itself may correct the
problem? I can't see how, but then again my MCSE is about 6 years out of
date ;)

Thanks!
 
B

Beth Melton

Let's narrow the scope to one application. Since you noted you checked
Tools/Add-ins I gather you are referring to Excel.

If the file can not be found then it could be there is a reference to
it in the Registry. It's probably easiest to search for the DLL since
it could be a per user add-in or per machine so the location to the
add-in would depend on the type and if the same error occurs for all
applications then there could be several references.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
L

Llama25or624

OK, let me see if I can give a bit more information. The "not a valid
add-in" dialog occurs when first starting any Office application, whether it
be Word, Excel, Outlook, what have you. Coincidentally, these are all of the
applications that Previa tied in to (surprise, right?).

I'll take your word for it when you say that I looked for add-in's in Excel;
it has been a while. I had thought to check the registry, but didn't want to
dig that far until I had exhausted other options.

Can I run a search or find within the registry for a reference to that
particular dll? In other words, will the dll be called out by name within
the registry (go easy on me, I'm rusty :)

What utility should I use to edit the registry on XP? I'm presuming that
since the file doesn't exist on the system, that the uninstall routine
probably left some junk in the registry, and that's why I'm getting this
error.

Thanks for all your help, this is actually enjoyable - been a while since
I've been down in the weeds to fix a technical problem.
 
B

Beth Melton

[see answers inline]

Llama25or624 said:
OK, let me see if I can give a bit more information. The "not a
valid
add-in" dialog occurs when first starting any Office application,
whether it
be Word, Excel, Outlook, what have you. Coincidentally, these are
all of the
applications that Previa tied in to (surprise, right?).
Click to expand...

No, no suprise.
I'll take your word for it when you say that I looked for add-in's
in Excel;
it has been a while. I had thought to check the registry, but
didn't want to
dig that far until I had exhausted other options.
Click to expand...

I only mentioned that because Excel is the only application with a
Tools/Add-ins command. :)
Can I run a search or find within the registry for a reference to
that
particular dll? In other words, will the dll be called out by name
within
the registry (go easy on me, I'm rusty :)
Click to expand...

You'll want to search for the filename: preOfficeAddIn.dll
What utility should I use to edit the registry on XP? I'm presuming
that
since the file doesn't exist on the system, that the uninstall
routine
probably left some junk in the registry, and that's why I'm getting
this
error.
Click to expand...


I suspect the uninstall didn't remove the references in the Registry
since you didn't find the DLL using Windows Search. And since add-in
info for the Office apps are stored in the Registry that's the next
place to look.

Open the Registry by going to Start/Run and run:

Regedit

Once the Registry is opened, use Edit/Find to search for the file. Use
F3 to Find Next.

If you find a reference and are in doubt of removing it, you can
select the key and go to File/Export and save only the selected
branch. What you name it doesn't matter. Then you can delete the
value. Note, delete the value and not the key. For example you may see
a String value on the right that contains the path to the DLL. That's
what you want to delete - not the key (folder) on the left.

This way if you find the deletion was incorrect you can always
double-click the *.reg file you previously saved to merge the key back
into the Registry.
Thanks for all your help, this is actually enjoyable - been a while
since
I've been down in the weeds to fix a technical problem.
Click to expand...

NP - glad to help out. :)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
M

Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

This may help point you in the right direction:
"OL2000: Error Message: Not a Valid Office Add-in Starting Outlook"
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q235/0/09.asp


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Llama25or624 asked:

| OK, let me see if I can give a bit more information. The "not a valid
| add-in" dialog occurs when first starting any Office application,
| whether it be Word, Excel, Outlook, what have you. Coincidentally,
| these are all of the applications that Previa tied in to (surprise,
| right?).
|
| I'll take your word for it when you say that I looked for add-in's in
| Excel; it has been a while. I had thought to check the registry, but
| didn't want to dig that far until I had exhausted other options.
|
| Can I run a search or find within the registry for a reference to that
| particular dll? In other words, will the dll be called out by name
| within the registry (go easy on me, I'm rusty :)
|
| What utility should I use to edit the registry on XP? I'm presuming
| that since the file doesn't exist on the system, that the uninstall
| routine probably left some junk in the registry, and that's why I'm
| getting this error.
|
| Thanks for all your help, this is actually enjoyable - been a while
| since I've been down in the weeds to fix a technical problem.
|
| "Beth Melton" wrote:
|
|| Let's narrow the scope to one application. Since you noted you
|| checked Tools/Add-ins I gather you are referring to Excel.
||
|| If the file can not be found then it could be there is a reference to
|| it in the Registry. It's probably easiest to search for the DLL since
|| it could be a per user add-in or per machine so the location to the
|| add-in would depend on the type and if the same error occurs for all
|| applications then there could be several references.
||
|| Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
|| assistance by email can not be acknowledged.
||
|| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|| Beth Melton
|| Microsoft Office MVP
||
|| Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
|| TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
|| MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
||
||
|| message ||| Beth,
|||
||| Thanks for the help, alas, I think there may be more to it. I do
||| indeed
||| have a C:\Porgram Files\Privia 3.6 folder, but it does not contain
||| any *.dll
||| files (and I adjusted the view to show system and hidden files).
|||
||| I then ran a search on my entire system for the dll in question, and
||| it did
||| not find it. Do you think deleting the folder itself may correct
||| the
||| problem? I can't see how, but then again my MCSE is about 6 years
||| out of
||| date ;)
|||
||| Thanks!
|||
|||
|||
||| "Beth Melton" wrote:
|||
|||| Reinstalling will not correct this issue. The message is telling
|||| you
|||| the application is attempting to use a file as an add-in but is
|||| unable
|||| to load it. So it wouldn't be in your Add-ins list since it isn't
|||| loaded.
 
Top