Troubleshooting UiPath Excel Add-In Installation Failures or Disablement Due to Policy Settings

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How to solve the error The UiPath Excel Add-in installation failed or the AddIn has been disabled by Microsoft Excel due to policy settings. Please check its status by going into the "File | Options | Add-ins" or "Trust Center Settings | Add-ins" in Microsoft Excel?

Issue Description:

When using Excel activities from the UiPath.Excel.Activities package, some RPA users might encounter an error that states:

The UiPath Excel Add-in installation failed or the AddIn has been disabled by Microsoft Excel due to policy settings. Please check its status by going into the "File | Options | Add-ins" or "Trust Center Settings | Add-ins" in Microsoft Excel.


Root Cause:

This error arises when the UiPath Excel add-in is disabled at the registry level(the ProgID of the add-in was set to 0 at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\OFFICE_VERSION\Outlook\Resiliency\AddinList) on the affected machine(s). In Office 2013 and newer versions, the programs offer add-in resiliency, which means that an add-in is disabled if it is slow in performance. Nonetheless, users can re-enable the add-ins and avoid auto-disabling by other office programs. More details here.


Resolution Steps:

  1. Locating ProgID of UiPath Excel Add-in:

    To find the ProgID of the UiPath Excel Add-in, check the system registry at these two locations:

    An example might look like: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\UiPath.Integration.ExcelAddIn

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins

  2. Update Office to the latest build version and restart your PC.

  3. If an old Studio version is used, uninstall UiPath Studio and the UiPath.Integration.ExcelAddIn (if installed) from the Control Panel.

  4. After the uninstallation, restart the PC.

  5. Install the latest version of UiPath Studio or build and make sure to include the Excel add-in in this installation.

    Note: If the UiPath Excel add-in was not installed during the Studio installation, it can be later installed from Studio → Tools → UiPath Extensions → Excel Add-in.

  6. Make sure to perform the following steps as an Administrator without skipping any steps:

    • Download the Office Repair Tool from here.

    • Extract UiPath.MicrosoftOffice.Tools.zip file to a location where Full Control access is granted and run the ".exe" file as an Administrator.
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    • Follow the instructions shown in the tool to generate a repair plan and run repair actions.
      image.png

    • Restart the PC, open Studio/StudioX as the Administrator user and go to Tools → UiPath Extensions → Excel Add-in → Install.

    • Restart the machine after the installation.

  7. In regedit as Administrator:
  • navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office[OFFICE_VERSION]\excel\resiliency\addinlist.
  • Add a new String Value named UiPath.Integration.ExcelAddIn with a value of 1.
Note: The possible values are:
  • 0 = always disabled (blocked)
  • 1 = always enabled
  • 2 = configurable by the user and not blocked by the Block all unmanaged add-ins policy setting when enabled.

  1. Verify that the UiPath Excel Add-in is successfully installed and can work with it in Studio/StudioX. If everything is configured correctly, a corresponding message in the Studio/StudioX should be seen.

    Example:

    image.png

    The details of the UiPath Integration for Excel should appear under Excel -> Options -> Add-ins:

    image.png

    In the end, if everything is configured correctly, a similar message can be seen in Studio/StudioX.
    image.png

Remember to refer to the root cause verification steps to prevent the recurrence of this issue.

For more detailed info on keeping add-ins enabled, visit the here.