Tag: microsoft

Changing Office Add Ins to Auto Load

A client has been having issues with Office add-ins for Time Matters not loading when Outlook and Word are started. The add-ins were previously working so Lexis Nexis support tried the first four steps on this list to fix the problem with no luck. I then tried the remaining steps with the same result, the add-in was shown in Outlook but wasn’t loaded or active.

Two of the machines had fresh installs of Windows 7 and Windows 10 so conflicts with old software versions and remnants left in the registry were unlikely. The add-ins worked perfectly when activated manually so it wasn’t a compatibility issue.

I decided to check the registry for load settings and sure enough the add-ins were set to not load automatically. This was after a full uninstall of both Office and Time Matters so it seems like a strange setting for an add-in intended for daily office use.

Thankfully the setting is quick and easy to fix using the following steps.

  1. Open the Registry Editor
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Office > Word > Addins > (changing Word for the correct Office application)
  3. Open the add-in with the problem
  4. Double click to open the LoadBehavior item
  5. Change the binary value to 3
  6. Close the registry editor and test the Office applications.

Install Veeam Endpoint Backup on Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 is a bare metal hypervisor which Microsoft makes available for free with the idea being that it will be managed remotely. Since it is only intended to be a host for VMs there is no GUI and the basic setup is done using the command line or Powershell. While Hyper-V Server is perfect for it’s intended use there are times when more applications like backup and monitoring software would be useful.

Thankfully Microsoft has not stripped out all the parts of the OS which support the use of applications with a GUI. There may not be a normal desktop or start menu but a large number of applications can still be used. The application I install most on Hyper-V Server is Veeam Endpoint Backup which I use as a quick and easy backup solution for test servers.

The install process is the same for most applications, just the file names and directories would be different.

  • From another computer on the network open \\192.168.0.50\C$ (where 192.168.0.50 is the IP of the Hyper-V server)
  • Enter the login details of an account with administrator privileges
  • Copy the install files to the C: drive of the server, I usually create a folder with a short name like C:\Veeam
  • Connect to the Hyper-V server using RDP
  • At the command line navigate to the folder created on the C: drive
  • Run the install by typing the full file name (I changed the install EXE name to installveeam.exe when I copied it across)
  • Follow the normal prompts to install Veeam including .NET framework

After the install has finished Veeam can be run by navigating to C:\Program Files\Veeam\Endpoint Backup\ and running the file veeam.endpoint.backup.exe

Most of the usual functions work with the exception of creating recovery media and some of file browse windows. I have successfully used recovery media created on another Server 2012 R2 system to recover a Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 using Veeam.