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How to Change the Load Behavior of the Dynamics CRM Outlook Client Add-In

Nils Pelzer
Dec 29, 2016 | Last updated: Dec 16, 2022
Expert articles | 3 min read

Sometimes it is necessary to change the load behavior of add-ins for Microsoft 365 products (formerly known as Office products), such as the Dynamics CRM for Outlook client add-in.

Depending on how you provide Dynamics CRM to your users, there may be a need to disable the Outlook Client add-in for certain users. For example, if the same workstation is used both by users who need to connect to CRM via Outlook and users who don’t.

Or maybe you have decided to include the Outlook client in your system image that gets deployed to client machines, but you do not want the add-in to load automatically upon startup for everybody.

If you deploy Outlook and the CRM client to a terminal server farm for many different user groups, you obviously want to control the startup behavior.

Maybe you’re reading this article simply because you have always wondered why the Outlook add-in is always disabled on startup by default.

The load behavior and status of every add-in for Office products is configured via a registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\application name\Addins\add-in ID

In case of the Dynamics CRM for Outlook add-in, you can find the key here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\crmaddin.Addin

How to create registry key for Office products

If the key does not exist yet, follow these steps to create it:

  1. On the computer where Microsoft Office is installed, start Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
  2. Locate the following registry sub-key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins
  3. Right-click Addins, point to New, and then click Key.
  4. Type crmaddin.Addin, and then press ENTER.
  5. Right-click crmaddin.Addin, point to New, and then click DWORD Value or DWORD (32-bit) Value.
  6. Type LoadBehavior and then press ENTER.
  7. Right-click LoadBehavior and then click Modify.
  8. Type the value (see table below) in the Value Data box, click Decimal, and then click OK.
  9. Exit Registry Editor.

Value Add-in status Load Behavior

You can use the following values in step #8:

Value (decimal)      Add-in status     Load Behavior
0UnloadedDo not load automatically
1LoadedDo not load automatically
2UnloadedLoad at startup
3LoadedLoad at startup
8UnloadedLoad on demand
9LoadedLoad on demand
16LoadedLoad first time, then load on demand

Please note that the registry key value changes depending on whether the add-in is enabled or disabled. If you set the value to 0 and then start Outlook, you will see that the add-in will be disabled. If you manually enable the add-in, the registry key value will be changed to 1. So only values 0, 3, 8 and 16 are actually relevant to controlling the load behavior.

You can now go ahead and distribute the value via GPO and control which users’ Outlook Client automatically loads during startup based on OU or security group membership.

You can find more information about registry keys for Office add-ins here:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386106(v=vs.110).aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh699743.aspx

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