5

I am trying to develop my first every Office add-in (for Outlook). Research shows that this should be a web-based add-in.

I create a new project (Outlook web add-in), and try to run it int the debugger & get an error "Unable to start debugging. Cannot locate Microsoft Internet Explorer".

I can't find any settings to change the default browser. What am I missing? Widows 10, Visual Studio 2017.

[Update] I will offer a good bonus (to be decided by the quality of the answer) for a solution, plus Microsoft says " The add-in will be hosted locally on IIS" and I don't even know what that means :-(

Can someone explain how to set up the development environment for an Outlook web add-in? The coding itself seems straightforward, but I just can't get started because of the environment set-up.

Sharad Khanna
  • 352
  • 3
  • 11
Mawg says reinstate Monica
  • 38,334
  • 103
  • 306
  • 551
  • 1
    Well, not so likely that you actually want to do this if you don't know what IIS means. This add-in style applies to Office 365, the online document creation product from Microsoft that competes with Google Docs. IIS is relevant because that is the web server product you need to run a web server to host the add-in. All very different from the traditional way to create add-ins, a DLL that you distribute to users that run on the "normal" version of Office. – Hans Passant Apr 03 '18 at 14:18
  • Thanks (+1). Yup, I know Apache, but not IIS. However, I do want to develop a Web Add-in for Outlook, so I will have to figure it out somehow :-( – Mawg says reinstate Monica Apr 03 '18 at 15:33

2 Answers2

1

Firstly open run and type regedit

Then navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths

If the iexplorer.exe key is not there add it and change the (Default) REG_SZ value to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe.

Then add a new REG_SZ value and call it Path and set it to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer

Then restart Visual Studio

I hope this helps!

Sharad Khanna
  • 352
  • 3
  • 11
0

@Sharad 's answer gave me a clue. I found that while C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer existed, it did not contain iexplore.exe.

So, I went to this page and went to Install Internet Explorer on Windows 10 (It starts "In certain cases") and followed the instructions there.

That got Internet Explorer installed, and I can launch it by running iexplore.

Alas, now when I try to debug my Outlook web add-in, Visual Studio hangs, but that's a separate problem.

Mawg says reinstate Monica
  • 38,334
  • 103
  • 306
  • 551
  • 1
    I'll get on that and try to help, what do you mean by "hangs"? – Sharad Khanna Apr 05 '18 at 21:28
  • Well, it looks like it is trying to do something - probably launch the browser - after I enter my office 365 credentials; I am in the office now, but from memory the screen background changes, or it gains a colo(u)red border; it just looks like "I am busy now", but no browser or Outlook ever gets launched. I will post more later. I will ask a new question, with bounty, but am not sure which site. Thanks for all of your help – Mawg says reinstate Monica Apr 06 '18 at 05:56