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For a small company I created an addin for PowerPoint with several vba macros. It works fine on my machine and on all machines of the small company - except one. On that machine, PowerPoint crashes everytime the user clicks on one of the macros. No matter which macro. Now they ask me, what the reason could be.

Well, how I understand things (please correct me, if I'm wrong), as every user has the same addin, the problem must be on the machine, not in the addin, or otherwise it should crash anywhere. Something must be different on the failing machine. Now I would like to list up for them, what they should check. Which parts of the computer could create conflicts between PowerPoint and an vba addin?

First of all, of course, PowerPoint itself. They say, all machines have 2013. I already found out in other threads, that problems with PowerPoint 2013 and vba addins might occur, if someone uses Kaspersky security software, but they say they don't.

They say, all machines have the 32-bit Version of Office and the same operating system.

I will ask them to check, if all machines have the same status concerning service packs.

On the crashing machine another addin was installed in the beginning, the product from https://www.powerusersoftwares.com/. But after we de-installed both addins, rebooted the machine, and then re-installed only my addin, the same problem still occured. PowerPoint crashed whenever the user tried to run one of the macros from my addin.

Has anyone heard about issues of conflicts between this power user tool and other vba addins?

It's a mystery. But something has to be different. What else could we check, that could have an impact on PowerPoint and addins? Any suggestion may help!

Thank you!

(I already suggested, it might be, that they have to fix Office as a whole on this machine, but they tend to not believe, as the problem didn't occur before they installed my addin.)

RuudGullit
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  • I had the same issue with an addin for office 2003 opening in excel 2016, works fine for all users except a select few users, the addin would dissappear leaving a blank excel window without the ribbon. If anyone know please let me know too. – pokemon_Man Apr 07 '17 at 19:24
  • Possibly profile-related? Have they tried having the user who has the crashing problem log into another machine (which normally works) and see if it crashes there? Or have someone else log onto the crashing PC and see if it still crashes. – Tim Williams Apr 07 '17 at 19:37
  • Hmm, looking at the website, it looks like a COM add-in for the host application itself, not the VBE. Should be more stable. Best place to ask might quite possibly be the add-in vendor. This question doesn't look like it's a good fit for the SO Q&A format. Seems to be prompting for anecdotal "Me too!" answers. – Mathieu Guindon Apr 07 '17 at 19:41
  • Thank you all so far. I will ask them to check, if there is a profile relation. At Mat's Mug: I don't really believe, that the power-user-tool is the reason for the crash, as my addin still crashed after we de-installed the power-user-tool. But I thought it might be better to ask, because some people here might be expierenced with it, which I am not. At all: Any other ideas which part of the computers we could check for differences which might have an impact on PowerPoint and VBA addins? – RuudGullit Apr 08 '17 at 10:44
  • Look for a bluetooth COM add-in. Some of these can cause crashes. – Steve Rindsberg Apr 08 '17 at 21:08
  • Two month later ... ;-) There was a Bluetooth COM add-in, but it was not the one. The macros had to copy Contents from a hidden presentation and to find it, we used Environ$("USERNAME") & "\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns\" Obviously the USERNAME was not defined correct on the machine. I don't know. At last, after changing the command to Environ$("appdata") & "\Microsoft\AddIns\" everything worked. Thank you for your ideas. By the way, does anyone know a way to reach the Desktop when trying to avoid using "USERNAME"? Environ$("desktop") does not work - but maybe there is a way? – RuudGullit May 31 '17 at 15:45

2 Answers2

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The macros had to copy contents from a hidden presentation. To find this hidden presentation, we used Environ$("USERNAME") & "\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\AddIns\" Obviously the USERNAME was not defined correct on the machine. I don't know. At last, after changing the command to

Environ$("appdata") & "\Microsoft\AddIns\"

everything worked.

RuudGullit
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Following up to your question from comments:

By the way, does anyone know a way to reach the Desktop when trying to avoid using "USERNAME"? Environ$("desktop") does not work - but maybe there is a way?

Special folders can be accessed via Wscript.Shell object's SpecialFolders method:

Dim desktopPath 
With CreateObject("WSCRIPT.SHELL")
    desktopPath = .SpecialFolders("Desktop")
End With

According to Ron de Bruin, SpecialFolders include:

  • AllUsersDesktop
  • AllUsersStartMenu
  • AllUsersPrograms
  • AllUsersStartup
  • Desktop
  • Favorites
  • Fonts
  • MyDocuments
  • NetHood
  • PrintHood
  • Programs
  • Recent
  • SendTo
  • StartMenu
  • Startup
  • Templates

Possibly related to your original problem (or at least, assisting in debugging the source of the error):

Default PowerPoint configuration prevents the user from entering "Debug" mode when there is runtime error in PowerPoint add-in. This can be overridden by adding a DWORD to the registry, see this solution. You will need to slightly modify for 2013 vs 2010 registry path.

David Zemens
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