VSTO

Why

So, why VSTO here in an OpenSource themed wiki?

1. since 2015 .NET is opensource (really)
2. C# ist open source
3. you can get the Visual Studio Comunity Edition for free (really free also for commercial use, if you are not working for a > 250 men company)
4. Word an Excel are running fine with wine (see #MSOffice_2010_and_Wine) - Outlook not tested yet,

In most cases Word, Excel and Powerpoint are the most often used programs in business for daily communication. It is like it is. Beeing able - now - without any restrictions, to program MS-Office legally also for commercial usage. The only "drawback" is: you HAVE TO register the application and therefore create a microsoft account to be able to work with it.

Troubleshooting

Cannot create Excel projects

• [ENG]: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13695526/why-cant-i-create-an-excel-vsto-workbook-project-in-visual-studio-2010/29037321#29037321 Stackoverflow|
• [GER]: Social MSDN

Most likely: You have an PERSONAL.xslb File in the XSLT start folder (see above posts).

Certificate Issues

Signtool

Thanks to this article, I could solve a lot of problems:

• https://robindotnet.wordpress.com/category/visual-studio-tools-for-office-vsto/

You basically can find the path to signtool.exe searching within the MS Visual Studio installation directory:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)
dir /s /b signtool.exe

which leads to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1A\Bin\signtool.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\bin\x64\signtool.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\bin\x86\signtool.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\bin\arm\signtool.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\bin\x64\signtool.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\bin\x86\signtool.exe

set ProjectDir= ...
set ConfigurationName= ...
set TargetFileName= ...
set KeyFilePfx= ...
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\signtool.exe" sign /f %ProjectDir%\%KeyFilePfx%" /p nightbird /v "%ProjectDir%\obj\x86\%ConfigurationName%\%TargetFileName%"

VS Settings

Reset VS settings

• Devenv Command Line Switches: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xee0c8y7.aspx

• As admin: startmenu -> VS2013 -> VS-Tools -> Developer Command Prompt VS2103 (not native!)

devenv /resetuserdata
devenv /setup

• As user: Open Developer Command Prompt VS2103 (not native!)

devenv /resetuserdata 
devenv /setup 
devenv /resetsettings