Problems removing an Excel Add-in

Introduction

As you probably know by now, I offer a number of tools for your daily Excel work:

• FlexFind
• Name Manager
• RefTreeAnalyser
• Other free tools

Sometimes you decide you no longer need an add in and delete the file from your system. But now, every time you launch Excel, it starts to complain:

Very irritating, as this message pops up every single time you launch Excel.

Trying to solve this (the wrong way)

So let's open the add-ins dialog: File, Options, Add-ins tab, click that "Go..." button to access this dialog:

Now try to click on that add-in (in blue in this screen-shot). Excel asks you if you want it removed:

Hey, this is great! Let's click Yes. This is what the add-ins dialog looks like after doing so:

Look! The addin has left the building! But wait. Close the dialog, close Excel and restart Excel. This is what happens:

Grrrrrr. Excel apparently hasn't really removed the add-in from its list.

Solving the problem

So let's open the add-ins dialog: File, Options, Add-ins tab, click that "Go..." button to access the add-ins dialog once more:

See? The add-in is still there!

Now try to click on that add-in (in blue in this screen-shot). Excel asks you if you want it removed:

Here's the deal: click No.

Next, uncheck the box next to the add-ins name:

Again, Excel asks you to remove the add-in:

Click No

Click the Close button on the add-ins dialog. Excel pops up a familiar message:

Ignore the message and shut down Excel and open it again. The irritating error message should be gone, but we're not there yet. Open the add-ins dialog. Click on the name of the add-in. Excel asks again:

This time, click Yes.

DONE!

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