power bi publisher for excel runtime error

[dmacdonald]

Power BI publisher for Excel does not start

When I try to load it i get this message:

"Load Behavior: Not loaded. A runtime error occurred during the loading of the COM Add-in"

I have tried repairing my office installation and re-installing the Power-bi publsiher for Excel.

It shows as inactive in the add-ins.

I'm running a 32-bit version of Office and the add-in.

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @dmacdonald,

Are you able to use Power BI publisher for Excel in other computer? Also please open registry editor and navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Power BI Publisher for Excel”. Here is how this registry key looks like after I installed Power BI publisher, check if your registry key is different from mine.

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[dmacdonald]

Mine are not nything like that:

There is nothing in

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\” 

for Power BI

There is an entry in

“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Power BI Publisher for Excel”.

WIth only and UserInstallID set

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @dmacdonald,

According to your registry key, the Power BI publisher for Excel is not properly installed on your current machine. Have you tried to install Power BI publisher for Excel in other computer and check the result? 

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[dmacdonald]

I'm evaluating this as a BI product that I will roll out to 60 users.

We are using the latest versions of Office365.

My IT group would kill me if a picked one that won't install and reports no errors and no logs of any problems.

I've put a couple hours into this already and have gotten nowhere.

I can't do this for 60 people or to them.

This is just not ready for deployment yet.

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @dmacdonald,

As your post, the correct registry key entry is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Power BI Publisher for Excel .

What is your OS? Could you please share me the version information of Excel? You can check my Excel version in the following screenshot.


Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[dmacdonald]

Windows 10

[Vicky_Song]

@dmacdonald, could you please follow steps in this blog for the trouble shooting steps about how to deal with the "A runtime error occurred during the loading of the COM Add-In" error? 

In addition, in this article which discusses workaround of the same issue in OneNote is to run the addin with Administrator permission. Please also try it to see whether it works in Excel. 

[dmacdonald]

Looks to me like we are still just guessing what the problem is.

Well Powerbi is an msi installer so the instructions actually won't work as described.

Regardless, I ran the msi in an adminstrator elevated environment and there is no change.

Looks like a great tool, but I'll wait to roll it out in my organization once it's stable and reliable,

I think the bigest issue here is that the error messaging and loging is, in a word, useless.

And useless messages are not going to help my IT group install this for 100 users.

[teolachev]

Same here. Publisher can't load. I tried repairing Office, install and reinstall, running under admin. Doesn't work. From what I can tell, there are no errors logged in the Event Viewer. Any tips of how to troubleshoot the load failure? Does the add-in have a log somewhere?

[dmacdonald]

I spent hours on it, it has never worked for me.

I was thinking of using it in our organization, but since it does not work and appears that the error in niether logged or correctable I simply gave up.

[TroyS]

I am trying to put the 32bit version of this product into our environment and am expereinceing the same behavior as the OP. 

We are running Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB 10.0.14393 64bit with Office365 16.0.8431.2046 32bit using Shared Computer Activiation. I've tried it on multiple computers and both exhibit the exact same behavior.  Looking at the registry I do have the Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Power BI Publisher for Excel key with only one StringValue with the name UserInstallId with the data of seemingly random (I know it's not really) letter and number combo xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.  Going into Excel and putting a checkmark back in the COM add-ins area does nothing nor does forcing the addins as enabled via the Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\Microsoft.PowerBI.Client.ExcelAddIn key's LoadBehavior DWORD to Data value of 3.

As a test I tried the 64bit version in our Windows 7 SP1 64bit with Office 2010 64bit environment and it installed and worked just fine.  To be clear, this is not a solution as we are removing this environment in 3 months.

[dmacdonald]

I just gave up on it.

We subscribe to Office 365 for all of our users.

I have a small set using powerbi, but for integration with Excel we use old school data connections that have nothing to do with the powerBI infrastructure.

I'm not sure what the roadmap is for Excel and powerBI, but since MS showed no interest in solving this issue other than the standard, tech support uninstall re-install I don't think even a loose integration is in the plans.

My decision to abandon this appears to be still the right call.

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @dmacdonald,

Firstly, please ensure that you are using Microsoft Excel 2007 or later version as Power BI publisher for Excel is an add-in you can use with Microsoft Excel 2007 and later.

Secondly, according to the above error message, Power BI publisher for Excel is not enabled correctly. Please check out “COM Add-Ins” dialog in Excel following the steps below.

1. Open Excel Options dialog (File->Options) and navigate to Add-Ins tab.
2. Normally Power BI publisher for Excel should show up in the “Active Application Add-ins” list, if the Power BI publisher for Excel add-in is disabled due to any reasons, please select the “COM Add-ins” from the Manage dropdown, then click Go. In the COM Add-Ins dialog box, select the check box next to the disabled Power BI publisher for Excel Add-in.

Thirdly, disable any antivirus program and disable other Excel Add-ins, then check if you can load Power BI publisher for Excel successfully.



Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[dmacdonald]

I disabled all the other add-ins, I repaired office 2016 again.

I unistalled and reinstalled Power Bi publisher.

I shut off the anti-virus.

I still get the same error when I try to enable the  add-in

[BhaveshPatel]

Are you using Excel 2013??