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Remove Unwanted Add Ons
-->Office add-ins help you personalize your documents and streamline the way you access information on the web (see Start using your Office Add-in). As an admin, you can deploy Office add-ins for the users in your organization. You can do this using the Centralized Deployment feature in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Centralized Deployment is the recommended and most feature-rich way for most admins to deploy add-ins to users and groups within an organization. For more information on how to determine if your organization can support Centralized Deployment, see Determine if Centralized Deployment of add-ins works for your Office 365 organization.
Centralized Deployment provides the following benefits:
A Global admin can assign an add-in directly to a user, to multiple users via a group, or to everyone in the tenant.
When the relevant Office application starts, the add-in automatically downloads for the user. If the add-in supports add-in commands, the add-in automatically appears in the Ribbon within the Office application.
Add-ins will no longer appear for users if the admin turns off or deletes the add-in, or if the user is removed from Azure Active Directory or from a group that the add-in is assigned to.
Note
For Word, Excel and PowerPoint use a SharePoint App Catalog to deploy add-ins to users in an on-premises environment with no connection to Office 365 and/or support for SharePoint add-ins required. > For Outlook use Exchange control panel to deploy in an on-premises environment without a connection to Office 365. >
Recommended approach for deploying Office add-ins
Consider rolling out add-ins in a phased approach to help ensure your add-in deployment goes smoothly. We recommend the following plan:
Roll-out the add-in to a small set of business stakeholders and members of the IT department. Evaluate if the deployment was successful, and if so, move on to step 2.
Roll-out to a larger set of individuals within the business who will be using the add-in. Again, evaluate results and, if all went well, go to the next step of a full deployment.
Full rollout to target audience of users.
Depending on the size of the target audience, you may want to add or remove roll-out steps.
Deploy an Office add-in using the admin center
Before you begin, see Determine if Centralized Deployment of add-ins works for your Office 365 organization.
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to the Settings > Add-ins page.
Select Deploy Add-in at the top of the page. On the overview page, select Next.
Select an option and follow the instructions.
If you selected the option to add an add-in from the Office Store, you can now make your add-in selection. Notice that you can view available add-ins via categories of Suggested for you, Rating, or Name. Only free add-ins are available to add from the Office Store. Paid add-ins aren't supported currently. Once you've selected your add-in, you will need to agree to some additional terms and conditions in order to proceed.
NOTE: With the Office Store option, updates and enhancements to the add-in will automatically be made available to users without your intervention.On the next page, select Everyone, Specific users/groups or Just me to specify who the add-in is deployed to. Use the Search box to find the users or groups who you want to deploy the add-in to.
NOTE: Learn about the other states that apply to an add-in. See Add-in states later in this topic.Select Deploy.
A green tick will appear when the add-in has been deployed. You can follow the on-page instructions to test that the add-in has deployed successfully.
Note
Users may need to relaunch Office to see the add-in icon appear on the ribbon of app. Outlook add-ins can take up to 24 hours to appear on users' ribbons.
- When finished, select Next. If you've deployed to just yourself, you can select Change who has access to add-in in order to deploy to more users.
If you've deployed the add-in to members of your organization other than yourself, follow the instructions displayed in order to effectively announce the deployment of the add-in.
You now see your add-in along with other apps in Office 365.
It's a good idea to inform the users and groups who you deployed the add-in to so that they know that it's available. Consider sending an email to them that describes when and how to use the add-in and explains how the add-in can help them do their job better. Include or link to relevant Help content or FAQs that might help if users have any problems with the add-in.
Considerations when assigning an add-in to users and groups
Admins can assign an add-in to everyone or to specific users and groups. Each option has implications:
Everyone: As the name implies, this option assigns the add-in to every user in the tenant. Use this option sparingly and only for add-ins that are truly universal to your organization.
Users: If you assign an add-in to an individual user, then to deploy the add-in to a new user, you will need to first add that user. The same goes for removing users.
Groups: If you assign an add-in to a group, users who are added to the group will automatically be assigned the add-in. And, when a user is removed from a group, the user loses access to the add-in. In either case, no additional action is required from you as the admin.
Just me: If you assign an add-in to just yourself, this assigns the add-in to only your account. This is ideal if you wish to test out the add-in first.
The option that is right for your organization depends on your configuration. However, we recommend making assignments via groups. As an admin, you might find it easier to manage add-ins using groups and control the membership of those groups rather than having to change the users assigned each time. On the other hand, in some situations, you may want to restrict access to a very small set of users and therefore make assignments to specific users. As a result, you will need to manage the assigned users manually.
Add-in states
Admins can turn on or off the add-ins they deploy for all users from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- In the admin center, go to the Settings > Add-ins page.
- Select the deployed add-in.
- Click the Status toggle to turn the add-in On or Off.
- Save the changes.
One of three add-in states is also available.
State | How the state occurs | Impact |
---|---|---|
Active | Admin uploaded the add-in and assigned it to users or groups. | Users and groups assigned to the add-in see it in the relevant clients. |
Turned off | Admin turned off the add-in. | Users and groups assigned to the add-in no longer have access to it. If the add-in state is changed to Active, the users and groups will have access to it again. |
Deleted | Admin deleted the add-in. | Users and groups assigned the add-in no longer have access to it. |
Consider deleting an add-in if no one is using it any more. Turning off an add-in may make sense if an add-in is used only during specific times of the year.
Security of Office add-ins
Office add-ins combine an XML manifest file that contains some metadata about the add-in, but most importantly points to a web application which contains all the code and logic. Add-ins can range in their capabilities. For example, add-ins can:
Display data.
Read a user's document to provide contextual services.
Read and write data to and from a user's document to provide value to that user.
For more information about the types and capabilities of Office add-ins, see Office Add-ins platform overview, especially the section 'Anatomy of an Office Add-in.'
To interact with the user's document, the add-in needs to declare what permission it needs in the manifest. A five-level JavaScript API access-permissions model provides the basis for privacy and security for users of task pane add-ins. The majority of the add-ins in the Office Store are level ReadWriteDocument with almost all add-ins supporting at least the ReadDocument level. For more information about the permission levels, see Requesting permissions for API use in content and task pane add-ins.
When updating a manifest, the typical changes are to an add-in's icon and text. Occasionally, add-in commands change. However, the permissions of the add-in do not change. The web application where all the code and logic for the add-in runs can change at any time, which is the nature of web applications.
Updates for add-ins happen as follows:
Line-of-business add-in: In this case, where an admin explicitly uploaded a manifest, the add-in requires that the admin upload a new manifest file to support metadata changes. The next time the relevant Office applications start, the add-in will update. The web application can change at any time.
Note
Admin does not need to remove a LOB Add-in for doing an update. In the Add-ins section, Admin can simply click on the LOB Add-in and choose the Update Button in the bottom right corner. Update will work only if the version of the new add-in is greater than that of the existing add-in.
Office Store add-in: When an admin selected an add-in from the Office Store, if an add-in updates in the Office Store, the add-in will update later in Centralized Deployment. The next time the relevant Office applications start, the add-in will update. The web application can change at any time.
Edit Add-in access
Post deployment, admins can also modify the user access to add-ins.
In the admin center, go to the Settings > Services & add-ins page.
Select the deployed add-in.
Click on Edit under Who has Access.
Save the changes.
Prevent add-in downloads by turning off the Office Store across all clients (Except Outlook)
Note
Outlook add-in installation is managed by a different process.
As an organization you may wish to prevent the download of new Office add-ins from the Office Store. This can be used in conjunction with Centralized Deployment to ensure that only organization-approved add-ins are deployed to users within your organization.
To turn off add-in acquisition:
In the admin center, go to the Settings > Services & add-ins page.
Select User owned apps and services.
Clear the option to let users access the Office store.
This will prevent all users from acquiring the following add-ins from the store.
Add-ins for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2016 from:
Windows
Mac
Office
Acquisitions starting within AppSource
Add-ins within Office 365
A user who tries to access the store will see the following message: Sorry, Office 365 has been configured to prevent individual acquisition of Office Store add-ins.
Support for turning off the Office Store is available in the following versions:
Windows: 16.0.9001 - Currently available.
Mac: 16.10.18011401 - Currently available.
iOS: 2.9.18010804 - Currently available.
The web - Currently available.
This does not prevent an administrator from using Centralized Deployment to assign an add-in from the Office Store.
To prevent a user from signing in with a Microsoft account, you can restrict logon to use only the organizational account. For more information, look here.
Minors and acquiring add-ins from the Store
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation that becomes effective May 25, 2018. It gives users rights to and protection of their data. One of the aspects of the GDPR is that minors cannot have their personal data sent to parties that their parent or guardian hasn't approved. The specific age defined as a minor depends on the region where the individual is located.
Regions that have statutory regulations about parental consent include the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. For those regions, a minor will be blocked (via Azure Active Directory) from getting any new Office add-ins from the Store and running add-ins that were previously acquired. For countries without statutory regulations, there will be no download restrictions.
A user is determined to be a minor based on data specified in Azure Active Directory. The tenant admin is responsible for declaring the legal age group and the parental consent for that user.
If the parent/guardian consents to a minor using a specific add-In, then the tenant admin can use centralized deployment to deploy that add-In to all minors who have consent.
To be GDPR compliant for minors you need to ensure that one of following builds of Office is deployed in your school/organization.
For Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Project:
Platform | Build number |
Office 2016 ProPlus Monthly for Windows | 9001.2138 |
Office 2016 ProPlus Semi-Annual | 8431.2159 |
Office 2016 for Windows | 16.0.4672.1000 |
Office 2013 for Windows | 15.0.5023.1000 |
Office 2016 for Mac | 16.11.18020200 |
Office for the web | N/A |
For Outlook:
Platform | Build number |
Outlook 2016 for Windows (MSI) | Build No TBD |
Outlook 2016 for Windows (C2R) | 16.0.9323.1000 |
Office 2016 for Mac | 16.0.9318.1000 |
Outlook mobile for iOS | 2.75.0 |
Outlook mobile for Android | 2.2.145 |
Outlook.com | N/A |
Office 2013 requirements
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2013 for Windows will support the same minor checks if Active Directory Authentication Library (ADAL) is enabled. There are two options for compliance, as explained next.
Enable ADAL. This article explains how to enable ADAL for Office 2013: Using Office 365 modern authentication with Office clients.
You also need to set the registry keys to enable ADAL as explained in Enable Modern Authentication for Office 2013 on Windows devices.
Additionally, you need to install the following April updates for Office 2013:Don't enable ADAL. If you're unable to enable ADAL in Office 2013, then our recommendation is to use Group Policy to turn off the Store for the office clients. Information on how to turn off the app for Office settings is located here.
End user experience with add-ins
Now that you've deployed the add-in, your end users can start using it in their Office applications (see Start using your Office Add-in). The add-in will appear on all platforms that the add-in supports.
If the add-in supports add-in commands, the commands appear on the Office ribbon. In the following example, the command Search Citation appears for the Citations add-in.
If the deployed add-in doesn't support add-in commands or if you want to view all deployed add-ins, you can view them via My Add-ins.
In Word 2016, Excel 2016, or PowerPoint 2016
Select Insert > My Add-ins.
Select the Admin Managed tab in the Office Add-ins window.
Double-click the add-in you deployed earlier (in this example, Citations ).
In Outlook
On the Home ribbon, select Get Add-ins.
Select Admin-managed in the left nav.
Delete the add-in
You can also delete an add-in that was deployed.
In the admin center, go to the Settings > Services & add-ins page.
Select the deployed add-in.
Click on Delete Add-In. Remove the Add-in button on the bottom right corner.
Validate your selections, and choose Remove add-in.
Learn more
Learn more about creating and building Office Add-ins.
Use Centralized Deployment PowerShell cmdlets to manage add-ins.
If you have browser extensions you're not using, they can slow down your Mac and sluggish web browsing. Moreover, you can have extensions and plugins you never installed. They just appeared in your browser at some point and you would be lucky if they’re not malware or bloatware. How did it happen? When you browse the web and download stuff from unknown websites, some of them get paid to add extensions to their download items. That’s how you end up with weird add-ons, search bars, ad stripes, trackers, and other useless additions.If you need to quickly disable or remove all the sluggish extensions from all browsers, use CleanMyMac X. It’s a safe Mac cleaner that lets you remove all add-ons a few clicks.
Teams Outlook Add In For Mac
Add-ons, extensions, and plugins - what is the difference
While often used interchangeably, these terms are quite different. Let’s make clear what they are first. All of them are pieces of software created to extend the functionality of your browsers. All of them are installed onto a browser and run with it, providing you with additional tools. And all of them don’t come as part of the browser initially because they’re not essential. Now, let’s assess the differences.
Plug-ins or plugins can only change something in the web pages you’re seeing. They cannot install toolbars or provide additional menus in the browser itself.
Extensions are the same as add-ons and they can do all sorts of things, like add stuff into the browser, process and change web pages, etc.
To make it even clearer: an extension can have a plugin inside of it, but not vice versa.
For the most part, extensions (or addons) do a good job of enhancing your browsers or apps in the way you need them to. However, when there’s a too much of them, they are poorly mare or even malicious, you can have troubles.
Why it’s vital to steer clear from extra or unknown add-ons
- They slow down your browsers.
- They slow down your Mac.
- Plugins can alter your browser’s behavior.
- Plugins can alter the way websites look for you.
- Some extensions insert additional advertisement into websites.
- Tracking extensions send info about your web behavior to corporations.
- They can be harmful and contain malicious code (malware).
How to manage plugins and add-ons on Mac
Before we proceed to manual removal, it’s worth mentioning that if you need it done fast and safe, it’s much easier with an app. Simply download CleanMyMac X, click the Extensions tab, and clean up all of the add-ons and plugins you don’t need in Safari, and Firefox. Also, you can disable (but not delete) extensions in Google Chrome browser. Now, let’s see how you can do it on your own.
How to add and remove Chrome extensions manually
- Open Chrome.
- Click a small three-dot burger icon in the top-right corner.
- More tools > Extensions.
- You see a list of Chrome addons you have installed.
- You can disable (turn off) or completely remove any of them. To add new extensions, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Get more extensions.
How to add and remove plugins in Firefox manually
- Open Firefox.
- Click on the burger menu in the top-right corner.
- Choose Add-ons.
- You can see Extensions and Plugins tabs on the left.
- There you can remove or disable them.
- To get new extensions, click on Get Add-ons tab.
- Scroll to the bottom and choose See more add-ons!
You can also upload an add-on from file. To do this:
- Go to Extensions tab.
- Click on the gear icon > Install Add-on From File
How to add and remove Safari extensions manually
- Open Safari.
- Choose Safari > Preferences in the top menu.
- Open Extensions tab.
- You can now manage your extensions.
- To install another one, click on More extensions.
How to remove adware web browser extensions
This is a tricky business. Adware is not as straightforward and simple as the rest of extensions. It's a piece of malicious code that was created with the sole purpose of showing you advertisement and misleading you to harmful websites. So sometimes it does help to just find the odd-named extension on your list in the browser in question and delete it, but not always.
What can you do if the ads keep popping up or redirecting your every move to some website? How to you remove adware web browser extensions for good? You can try Adblock. It's a free plugin that works on all browsers and you can access its settings and set a specific website to be blocked from opening in your browser. So the adware won't be able to redirect you to that place anymore.
Now you know everything there is to know about extensions on Mac and how to deal with them. We hope this guide has been of help.
How to quickly remove add-ons from browser
If you tried to remove extensions manually but your Mac still have troubles working or loading web pages, we suggest using a Mac utility like CleanMyMac. This is the one app you really need if you want to save time. Just upload it and you are ready to go!
CleanMyMac X's Extensions allows to remove not only plugins and add-ons that we’ve talked about, but also Widgets, Application Plugins, Preference Panes, Dictionaries, Screen Savers, and Login Items easily.
Apart from ordinary applications, there are quite a lot of other software components on your system, that can be generally described as extensions. This module of CleanMyMac automatically sorts these items into the corresponding groups for you to work with:
Widgets
Your small Dashboard apps can be easily disabled or completely removed along with all related data.
Login Items
Manage the list of applications that will be automatically launched every time you log in. Sometimes small adware programs also sneak into your startup items without your approval. Preference Panes All of your Preference Panes come with tons of support files spread over the system, which are hard to locate without CleanMyMac.
Microsoft Add Ons For Mac And Cheese
Screen Savers
Removing an unnecessary screen saver correctly is easy with CleanMyMac. However, you can also disable one to make it temporarily unavailable for System Preferences.
Dictionaries
Not all the inbuilt Mac OS dictionaries are of any use for you, but they do waste space. You can easily remove unnecessary dictionaries or disable them temporarily.
After you have reviewed the lists, you can click the ‘Disable’ button next to virtually any item to isolate it from your system:
Or, you can select items for complete removal using their corresponding checkboxes.
Remember that disabling an extension is an easily-reversible operation, however, if you decide on removing an item completely, you will not be able to undo this action.
If needed, any of the listed items can be added to CleanMyMac’s Ignore List so that it never offers to remove them later.
After you have looked through the sections you found interesting and selected the unwanted items, you can go ahead and use the main Remove button to finalize your work.
Microsoft Add Ons For Mac Book Pro
Now you know everything there is to know about extensions on Mac and how to deal with them. We hope this guide has been of help.