High-level technical documentation

Modified on Tue, 15 Oct at 1:34 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VSTO add-ins architecture

As a VSTO add-in for Microsoft Office, Power-user interacts with Microsoft Office according to the below basic architecture:

Microsoft Office VSTO add-ins architecture

You can read more about the VSTO add-ins directly from the Microsoft website here.

By default, the files mentioned on the above illustration will be located here:

Registry files (including deployment manifest) are in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Office/PowerPoint/Addins/PowerUser (and the same for Excel and Word)
The Application manifest and installation files are in C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Power-user, although IT admins can also install them somewhere else

Additionnally, Power-user will save some additionnal files:

Session logs and other temporary files are saved by default in C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Temp\Power-user. The logs are overwritten every time the application is launched
Content files that the users will browse from the application, such as templates, icons, maps, etc. are saved by default in C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\Power-user

Unless Power-user is installed in Plane Mode, devices with Power-user installed will occasionally exchange data with the server.

When the application is started, Power-user will try to connect to the server in order to:

Check for available updates, and if there are any, download the latest software version
Send usage data and let the server know that the device is still active

There are also a few tasks inside the application that can call the server:

We have API connection that allow users to download pictures from partners such as Pexels, Unsplash and Clearbit.
When the Library is opened, Power-user will check if there are available updates to download in the Library

For more information about the data collected by Power-user, and how it's used and protected, please read Data protection & IT security.