Problem

Your installation of EZ-VOTE seemingly finished, but when you open PowerPoint, the EZ-VOTE toolbar/tab (formerly called Meridia) is missing.

NEW SINCE 10-20-2020

To speed-up the PowerPoint operation when you're not using your clickers, in the latest version of EZ-VOTE Connect v3.0.188 (b188), the EZ-VOTE tab in PowerPoint will NOT be loaded automatically with PowerPoint or when you open your existing PPTX slideshow file.

To use the EZ-VOTE plugin and your clickers, please open "EZ-VOTE Connect" app from your desktop and then select PowerPoint Polling.

Symptoms

1. If you have limited user rights, you may experience that after installing EZ-VOTE, the "EZ-VOTE" tab doesn't appear, or if it does, clicking on the buttons within the EZ-VOTE toolbar doesn't work as it should.
2. Your installation didn't finish correctly despite you having the 'local admin' rights. This can be caused by some of the prerequisites not being able to be downloaded during the installation, firewall blocking the download, etc... Usually, a bad installation is way too short. The EZ-VOTE Connect Suite should take about 1-2 minutes to install with all components readily available, but if any of the prerequisites need to be downloaded, the installation will depend on the speed of your internet connection and may take up to 5-10 minutes.
3. Your security software (antivirus, anti-malware) blocked the installation. See below for a specific error that could be getting when using AVAST Anti-Virus.
4. Installer did finish correctly, but you may be running a version of Office365 that is not compatible with the EZ-VOTE plugin yet. The rest of the EZ-VOTE Connect Suite will work fine, and you can use your keypads to their full extent of capabilities.
5. You may have multiple versions of Office installed on your computer. See this Solution for details.

Solution

1. If you have limited user rights, contact your IT support to resolve this issue. They must log in to your computer as a 'local admin' and install the EZ-VOTE software for you. Then they should be able to take those rights away while the "EZ-VOTE" tab remains. If you still can't see the EZ-VOTE tab in PowerPoint, check your File --> Options --> Add-ins menu where EZ-VOTE add-in can be found under COM Add-ins (click the Go button at the bottom) and enabled there:
   
   
2. 

1. One more step for the most stubborn installations: in Registry Editor, in Computer\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\EZ-VOTE, find the LoadBehavior record and make sure that the value/data is set to "3"
   1. You may, depending on the level of security and your confidence, be able to import this record by simply downloading and running the attached Registration Entry (see .REG file below).
      
      

1. If IT is helping you, have them download our 'offline package' that will have all the prerequisites included and doesn't have to connect to our servers after the initial download. EZ-VOTE Connect 'offline package' should be about 190MB. If the size of the file is any smaller, the download is not incomplete or became corrupt and you need to re-download it again.

Office365 ProPlus Subscription

Some clients are experiencing issues recently (June 2018) with a specific type of Office 365 subscription. We are looking into this issue and will provide a fix or workaround shortly.

[UPDATE 11-05-18] We have found a workaround that should should work for most users with 'admin' rights. If you don't have admin rights, please contact your IT and ask them to perform the following steps:

- download the attached "Office 365 Business 32-bit Registry Entry" and "Office 365 Business 64-bit Registry Entry" .REG files

- open one file at a time, confirming the prompts resulting from the Registry Editor

- reinstall EZ-VOTE (uninstall, install)

- open PowerPoint and EZ-VOTE tab should be visible now

You may see that EZ-VOTE Connect installer finishes correctly, and all other apps work fine, but the "EZ-VOTE" tab is missing from the PowerPoint Ribbon (toolbar).

There is no record of EZ-VOTE in the Registry Editor under PowerPoint --> Add-Ins, either:

When looking at the Apps & Features Control Panel, and searching for "office", you may see only three related items:

Clicking through the "Microsoft Office Desktop Apps", you'll see that the installation is either incomplete, limited, or the actual size of the installation is listed/recorded elsewhere:

AVAST Anti-Virus (or other security software) Blocks the Installation

Sometimes, your security software will block the installation and/or execution (opening, launching) of the EZ-VOTE apps. This could mean that you can open the EZ-VOTE Connect Dashboard, but you cannot use the PowerPoint plugin, or vice versa.

The error some of our clients experienced when AVAST was blocking their installation attempts looked something like this:

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************* Exception Text *************

System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentDownloadException: Downloading file:///C:/Program Files (x86)/Meridia/EZ-VOTE Connect Suite/EZ-VOTE/Core/EZ-VOTE.vsto did not succeed. ---> System.Net.WebException: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Meridia\EZ-VOTE Connect Suite\EZ-VOTE\Core\EZ-VOTE.vsto'.

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The solution is to disable the security software for a short period of time (5-10 minutes should be plenty) and you reinstall the EZ-VOTE Connect Suite with elevated (admin) rights again.

After a successful installation, make sure that the EZ-VOTE plugin is loading with PowerPoint (at start). If it is not, enable it manually via File --> Options --> Add-ins --> Go and then restart PowerPoint.

Related Issues

My Meridia/EZ-VOTE tab is missing or disabled

EZ-VOTE (Meridia) tab doesn't show in PowerPoint

"Interop Excel" Error When Launching EZ-VOTE Connect

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