Claude Plugin

Question

I've been using the Claude addin for Excel, and now I get an error that reads "you don't have permission to use this addin. contact your system administrator to use request access." What am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

Hello,

I believe this may be a widespread issue. I am seeing reports from users in different locales experiencing the same problem. It seems to affect add-ins in general when using the desktop version of the app.

I am experiencing the same issue on my end as well. I have not found any official Microsoft announcement about this yet, but at this point, it does not appear to be something you can fix locally. We may need to wait for Microsoft to address it on their end.

A temporary workaround is to sign out, then install could go through. Then sign back in. You might have to do this everytime you use the app though.

Answer 2

The message indicates a permission or policy issue, not something being done wrong.

Based on current known issues with centrally deployed Office add-ins, this error can appear after certain Office updates and is often resolved by refreshing admin-managed add-ins or having an administrator force a refresh.

Try these steps in Excel on the affected machine:

1. In Excel, go to Home > Add-ins.
2. Select More add-ins.
3. Open the Admin Managed tab.
4. Select the Refresh button in the top-right corner.
5. After the list refreshes, locate the Claude add-in and open it again.

If the Claude add-in still shows the same error, contact the organization’s IT administrator and ask them to:

1. Create the registry key to force a refresh of admin-managed add-ins:
   • Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\WEF\TrustedCatalogs\ClearInstalledExtensions
   • Value: DWORD = 1
2. After setting this, have the user restart Excel and try loading the Claude add-in again.

If the environment is managed by an organization, it is also possible that a feature restriction or group policy is blocking the add-in. In that case, only the administrator can change the policy or grant access.

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References:

• Office Add-ins known issues
• Understanding feature restrictions
• Commands on the Ribbon are disabled by the administrator