title: Can't side-load add-in into MS Word on Windows
body: <p>I am currently developing an <a href="https://dev.office.com/docs/add-ins/word/word-add-ins?product=word" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Microsoft Word Web Add-in</a>.</p>
  
  <p>Since I use a Mac, I have downloaded a <a href="https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Windows 10 VM</a> and installed Office using my Office 365 subscription.</p>
  
  <p>I can get Word Add-ins to run on Office 365 and Word for Mac, but not on Word 2016 for Windows.</p>
  
  <p>I can't get Word 2016 on Windows 10 to run any add-ins, whether it is one I have written myself, or one downloaded from the store. Word always shows the Add-in frame with "loading" and then it just stays there; the add-in never loads.</p>
  
  <p>I don't get the menu option to attach a debugger, and there are no obvious error messages.</p>
  
  <p>Are there some restrictions to running Add-ins on VMs? Where do I start to debug this?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <p>I just noticed that my own side-loaded add-in throws an error in a <del>popup</del> <strong>dialog box</strong> that opens <em>behind</em> Word, which then prevents word from opening further add-ins. So if I close the <del>popup</del> <strong>dialog box</strong>, then add-ins from the store work as expected. However I can't side-load my own add-ins.</p>
  
  <p>The error I get is </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Cannot find <code>‘file://msedgewin10/manifest/boilerplate/home.html?_host_Info=Word$Win32$16.01$en-US’</code>. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>However if I paste this address into IE it opens the file with no complaints. Very strange.</p>