First installation

Configuration parameters

As an administrator, you can configure think-cell to fit your organization's needs and environment. The table in this section lists think-cell configuration parameters for both Windows and macOS installations. For Windows-only configuration options for the PowerPoint and Excel ribbons, see Configure the PowerPoint and Excel ribbons.

The following topics explain how to configure parameters with different methods:

• Windows installation command line: Installation on Windows
• Windows group policies: Group policies
• macOS defaults command: Installation on macOS
• macOS device management solutions, such as Jamf or Intune: Managed deployment on macOS

On Windows, you can only configure installation command-line parameters when installing or reinstalling think-cell. If think-cell is already installed, you can configure parameters using one of the other three methods.

For more information on a parameter, in the table column More information, see the link to the related topic.

For macOS, all keys listed below have to be prefixed with com.think-cell.settings. and target the com.microsoft.office domain. For example, the full licensekey key is com.think-cell.settings.licensekey. If the key listed in the table is of the form [parent key].[subkey], e.g. reports.enabled, then the parent key is of type dict and the subkey is of the type given. For example, reports.enabled is listed as type boolean, which is the type of the enabled key contained in the value of the key of type dict whose full name is com.think-cell.settings.reports.

Installation on Windows

The think-cell installation files, setup_*.msi and setup_*.exe, understand the same parameters as Windows’ msiexec command, though not all combinations are recommended and supported. Note that there is only one installer and think-cell will use 32-bit or 64-bit as needed. Use the setup_*.exe if users shall install think-cell by double-clicking the setup file.

Installation scope

think-cell can be installed per-machine or per-user. If the installing user has admin rights or can elevate via Windows User Account Control (UAC), the default is to use the per-machine context. However, if a user is allowed to install software but does not have admin rights and cannot elevate via UAC, the per-user context is used.

Based on standard behavior of the Windows Installer mechanism it is possible for different think-cell versions to be installed in parallel if they are installed in different contexts (e.g., different versions installed per-user for different user accounts, or a different version installed per-user and per-machine, respectively). If more than one installation exists, it is always the per-user installation of a given user account that is executed. Any other installations (including a per-machine installation) are ignored. This is true even if the per-user installation is an older version than a parallel per-machine installation.

Use the following approaches for scripted or command prompt installations, or if you need to force certain installation options:

Per-machine

setup_*.msi /qn TARGETDIR="<absolute path>"

• The executing account needs full administrator permissions, e.g., by using a script started by remote maintenance software, or by starting the installer from a command prompt which was launched with "Run as administrator". The installation will abort if the account has insufficient privileges.
• Omit the ALLUSERS parameter.
• The other parameters are optional:
  • The /qn parameter suppresses the Windows Installer user interface.

  • The default destination directory is

    %PROGRAMFILES%\think-cell

    on 32-bit Windows systems and

    %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\think-cell

    on 64-bit Windows systems. If you set a different path with the TARGETDIR parameter make sure the destination is readable by all users on the machine.

• If you prefer you may also use the setup_*.exe as follows:

  setup_*.exe ALLUSERS=1

  The other parameters work the same as for the setup_*.msi.

Automatic privilege elevation by Windows User Account Control (UAC)

setup_*.exe /qb

• Omit the ALLUSERS parameter. You will get a per-machine installation if the user account can elevate to administration permissions, otherwise the installer falls back to per-user.
• The other parameters are optional:
  • With Windows 7, /qn may be used to completely suppress the installer’s user interface. /qb displays a progress bar and /qb! removes its Cancel button. With Windows 8 and later versions only /qb is recommended as /qn may silently abort the installation or unexpectedly install per-user even though the account may elevate permissions. (This is due to Microsoft’s changes to UAC in Windows 8 and depends on the account’s specific UAC settings.)

  • For the default destination directory of per-machine installation see above. For per-user installation the default is

    %LOCALAPPDATA%\think-cell

    We don't recommend setting a different path with the TARGETDIR parameter, but if you do, make sure it has the appropriate permissions and ownership for the respective context.

Force per-user

setup_*.exe /qn ALLUSERS=""

• ALLUSERS="" forces a per-user installation even if the user account may elevate permissions by UAC.
• Execute the installer for each user account.
• The other parameters are optional:
  • /qn may be used to completely suppress the installer’s user interface. /qb displays a progress bar and /qb! removes its Cancel button.

  • The default destination directory is

    %LOCALAPPDATA%\think-cell

    We don't recommend setting a different path with the TARGETDIR parameter, but if you do, make sure the directory has the appropriate permissions and ownership for the current user account.

Installed files

The installation directory contains the executables, libraries and other files required for think-cell. Noteworthy are the following directories and files:

• admin-policy-templates (templates necessary for managing settings via Group Policy)
• ppttc (schema and samples for automation using JSON)
• styles (style files and additional examples for customization)
• xml-schemas (schema for think-cell style files)
• NOTICE.txt (obligatory notices for included components)

The think-cell installation does not write to directories other than the chosen installation directory.

While using think-cell additional files are written to the following directories:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\think-cell

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\think-cell

Registry entries

To interact with Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel, the installation of think-cell creates some new keys in the following sections of the Windows registry. Depending on whether you have a regular installation or a single-user-installation, the keys are created in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section:

\Software\Classes\CLSID\ >
{3EAB3858-A0E0-4A3B-A405-F4D525E85265}

\Software\Classes\CLSID\ >
{D52B1FA2-1EF8-4035-9DA6-8AD0F40267A1}

\Software\Classes\thinkcell.addin

\Software\Classes\thinkcell.addin.1

\Software\Microsoft\Office\ >
PowerPoint\Addins\thinkcell.addin

\Software\Microsoft\Office\ >
Excel\Addins\thinkcell.addin

In 64-bit versions of Windows the following additional keys are created:

\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\ >
{3EAB3858-A0E0-4A3B-A405-F4D525E85265}

\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\ >
{D52B1FA2-1EF8-4035-9DA6-8AD0F40267A1}

\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\ >
PowerPoint\Addins\thinkcell.addin

\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\ >
Excel\Addins\thinkcell.addin

The license key and the settings for online quality assurance and automatic updates are saved in the following section of the Windows registry:

Software\Classes\Software\think-cell

If group policies based on think-cell.adm/x (see Group policies) are used in your network, think-cell may also use:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\ >
think-cell

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\ >
think-cell

think-cell changes no other sections of the Windows registry.

Group policies

You can use Windows’ group policies to centrally configure think-cell for a group of users or group of machines. To use group policies, create a group policy object and link it to a site, domain, or organizational unit using the Group Policy Management Console.

The following explanation requires working knowledge of group policy concepts and administration (see Group Policy Management Console (Microsoft)).

think-cell’s specific configuration options are described in the think-cell.admx administrative template file, which is located in think-cell’s installation directory in the subdirectory admin-policy-templates. To use think-cell's group policy settings, copy think-cell.admx and en-US\think-cell.adml from admin-policy-templates to %SYSTEMROOT%\PolicyDefinitions and %SYSTEMROOT%\PolicyDefinitions\en-US, respectively.

A new node think-cell is added to the node Administrative Templates in the following two places: the think-cell settings configured under Computer Configuration determine registry entries at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\ >
think-cell

and the think-cell settings configured under User Configuration determine registry entries at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\ >
think-cell

If settings are enabled at both places, those under Computer Configuration take precedence.

The items of the node think-cell show the available settings that can be controlled with group policies. Each item has a description with the available values for this item.

Using Group Policies to manage access on a terminal server

As an administrator, you can use group policies to activate or deactivate think-cell for a group of individual users. For instance, if you deploy think-cell on a terminal server you need to make sure that only the licensed users have access to think-cell. When used in the following way, group policies offer a convenient method to do so:

1. Set up one group policy object which disables think-cell completely and link it to your domain. Use the Product Access Control setting of the administrative template think-cell with the appropriate value.
2. Add another group policy object which activates the software for the licensed users. This should also be linked to your domain and be applied after the disabling one. Because group policy objects are applied in reverse order the enabling object should be further up in the list in Group Policy Management Console.
3. In the section Security Filtering of the Group Policy Management Console restrict access to the enabling group policy object explicitly to the licensed users of think-cell.

Using Group Policies to distribute the license key

Another convenient use for group policies is the centralized management and distribution of the think-cell license key to the think-cell users in your organization. The license key is controlled via the License Key policy.

Installation on macOS

As an administrator, you can use the think-cell installation file setup_*.pkg interactively or you can script the installation using the standard installer command. Only the domain LocalSystem can be used as a target, i.e., think-cell is always available to all users on the machine.

Administrative settings and configuration parameters are stored in the com.microsoft.office preference domain. See Configuration parameters for an overview of the available settings and their key and type.

For example, you might want to deploy your company's license key to every think-cell installation by adding a line like the following to the same script that calls installer to install the setup_*.pkg file:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office com.think-cell.settings.licensekey "ABCDE-..."

Note: When using defaults to modify the value of a subkey of a dict-valued key, for example the value of the enabled subkey of the com.think-cell.settings.reports key, the subkey needs to be specified as part of a list of key -type value triples following -dict-add as in the following example:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office com.think-cell.settings.reports -dict-add enabled -bool true

Consult the man page for defaults for further information.

Note: In previous versions, think-cell's configuration settings were stored in a config.plist file in think-cell's installation directory. This way of deploying settings is deprecated and may be removed in a future version. If your are deploying configuration settings by writing to the config.plist file, we urge you to move these settings into the com.microsoft.office preference domain to ensure compatibility with future versions of think-cell. Refer to Configuration parameters for key paths and types.

Installed files

think-cell is installed in the following directory:

/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/think-cell

The following items are required for think-cell and are created in the installation directory:

• NOTICE.txt (obligatory notices for included components)
• ppttc (schema and samples for automation using JSON)
• styles (style files and additional examples for customization)
• tcaddin.plugin (the add-in running in PowerPoint and Excel)
• xml-schemas (schema for think-cell style files)

Managed deployment on macOS

You can also use a device management solution such as Jamf Pro or Microsoft Intune to deploy and configure think-cell.

To deploy the configuration settings, the easiest way is to author a .plist file containing the relevant key-value pairs, which you upload to your management solution and target to the com.microsoft.office preference domain. See the documentation of Jamf and Intune for detailed instructions, for example.

Here is an example of a .plist file configuring some of the available settings. For a full list see Configuration parameters.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>com.think-cell.settings.licensekey</key>
	<string>AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE</string>
	<key>com.think-cell.settings.reports</key>
	<dict>
		<key>enabled</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>
	<key>com.think-cell.settings.stockimages</key>
	<dict>
		<key>DisableBrandfolder</key>
		<true/>
		<key>DisableCanto</key>
		<true/>
		<key>DisableGetty</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Note: When using Intune, you need to edit the .plist file before uploading so that it only contains the key-value-pairs, without any surrounding <?xml>, <!DOCTYPE>, <plist>, and (outermost) <dict> tags. The Intune version of the example above would thus look like this:

<key>com.think-cell.settings.licensekey</key>
<string>AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE</string>
<key>com.think-cell.settings.reports</key>
<dict>
	<key>enabled</key>
	<true/>
</dict>
<key>com.think-cell.settings.stockimages</key>
<dict>
	<key>DisableBrandfolder</key>
	<true/>
	<key>DisableCanto</key>
	<true/>
	<key>DisableGetty</key>
	<true/>
</dict>

First start

After think-cell has been installed and the user starts PowerPoint for the first time, a dialog to enter the license key is shown.

With the licensekey configuration parameter a license key can be specified during installation or centrally deployed beforehand (see Configuration parameters).

Also on the first start, the ribbon is switched to the Insert tab, where the think-cell group is located. A web page with a tutorial is also opened. Both actions can be suppressed by the nofirststart configuration parameter (see Configuration parameters).

Browser extension

think-cell comes with a browser extension to enable its Tableau data links functionality, and to import Images and icons from the web into PowerPoint. The extension is available for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.

The extension is automatically installed into Chrome and Edge when think-cell is installed. However, extensions installed in this way need to be enabled manually by the user (see Install the browser extension).

To avoid this need for user interaction, we recommend explicitly managing the installation of the think-cell browser extension using the management policies of the supported browsers. In particular, we recommend force-installing the extension along with think-cell for think-cell users, and blocking the installation for all others, especially if think-cell is installed per-machine on a machine not all users of which have access to think-cell, like a terminal server (compare Using Group Policies to manage access on a terminal server).

The following table summarizes the relevant information.