If I can clarify the requirement:
1. The Word startup folder is located on a network share and applies to all Office users in the department concerned, via Group Policy
2. The word addins I need to deploy cannot be made available to all users due to licensing.
3. I have been unable to determine whether it is possible to specify a second (or third) startup folder locally.
4. The addins need to load automatically as word starts up. No other user action should be involved.
5. I have created a solution which consists of an autoexec macro which is added to Normal.dotm manually. This does the job perfectly.
6. I have the macro code exported as a BAS file.
7. I need a solution that can run via Active Setup which will add this macro code to the user's Normal.dotm (which is in their personal profile), as I cannot find any other way to achieve the automatic startup of these addins.
I have successfully achieve similar results when adding add-ins to Excel, but I do understand that each Office app comes from a different stable and they do not behave in similar ways.
Therefore, if you can provide me with some pointers to VBA code that I can run as a standard (non admin) user which will mount the Normal.dotm file, edit it, and then dismount and save the file, I would be very happy.
If you can provide an alternative solution for automatically starting Word add-ins from a local folder then please share with me. I have been googling on this issues for many days on and off, so any help you can render would be most welcome.