We’ve come a long way over the years when it comes to where we store our files. In the 80’s and 90’s it was all about local storage; the venerable C:, or “C-drive”. Then in the 2000’s, when connecting all of the office computers together on a network became the norm, companies told us not to save our precious data on the C-drive but instead to the network. The rational for this was sound; the I.T. department will backup the files on the network, whereas your local files are not backed up, and files on the network are accessible to you and others from any computer in the company.
Now the push is to save data to “The Cloud”. By saving data to The Cloud the files are of course backed up but they are also accessible to anyone inside or outside the company, provided they are granted the appropriate rights to do so.
Psssst; don’t tell anyone because it will ruin the illusion, but “The Cloud” is just a fancy way of saying “someone else’s hard drive”.
Now that we are becoming reconditioned to saving our data to this nebulous Cloud, how can you save or retrieve your data from within Office 2016.
Because Microsoft has their own cloud-based storage solution called “OneDrive”, support for OneDrive is integrated into all of the Office 2016 products. But what if you store your information in Dropbox? Is there a way to add your Dropbox account to Office 2016? The bad news is, there is no built-in means of adding your Dropbox account to Office 2016, but there is a bit of a hack that you can perform on the Registry that will get the job done.
The below batch file script will detect the version of Windows you are running and modify the Registry to add Dropbox accessibility to Office 2016. Simply copy the code below into notepad and save the file with a .BAT extension (this stands for “batch file” in case you’re not to familiar with file extensions) and then execute the batch file.
NOTE: If your user account does not have administrator-level privileges, you will need to run this as Administrator. This can be done by holding down the SHIFT key and then right-clicking on the batch file and selecting “Run as Administrator”. Enter in your administrator account name and password to run the batch file.
After you have update your Registry, perform the following steps to add your Dropbox account to Office 2016.
STEP 1
Launch Word, Excel, or PowerPoint 2016
STEP 2
Click FILE in the upper-left corner of the application to enter the Backstage
STEP 3
In the Backstage, select ACCOUNT on the left side (1)
Click ADD SERVICE (2)
Click STORAGE (3)
Click DROPBOX (4)
STEP 4
Your Dropbox account should now be listed as a connected service
STEP 5
Close and restart the application. Although this is not actually necessary, it’s easier to do this than to write what you actually have to do. (It’s 30 minutes before I leave for Christmas vacation and I’m feeling a bit lazy. I’m sure you’ll understand.)
RESULT
Your Dropbox account will now be listed in the OPEN and SAVE AS panels of the Backstage view.
===========================================================
CODE BEGINS HERE
===========================================================
@ECHO OFF
ECHO This file modifies the registry in Windows 7, 8, or 10 to add Dropbox as a service within Office 2013/2016.
ECHO This script is provided as is and no warranty or support of any form is offered.
ECHO
ECHO Do you want to continue? Press CTRL-C to terminate this process.
pause
ECHO Please enter the complete path your dropbox folder in the following format, note there is no end slash: C:\Users\Username\Location
SET /P dropboxdir=[promptString]
REM Check Windows Version
ver | findstr /i “5\.0\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_2000
ver | findstr /i “5\.1\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_XP
ver | findstr /i “5\.2\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_2003
ver | findstr /i “6\.0\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_Vista
ver | findstr /i “6\.1\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_Win7
ver | findstr /i “6\.2\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_Win8
ver | findstr /i “10\.0\.” > nul
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto ver_Win10
goto warn_and_exit
:ver_Win10
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “DisplayName” /t REG_SZ /d “Dropbox”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “Description” /t REG_SZ /d “Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere.”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “Url48x48” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_48x48.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “LearnMoreURL” /t REG_SZ /d “https://www.dropbox.com/”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “ManageURL” /t REG_SZ /d “https://www.dropbox.com/account”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “LocalFolderRoot” /t REG_SZ /d “%dropboxdir%”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url48x48” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_48x48.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url40x40” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_40x40.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url32x32” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_32x32.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url24x24” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_24x24.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url20x20” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_24x24.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url16x16” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_16x16.png”
goto end
:ver_Win8
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “DisplayName” /t REG_SZ /d “Dropbox”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “Description” /t REG_SZ /d “Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere.”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “Url48x48” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_48x48.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “LearnMoreURL” /t REG_SZ /d “https://www.dropbox.com/”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “ManageURL” /t REG_SZ /d “https://www.dropbox.com/account”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “LocalFolderRoot” /t REG_SZ /d “%dropboxdir%”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url48x48” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_48x48.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url40x40” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_40x40.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url32x32” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_32x32.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url24x24” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_24x24.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url20x20” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_24x24.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url16x16” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_16x16.png”
goto end
:ver_Win7
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “DisplayName” /t REG_SZ /d “Dropbox”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “Description” /t REG_SZ /d “Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere.”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “Url48x48” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_48x48.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “LearnMoreURL” /t REG_SZ /d “https://www.dropbox.com/”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “ManageURL” /t REG_SZ /d “https://www.dropbox.com/account”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad” /v “LocalFolderRoot” /t REG_SZ /d “%dropboxdir%”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url48x48” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_48x48.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url40x40” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_40x40.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url32x32” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_32x32.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url24x24” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_24x24.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url20x20” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_24x24.png”
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Cloud Storage\2c0ed794-6d21-4c07-9fdb-f076662715ad\Thumbnails” /v “Url16x16” /t REG_SZ /d “http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46565/metro/Dropbox_16x16.png”
goto end
:ver_Vista
:Run Windows Vista specific commands here
REM echo This script does not support Windows Vista
goto end
:ver_2003
:Run Windows Server 2003 specific commands here
REM echo This script does not support Windows Server 2003
goto end
:ver_XP
:Run Windows XP specific commands here
REM echo This script does not support Windows XP
goto end
:ver_2000
:Run Windows 2000 specific commands here
REM echo This script does not support Windows 2000
goto end
:warn_and_exit
echo Machine OS cannot be determined.
:end
ECHO The script is finished!
ECHO If you don’t see any errors, you can close this window.
ECHO Any error messages can be posted on https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=93098
pause
===========================================================
CODE ENDS HERE
===========================================================