I am using a program called Progress to open up an excel window. However
when I use the command

DEFINE VARIABLE hExcelObject AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.
CREATE "Excel.Application" hExcelObject.
hExcelObject:VISIBLE = TRUE.
hExcelObject:workbooks:OPEN("something.xls").

to load up an excel window it opens up without loading up any of the addins.
When I go to the addins menu on the newly opened windows then all the addins
that should load are checked already. The only thing that I got to make it
work is to load up is to run a macro that turns off the addin then turns it
back on after the excel window is loaded in order for the addin's to
install. This makes no sense to me.

though the progress code might look a little strange its based off the
activex programming. I found this at the msdn website

Set xl = CreateObject("Excel.Sheet")
xl.Application.Workbooks.Open "newbook.xls"

which is basically the same thing except progress uses a "." to end a line
thus has to substitute theVB "." for ":"

Tony