Alternative Installation Instructions (PC)

I sent you to this page because you're trying to install XLKitLearn on a computer that is locked down in some way by your company. Unfortunately, these situations are not supported by default - it's super difficult to design an add-in that can be installed without at least basic permissions!

Nevertheless, I've written this page with potential solutions that might work for you, based on the experiences of hundreds of students in the past.

This page is split into three sections:

• Getting around installing the .exe file
• Additional step for McKinsey computers
• If all else fails

Getting around installing the .exe file

If you are having trouble installing the .exe file in the first step of the add-in installation instructions, try this.

• Go to the start menu, search for for cmd and open a command prompt. Type echo %LOCALAPPDATA% and press enter. The terminal will print out a path (in my case in the screenshot below, it was C:\Users\crg2133\AppData\Local). Copy this folder path somewhere.

• Download this zip file. When you open it, you should find a single folder in there called XLKitLearn. Unzip this folder directly into the path you copied above. This unzipping process might take 20 minutes or so - there are a lot of files to unzip!

• You should end up with a folder called XLKitLearn in the folder you copied above. This folder should have a file called python3.exe.

• You are now in the same position as you would be if you had installed the .exe file in the the first step of the add-in. Proceed as in the instructions.

If your computer is from McKinsey

If your computer is from McKinsey, you also need to carry out the following steps once you have installed the .exe (or carried out the steps above):

1. Download the XLKitLearn.xlsm file, as instructed in the installation instructions

2. Call GHD so they can run the following code on their command window with Admin Rights

   Powershell

   cd C:\Temp.\Defender_ASR_Exception.ps1

3. Run the Defender_ASR_Exception.ps1 file, and type in your McKinsey password

4. Restart your computer

5. Right click on the XLKitLearn.xlsm file, and click on Add to Windows Defender Exclusions

(Note that steps 2 through 5 should be done with GHD on the phone). The add-in should then work!

I am unbelievably grateful to a past student who worked with McKinsey to identify these required steps for me.

If all else fails

If you are completely unable to install the add-in after trying all of the above, see if you can use a friend's computer, or a computer on campus, annoying as that option might be, with my apologies. If that doesn't work, here are two last-ditch options

• Try and run it wtih the first checkbox selected under "additional options" at the bottom of the add-in (so that a black window pops up when you run it, and stays open). This sometimes helps the add-in get around blocking software.
• You can still take the whole class even if the add-in doesn't work for you. Use the solution files, in which the add-in has already been run, and use the result sheets to do the assignments. This is, of course, far less satisfying, than running the add-in itself, but as a last resort, it works.