When updating a PDM add-in, PDM cannot force reload add-ins. Generally, a reboot is required, however, that may not be desirable. There is another method that one can use to reload add-ins on a PDM client or task host and that is to clear out the plugins directory.

To clear out the plugins directory the following processes need to be terminated on the machine running the task;
  • AddinSrv.exe
  • ConisioAdmin.exe
  • EdmServer.exe
  • Explorer.exe
  • Search.exe
You can terminate the processes using Task Manager. Once that is done, in Task Manager, go to File -> New Task-> and enter ‘explorer’ (no quotes). Then delete the directories from C:\Users\LoggedInUser\AppData\Local\SolidWorks\SolidWorks PDM\Plugins\YourVault. (Where LoggedInUser is the user logged into Windows and YourVault is the name of your vault.)
When you log into the vault again and perform a menu action, search, etc, the add-ins will be reloaded from the vault.