From that motivation came Protected View and other Trust Center features into the Office suite. ConclusionĪfter the Melissa virus (not named after me, luckily) in 1999, Microsoft stepped up its security game and looked for ways to truly protect users. Never just blindly open a file, especially when it comes from a source you’re unfamiliar with. While this won’t protect all threats after disabling Protected View in Office, it’ll help mitigate some of the risks. Whenever you download a file you’ll use in Office, use an anti-virus program to scan it first. If you wish to enable it again, simply repeat the above steps and check the boxes for Protected View options once more. Anything you open going forward will not require you to enable editing first. Repeat these steps for each Office program you use, and you will have disabled Protected View.

Uncheck each box, then click “OK” and Protected View in your given program will be turned off. Next, find “Trust Center” and click on it.Ĭlick on “Protected View” and this will open up the settings related to its functionality.īy default, all three options will be checked for your safety. We recommend leaving it on for any program you don’t use, such as PowerPoint or Access and disable it for the programs you might use more frequently, like Office and Excel.įor this walkthrough, we’re using Outlook to show you the steps.Ĭlick on “File” in the top navigation of an open document or Office program. Proceed with caution when disabling Protected View in Office.įor each program you use within Office, you’ll need to turn Protected View off individually. If you aren’t sure where the document came from or who the sender is, it can protect you from viruses, macro attacks, and more. Note: Protected View in Office software is designed to protect you. Let’s look at how to disable protected view in Office and what this means for security. In some cases, Protected View will also flag a document, spreadsheet, or file when it comes from a previous version of Office compared to what you’re currently using.

Protected View is a built-in security feature in the Office productivity suite that helps keep you safe from documents you didn’t create, you downloaded online, or are shared with you from others. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Office for your document needs, you’ve no doubt been frustrated by Protected View.

Protected view microsoft word