I am currently running Excel 2010 Standard.  In our environment we have an AS400 that can create Excel files (97-2003 format) that earlier versions of Excel would open without an issue.  With Excel 2010 I am unable to open the file, even though I've unchecked all of the Protected View settings.  Is there anyway to disable all of the protected view options from ever running?  I understand it's a security thing, but it is causing more issues in my environment than preventing.

Go to File - Options - Trust Center - Trust Center button - Protected View - uncheck the first 3 options from the right side.

I've already done that and it still does not turn it all off.  There is still something enabled somewhere that is causing it to open in protected view. 

Are you sure that what you see is Protected View ?

If you have unchecked those options from Trust Center, Protected View should be disabled.

I tried myself and it is disabled.

Yes I know I was in protected view.  It's pretty obvious when you're in there.  I even turned off DEP just to make sure it wasn't intefering.  Just for your edification I've included links to three screenshots.  One showing protected view, COMPLETELY turned off, followed by a screenshot of a file being BLOCKED by PROTECTED VIEW, then followed up with what shows on the details page.

http://www.visionsrealm.us/images/proview/ProtectedView.jpg

http://www.visionsrealm.us/images/proview/ProtectedView2.jpg

http://www.visionsrealm.us/images/proview/ProtectedView3.jpg

Before you ask I have saved the file from my email to a folder within my documents.  So not only was it removed from email, to prevent the issue of opening in protected view because it was from Outlook.  But I also made sure that it was in a trusted location.

Now tell me, if it is COMPLETELY turned off, why is my file being BLOCKED?

Like my question said before, where else do I need to go to COMPLETELY disable protected view.

Try this: go to regedit and add this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation with “EnableOnLoad”=dword:00000000

 

If that doesn't work, see this post: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/officeitpro/thread/fe348ce0-758d-4e5f-b181-5ede0e2d93a4/

 

• Marked as answer by Jason Klingberg Tuesday, July 26, 2011 5:35 PM
• Edited by Alexandru DionisieMVP Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:01 PM

That did the trick.  Just wish I didn't have to go and manually add a reg key to make it work as expected.  Hopefully something they can improve on later on.

Thanks for the assist.

Regards,

Jason

Now, you could save that key so you don't have to re-create it manually next time.

An alternative to adding the key, might be to go to the File Block Setting in the Trust Center, and un-check any old file types that may be checked off.  (At least this worked for me.)

• Proposed as answer by DisableProtectedView Friday, November 04, 2011 3:20 PM

An alternative to adding the key, might be to go to the File Block Setting in the Trust Center, and un-check any old file types that may be checked off.  (At least this worked for me.)

We have an application that exports XLS files in an old Excel version (much like Jason's AS/400 does).  I notice that "Protected View" is the feature that's doing the blocking, but upon clicking the link "Editing this file type is not allowed due to your policy settings.  Click for more details." It specifically states what's doing the blocking:

"Editing this file type (Excel 4 Worksheets) is not allowed due to your policy settings"

It then gives a link to "File Block Settings" which you've pointed out.  In there, I unchecked the Excel 4 Worksheets (and workbooks for good measure) and now those files that we export from this particular app are opened in "editable" mode.

NOTE: Going through this link only changes this workbook.  To change this setting for ALL workbooks, you have to open Excel as if to create a new excel workbook, go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > File Block Settings.

HTH

• Edited by thisisfutile1 Tuesday, November 15, 2011 6:02 PM

Just wanna say THANK YOU!!!

This worked........thank you so much!!!!!  I have been playing with this issue for 2 days.

Thank you So Much i worked Good

Disabling all the settings and adding the FileValidation key with EnableOnLoad=dword:00000000 didn't work for me.

I had to go into Trust Center Settings and add the My Documents folder (with sub-folders) to my Trusted Locations.

The irony about the message "Opening in Protected View" is that Excel never appears to actually open.