Disable protected mode (Office 2010)

Q. I'm getting an error when opening Word or Excel 2010 files "Protected View: This file originated from <blank> and might be unsafe". How do I get rid of it?

A. You need to disable protected mode. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Open MS Word 2010 and go to File → Options

msword2010-step1

2. When Word Options dialog comes up, click on Trust Center and then on Trust Center Settings.

msword2010-step2

3. In the Trust Center, add the required trusted location (eg. C:\MyFolder)

msword2010-step3

Chances are, you are not trying to add a local drive path, but rather a network drive. This may be a bit of a problem. If you can, mount your drive using a server name, rather than IP (eg. \\server1\share). If you can't , you'll have to uncheck "Enable protected View for files originating from the Internet" under Protected View and not bother with trusted locations at all.

msword2010-step4

In its traditional fashion, Microsoft decided to enable extra security. I guess they've put their heads together and decided that nobody mounts shared drives by IP anymore, so there's no way for you to add IP-mounted drive as a trusted source. What is the result of this new feature? People end up disabling it.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 21:25

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Comments (5)

Microsoft Warning regarding trusted documents

5 Thursday, 21 August 2014 05:37

Paul Wesley Bowen

I think it is bordering on bozo and trying to insert control where it is not needed, not necessary, and basically proves the attitude of Microsoft that all things have to pass through them. They have been power crazy hogs since their originator failed to get the overall patents on all computers ...

Re: Mislabeled

4 Tuesday, 31 January 2012 15:47

Ant

@Big Dave: I don't know all the inner workings of the protected mode, but I'm pretty sure that if you un-check all items under "Protected View" it will disable it, including documents downloaded from the internet.

Mislabeled

3 Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:52

Big Dave

This article doe not "disable" protected mode. What this does is a function in protected mode which allows you to add trusted locations so that files in those locations do not open in protected mode. Protected mode is still enabled for untrusted sources.

protected mode

2 Thursday, 18 August 2011 14:32

Ricardo

I do love the extra protection that involves me performing extra steps any time I open a word document. I feel more secure already.

Thanks!

1 Wednesday, 10 August 2011 12:52

Mich H

It worked as described. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to disable it altogether. A lot of files are transferred over the internet and can contain viruses.

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