XL97: Using the Policy Editor to Force Macro Virus Protection

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

WARNING: The information in this article has not been confirmed or tested by Microsoft. Some or all of the information in this article has been taken from unconfirmed customer reports. ANY USE BY YOU OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS ARTICLE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Microsoft provides this information "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, you should first make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat). Both are hidden files in the Windows folder.

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit includes a collection of templates that you can use with the System Policy Editor to specify user policies for the Office programs. However, only the Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint templates provide a specific setting for implementing macro virus protection through policies.

Because this setting is not stored in a separate registry key for Microsoft Excel, the method for implementing this policy is apparent only when you view the Microsoft Excel policy template. This article describes the changes that are required to implement macro virus protection with system policies.

MORE INFORMATION

You can edit the registry using System Policy Editor (Poledit.exe) or Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). Check with your network administrator before you make any changes to the registry.

System Policy Editor (Poledit.exe) is available in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit.

It is assumed that you installed the System Policy Editor and correctly added the Microsoft Office System Policy template that is available in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit (the template is Off97wnt.adm for Microsoft Windows NT clients or Off97w95.adm for Windows 95 clients).

NOTE: System Policy Editor is not included in the floppy disk version of Windows 95. You can download Policy.exe, a self-extracting executable file containing Poledit.exe, from online services. Please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for information about downloading Policy.exe:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q135315
   TITLE     : CD-ROM Extras for Microsoft Windows 95 Upgrade

1. Start the System Policy Editor.

2. On the File menu, click New Policy.

3. Double-click the Default User icon.

4. In the Default User Properties dialog box, click the plus sign next to "Excel 97," click the plus sign next to Tools_Options, and then click the plus sign next to next to BitFields.

5. Click the "Options6 value" check box and type 8 in the "Options6 value" box.

   By setting this value to 8, you also set the policies for all other items in the Option6 bitfield. These items are listed in the following table.

         Item     Function
         ------------------------------------------------------
   
         bit 0    Show Name part of Chart Tips
         bit 1    Show Value part of Chart Tips
         bit 2    Intellimouse Roll action: 0 = scroll, 1= zoom
         bit 3    Macro Virus Protection
         bit 4-15 (Reserved)
   
      When you set the Options6 value to 8, you set the value for bit 3 to 1
      and you set all other bit values to 0. There is no way to prevent this
      behavior from occurring.
   
   

6. Make any other changes, and then save the .pol file.