WD2000: How to Reduce the Chances of Macro Virus Infection

• Microsoft Word 2000

SUMMARY

This article describes ways you can reduce the risk of infecting Microsoft Word and your documents and templates with macro viruses.

MORE INFORMATION

It is recommended that you use one or more of the following methods to help reduce the possibility of macro virus infection.

NOTE: No one method of protection is a 100 percent guarantee that your installation of Microsoft Word will not be affected by a macro virus.

Method 1: Install and update anti-virus software.

Q49500 Anti-Virus Software Vendors

Method 2: Set a security level in Microsoft Word.

Security Level	Description
High	You can run only macros that have been digitally signed and that you confirm are from a trusted source. Before trusting a source, you should confirm that the source is responsible and uses a virus scanner before signing macros. Unsigned macros are automatically disabled, and Word opens the document without any warning.
Medium	Word displays a warning whenever it encounters a macro from a source that is not on your list of trusted sources. You can choose whether to enable or disable the macros when you open the document. If the document might contain a virus, you should choose to disable macros.
Low	If you are sure that all the documents and add-ins you open are safe, you can select this option--it turns off macro virus protection in Word. At this security level, macros are always enabled when you open documents.

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro and click Security.



2. On the Security Level tab, select the security level you want and then click OK.

Method 3: Lock the global template (Normal.dot).

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro and click Visual Basic Editor.



2. In the Visual Basic Editor, click to select ThisDocument in the Project window.
   
   NOTE: If the Project window does not appear, click Project Explorer on the View menu.



3. On the Tools menu, click Project Properties.



4. On the Protection tab, click to select the Lock project for viewing check box.



5. Type a password in the Password box.



6. Type the same password in the Confirm password box.



7. Click OK.



8. On the File menu, click Close and return to Microsoft Word.



9. In Microsoft Word, hold the SHIFT key and click the File menu and then click Save All.



10. When the following prompt appears, click Yes.




Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot. Do you want to save those changes?

REFERENCES

For additional information about what to do if you think you might have a Word macro virus, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q211800 WD2000: What to Do If You Have a Macro Virus

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/articles/antivirus.htm

Additional query words: protect protection protection.doc protecting protects execute only executable

Keywords : kbdta kbvirus kbtemplate wd2000
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto