fastexcel I'm sorry that article didn't call out XLAM; the security patch from 016 impacts both XLA and XLAM files.
There's very little change in the behavior of XLA and XLAM files with MOTW.
Enumerating the behavior of XLAM files with MOTW:
- Double clicking on the file will open Excel but the add-in will be silently blocked. As I mentioned in a previous reply, the Excel team is working on improving this experience by informing the user that the add-in has been blocked.
- Opening a file via File > Open in Excel will have the same behavior as double clicking on the file.
- Adding the file via Excel Add-ins dialog will show a pop up informing the user that the add-in is blocked. The user needs to remove MOTW or, if the add-in is digitally signed, trust the publisher, to enable the VBA in the add-in.
- Opening via workbook.open in VBA will depend on the user's settings. By default, opening other workbooks/add-ins from VBA bypasses most security settings
- opening an XLAM file with MOTW from a trusted location will not be blocked - this is because trusted locations override MOTW. We only recommend using trusted locations when users trust the location, the source of the file, and the contents of the file, as files in trusted locations override most security checks.
Can you expand on the Registry Open key? 2 different methods of achieving this come to mind, and I want to make sure I investigate the scenario you're asking about.
Microsoft
