Strategic recommendation of MS on the usage of VBA Macros in Office

[Balachandra_NR]

Hi Team,

As per the recent Microsoft security baselines, MS recommendation is to block VBA macros downloaded from Internet or network locations. Although we have sufficient documentation available to get these macros whitelisted either via digitally signing them or by trusting the source of VBA, We feel that such policies are going to be more restrictive in future.

What is Microsoft's long term strategy & advice on replacing VBA macros to make sure they are future proof. I am seeking alternative technologies recommended by MS which will avoid reworking on such macros if a future policy restricts them further.

Thanks and regards,

Bala 

[#2]

@Balachandra_NR I'm not liaised with Microsoft so this is not an official advice :)

Signing VBA code is of little help to ensure you can run VBA code, the "Mark of the Web" will still prevent the code from working if you downloaded the file or saved it from an email message.

I would say Office script combined with Power Automate is the way forward if it comes to "end user automation". For professional developers the way forward is probably office-js add-ins

[#3]

@Jan Karel Pieterse 

Thank you for the response, it makes sense to explore power automate and office scripts further. Will feedback our business accordingly. 

Thanks again :)