I can't seem to disable Protected View in Word 2016 for a user that I support when they open a Word attachment in an Outlook message. I've disabled Protected View in Word (see attached image). I've made sure Office updates are turned on. I've repaired my Office 2016 installation. They continue to open in protected view and the user has to click View to change it. There used to be a startup setting in Word 2013, but it's no longer there in Word 2016. I've tried exiting and restarting the program, even rebooting. All Word files continue to open in Protected View. It works fine on my own computer. Any ideas?

Attached Images

protectedmode.JPG (41.2 KB, 16 views)

I don't have an answer for your user's problem. I do have a comment, though.

Your user should not be opening documents attached to email directly from email. That is one of the most frequent causes of lost work because such files are saved in temp folders when the user presses Ctrl+S. Instead, they should save the document to a local location (or OneDrive) and open the already saved document from there.

Sometimes all they need to do is look at a document, they don't actually need to save a copy, or make any changes. But otherwise, I do tell them it's better to save the attachment rather than open and save as. But thanks for the reply, in any case. This one has me stumped.

Answering questions over the years, I've seen instances where people have lost hours of work because of this.

I guess I haven't found the protected view a nuisance. I had forgotten that it could be disabled.

In Word 2016, as in previous versions, this is in the Trust Center settings under options. This is the screen you show. I have no answer as to what may be overriding that. On the user's computer when you reopen that screen are the boxes still unchecked?

Yes, they are still checked. The reason they complained this time is that they were sent a file that someone created to use as a letterhead "template." It's not an actual template, just a document, but everything was at the top of the page. In protected view, you can't see any text at all, and they thought the document was blank. I personally just find that view annoying. If I need to save or change the document, I do save the attachment, but when I just need to review information, I do not.

Perhaps you misspoke.
"They are still checked."

The one for Internet should be unchecked.
If the next time Word is started, they are checked, Add-In would be my suspect.
Add-Ins in Microsoft Word

Yes. I meant unchecked.