Windows 10 Pro (x64)
Intel i7 CPU 2.70GHz
32.0 GB RAM
Office 2016
Firefox (default)

A few weeks ago I bought, downloaded, & installed “Microsoft Office Standard 2016 Genuine License Keys for Windows- 1 PC” to put on a new laptop. It seemed to install properly, but I’ve just discovered that I can’t open links in word documents, excel…any of the Office applications (web links or links to other Office files). When I try to, I get an error message:
“Your organization’s policies are preventing us from completing this action for you. For more info, please contact your help desk ”
I’m not in an organisation though, I’m an individual using this at home.

What I have found is that if I open *.doc or *.docx files in WordPad then the hyperlinks work - they open the linked web pages. One difference between WordPad & Word that I'm aware of is that the former comes bundled with the OS, whereas Word (& Excel, etc) are part of the Office 2016 suite. To me, this strongly implies that whatever the problem is, it's in the Office suite, not W10 or my browser.

Although I didn’t actually think it was this, I have checked “Options > advanced > “use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink” in word & it doesn’t make any difference whether that box is checked or not.
I’ve also gone to Settings>Apps>Default Apps & made sure Firefox is the default browser; & in "Choose Default Apps By Type" I’ve selected Firefox as default for .html, .htm, etc

I use Firefox (regularly updated) as my default browser, but I get the same message if I change my default to Opera, IE, or Edge.

Two suggested fixes from other sources were:
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions which seemed to work, but then stopped working (...!?)


&
https://youtu.be/JeDkGFBcILY which offers four solutions, none of which worked

Someone suggested that my browser was "scattering" the html but didn't explain what that meant....does anyone know & is it relevant to my problem?

Any thoughts on what the problem is here & how I can resolve it would be much appreciated.


Thanks in advance

Attached Images

2016 error message re links.jpg (22.6 KB, 13 views)