ActiveX Restrictivness

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My company handles Word doc file management services via a .dot template that handles our VBA code instructions including enabling users to save & upload edited Word documents to our application.



Typically when we have users run into issues executing this VBA code - it is solved with adding the appropriate Trusted locations - including the local directory we house our .dot template and temp directory the .rtf files are downloaded to and uploaded from on the local user's machine.

Recently we have noticed an uptick into user's reporting issues with the upload function with it being silently blocked but other parts of our VBA code is running as expected. They could not execute our upload functions without first modifying the template (which could had been as small as adding an extra whitespace) and saving it locally. The only common-denominator we could identify is that the affected user's had their PC reimaged with fresh Windows 11 image compared to unaffected users who upgraded from Windows 10.

We discovered the block was due to the ActiveX settings within Word's Trust Center settings and those affected users had their set to the most restrictive - "Disable all without notification". We discovered downgrading those settings would enable our upload function - more specifically I believe the CreateObject() within our upload module.

Question - do we know of any recent increase in restrictiveness within the ActiveX settings or explanation as to why some users would be blocked while others who also have the same option chosen for their ActiveX setting wouldn't experience this block? I've been reading sources pointing towards cached templates could be the reason why some users are unaffected?