Programmatically configuring MS-Word's Trust Center settings using C#

Question

I have developed a simple C# Winforms application that loads MS-Word 2007 documents via COM automation.

This is all very simple and straight forward, however depending on the document I need to programamtically Enable or Disable Macros as well as ActiveX controls.

There is probably a way to store this in the registry, but I want to control these settings on an instance by instance basis as multiple concurrent requests may be running at a time.

So my question is 'how do I configure the trust center settings using COM automation'.

I have Googled for hours, but all I have been able to find is the Application.AutomationSecurity property, but this only accepts the following values:

• MsoAutomationSecurity.msoAutomationSecurityLow
• MsoAutomationSecurity.msoAutomationSecurityForceDisable
• MsoAutomationSecurity.msoAutomationSecurityByUI

The Word 2007 Trust Center however exposes the following settings:

Macro Settings:

• Disable all macros without notification (matches msoAutomationSecurityForceDisable)
• Disable all macros with notifications (I don't need this one)
• Disable all macros except digitally signed macros (No equivalent)
• Enable all macros (matches msoAutomationSecurityLow)

_{(source: visguy.com)}

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ActiveX controls (configured separately, I have not found any way to control these, note that according to the screenshot these settings are shared between all applications)

• Disable all controls without notification
• Prompt me before enabling UFI controls....
• Prompt me before enabling all controls with minimal erstrictions
• Enable all controls without restrictions

I have tried the old trick of recording an MS-Word macro while changing these settings, but none of these steps are recorded.

Update: I have found the following entries for the ActiveX controls settings in the registry. Looks like ActiveX settings are indeed global and cannot be specified for a single MS-Word instance unless someone proves me wrong.

ActiveX Disabled

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security] "DisableAllActiveX"=dword:00000001 "UFIControls"=dword:00000002

ActiveX Enabled with safe mode

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security] "DisableAllActiveX"=dword:00000000 "UFIControls"=dword:00000002

ActiveX Enabled without safe mode

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security] "DisableAllActiveX"=dword:00000000 "UFIControls"=dword:00000001

Still keen to resolve the macro settings problem

Answer 1

Looks like I am going to answer my own question.

I have tested it and can confirm the mappings are as follows:

Macro Settings:

• msoAutomationSecurityForceDisable = Disable all macros without notification

• msoAutomationSecurityByUI = Disable all macros except digitally signed macros

• msoAutomationSecurityLow = Enable all macros

To the best of my knowledge the global ActiveX settings can only be configured by directly editing the registry

ActiveX Disabled

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security] "DisableAllActiveX"=dword:00000001 "UFIControls"=dword:00000002

ActiveX Enabled with safe mode

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security] "DisableAllActiveX"=dword:00000000 "UFIControls"=dword:00000002

ActiveX Enabled without safe mode

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Security] "DisableAllActiveX"=dword:00000000 "UFIControls"=dword:00000001

I have left a comment in the relevant section of the MSDN website