Guarding Against Macro Viruses and Worms

Macro viruses and worms are malicious programs designed to attach themselves to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. When an unsuspecting victim opens an infected file, the virus or worm can spread and do something nasty, such as deleting your files or your entire hard disk.

To stop these pests from wrecking your files, get an antivirus program, avoid downloading or accepting any files from unknown people, and turn on Office 2007's built-in macro protection feature, which can disable macros or restrict what macro viruses and worms can do even if they do infect your computer. To turn on macro protection, follow these steps:

1. Load Word or PowerPoint and then click the Office Button. A pull-down menu appears.
2. Click Save As. The Save As dialog box appears and then click the Tools button. A pull-down menu appears.
3. Click General Options. The General Options dialog box appears.
4. Click the Macro Security button. The Trust Center dialog box appears with the Macro Settings options displayed and then select one of the following radio buttons:

   Disable All Macros without Notification:
   The safest but most restrictive setting, this prevents any macros (valid or viruses) from running when you open the file.
   
   Disable All Macros with Notification: This is the default setting and displays a dialog box that lets you turn on macros if you trust that the file is not infected.
   
   Disable All Macros except Digitally Signed Macros:
   Blocks all macros except for the ones "authenticated" by the user.
   
   Enable All Macros:
   This setting runs all macros, which is the most dangerous setting.

5. Click OK until you return to the Save As dialog box and then click Save.