Windows 7 Strange message every time I open Microsoft Word?

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I started getting this message box every time I open anything in Microsoft Word even an empty page.

I have no idea what it is talking about or how to get rid of it.

Anyone know what this is all about?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You may encounter this error for the following reasons:

Macro security is set to:
Very High and the application encounters a signed macro, but the macro was automatically disabled. Use the following procedure to enable the macro:
Select the Tools menu option and then select Macro and Security. In the resulting Security dialog, set the security level to High by clicking the High radio button.
Close the file and any other instances of the application currently running on the computer (close all applications that also use the application you are currently running).
Open the file again and examine the certificate of trust details and set the Always trust macros from this publisher box if you trust the certificate issued by the publisher.
Click the Enable button to allow the macro to run.

High and the application encounters a signed macro, but you selected Disable when prompted by the macro warning dialog when opening the file. Use the following procedure to enable the macro:

Close the file and any other instances of the application currently running on the computer (close all applications that also use the application you are currently running).
Open the file again and examine the certificate of trust details and set the Always trust macros from this publisher box if you trust the certificate issued by the publisher.
Click the Enable button to allow the macro to run.

High or Very High and the macro was not signed and was automatically disabled by the application. Use the following procedure to enable the macro, if you have verified you can trust the source of the unsigned macro:

Select the Tools menu option and then select Macro and Security. In the resulting Security dialog, set the security level to Medium by clicking the Medium radio button.

Close the file and any other instances of the application currently running on the computer.

Open the file again and click the Enable button when prompted to allow for the unsigned macro to run.

When you have accepted the macro, return the macro security level to its previous setting.

Another instance of your application has a lock on the security settings and is disallowing any changes to security settings.

It is recommended to close all Office related applications or other instances of the same application when you attempt to make changes to your security settings.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is not installed on your computer.

If VBA is not installed, it is not possible to accept certificates of trust attached to VBA macros. Therefore, any VBA macro attempting to run, even with an attached certificate of trust, cannot be run because the necessary macro interpreter is not installed on the system. Two scenarios can cause this error:

Your administrator chose not to install VBA
The version of Office you are running does not install VBA by default
If you are running an instance of Office that does not provide VBA as an installable feature, you will need to upgrade your version of Office to run VBA macros.
The certificate of trust is invalid - (when this occurs, you cannot select the Enable button).

The certificate is no longer trusted, was revoked by the issuing authority, or is damaged. There are several other possibilities which you may need to explore as to why the certificate is no longer recognized as valid by your system. It is recommended that you not trust or run a macro that has an invalid certificate.

A troubleshooter help topic is available online regarding this issue.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've done what is says and gone to the macro window but there isn't anything listed or anything I can do except change the security level.

As I said this happens with no file open so I don't have a clue what's going on.

Mike

 

[Trouble]

Mike,
How's it going. I know you are a very skilled user so I'm not sure if I have a solution but I've had this and or very similar issues with Microsoft Office products in the past and they have almost always been caused by an office add-in. Anything from Norton's anti-virus, to a scanner software add-in, to a PDF converter add-in and there are probably more that I can't think of. And they usually rear their ugly heads shortly after a security update for the office product from Microsoft, so ....
If you've recently installed a software product that might include an office add-in, or recently got a security update as in last Tuesdays updates, then that might be the issue. You may have to disable or uninstall the add-in.

 

[Saltgrass]

Do you have any "recent files" listed when you open Word? Maybe you could clear the list to see what happens.

I haven't seen that message, but some strange things happened with Office programs when I installed Quicken 2011.

I do not know how the scheduled appointments process works if someone sends you a notice, but have you gotten any of those lately?

In Word 2010 there is a setting to "update automatic links at open". Not sure what it does but you might check that type of option.

 

[Saltgrass]

Like Trouble was saying, I found a site that stated they had the same problem when they had a COM addin for a PDF type program.

 

[davehc]

Not stated in your post Mike. Do you, in fact, now have VBA installed?
There is another item that was not mentioned. Have you looked in the Tools - Trust centre? Bottom right of the pane is the options selection.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

If I have VBA installed I'm not aware of it.
Until now I never heard of VBA.
But if it's installed then I didn't do it on purpose.

I do kind of remember something popping up a few days ago saying it was updating or adding something to do with Word but I don't remember what is was exactly. One of those I'm in a hurry and I don't want to think about this right now things.

For some reason the recent documents list is not there right now.
I've never really understood how this seems to come and go.

As you've probably guessed I would probably be better off using Note Pad since I've never spent the time to understand all of the options in Word. If note pad had a spell checker I probably would.

At least I think I'm getting a handle on what this is about.

I'm going to see if I can restore back a week and see what happens.

I'll let you know.

Mike

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi again.

The restore seems to have done the trick.
I ran a restore to the 10th, and then updated my MSE definitions and Word is working.
Now my computer is asking me to update Quicktime again.

I had to use Microsoft Installation Cleaner to update it a few days ago and that's about the time the problems with Word started.
I don't know if there is a connection or not.

Anyway I'll see if the Quicktime update will work without using the Microsoft Cleaner program this time and go from there.

Thanks for the advice.

Mike

Ps. This may be the reason for the problem, I found this listed under...

Unsuccessful application reconfiguration in reliability monitor.

Description
Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003. Product Version: 11.0.8173.0. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation. Reconfiguration success or error status: 1603.