Rage Against the Machine was at the top of the charts back when Microsoft first introduced the Excel4 Macros (XLM) feature in 1992 - a powerful scripting language that boosted the capabilities of its popular spreadsheet application.
Thirty years later, and faced with rampant exploitation of macros to place malware, the company said on January 19 that it was disabling support for XLM, in Excel by default. In that announcement, Microsoft said that the “restrict the usage of Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros” flag, first introduced in the Excel Trust Center in July 2021, will be enabled by default when opening Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros.
“This will help our customers protect themselves against related security threats,” the company said in its blog post at the time.
This week, the company went a step further. In an announcement on Monday, Microsoft said it was disabling XLM's successor, Visual Basic Application (VBA) macros, by default, as well - and for the entire Microsoft Office suite of applications: Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Word and Visio.
The change announced on Monday only affects Office apps on devices running Windows and will begin rolling out in Version 2203, in early April. Microsoft said it plans to eventually extend the policy to Office LTSC, Office 2021, Office 2019, Office 2016, and Office 2013, the company said.
Article Link: Microsoft Disables Excel, Office Macros by Default. Will It Matter?