Vista & Office 2003 Security

I write VBA macros and have digitaly signed (self certificate) my macros (on my old XP system). Now I want to run them on Vista using Excel 2003 and other office programs. But I have not been able to get the Excel Security warning Box to go away. The "Always trust macros from this publisher" is grayed out. I have added myself to the list of trusted publishers, but that did not do any good. My security level is Medium, and my trust access to VB project option is checked in Excel.

I just want to be able to open my files without the security warning box (enable/disable macros). I want them to run automatically like they did in XP. Of course without setting the security level to low.

The list of trusted sources might be locked Your system administrator
might have locked your list of trusted sources so that you cannot add new
macro developers to it.

The certificate for the source may not be authenticated. You can only add
certificates to your list of trusted sources if they have been
authenticated. Note that certificates created with the Selfcert.exe tool are
considered to be unauthenticated and can only be added to the list of
trusted sources on the computer on which they were created.

Because a digital certificate that you create isn't issued by a formal
certificate authority, macro projects that are signed by using such a
certificate are referred to as self-signed projects. Microsoft Office trusts
a self-signed certificate only on a computer that has that certificate in
your Personal Certificates store.
To view the certificate in the Personal Certificates store, do the
following:

1.. Open Windows Internet Explorer.
2.. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Content
tab.
3.. Click Certificates, and then click the Personal tab.

Do you have Office 2003 SP3 installed?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923618


"GetAGrip" <GetAGrip.369o00@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:GetAGrip.369o00@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...

I am running Office 2003 SP3, as an administrator, and did sucessfully add the certificate. That just did not stop the message boxes. Are you telling me that Microsoft has created an O/S and Office package where there is no way to allow a self signed macro to run silently (after the first time). I will acknowledge the need to always ask the question once.

So if I write a macro at work and store it on the server and run it from two different computers it will always ask me to enable/disable the macros unless I pay somebody $400+, or set the security to Low?

No other options??? Every time the same stupid question? No ability to add a known to me (but unverified - not known to Microsoft) certificate.

This seems insane to me. I understand the security concerns, but leaving me the choice between the habit of ignoring security boxes because they are unnecessarily routine, setting the security level to Low, and paying somebody $400+ is a huge problem waiting for somebody to take advantage of it.


I just want to have the ability to trust certificates from people I actually do know. Does Microsoft think I (really some of the average people) am too stupid to properly handle the power? Or, are they of the opinion that only professional programmers should be allowed to have the privilege of this learned certificates?

Surely, Microsoft understands the consequences of giving their users only bad options. That is how they loose market share. I like Excel, and a secure computer, but unnecessary furstrations like these where it appear that Microsoft cares more about $ than anything else causes me to want to fix open office so it is better than Excel (which sadly will probably take a lot of work).

I had the option in Windows XP to solve the problem, as described. Has Microsoft determined that in an effort to fight viruses the public cannot be trusted to decided which digital signatures are worthy of being trusted without displaying a message each and every time? There is a "human factors" reason for this clearly being a bad idea.

Human Factors - Human Factors in engineering. They are design flaws that exist as a result of the fact that people act like people not computers and robots. They have caused jumbo jets to crash on many occasions. So you can't call them insignificant or just ignore them and expect people to act perfectly all the time. You have to plan for people to make mistakes when you put them in situations where mistakes are caused over time by the poor design. Specifically, in this instance, the repeated asking of a quesion that has been already answered.