Hyperlinks to xlsm and xlsb files.

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
November 22, 2019
1 reply
7988 views

Seems like security of opening files with macros was increased to not allow them to open through hyperlinks a few years ago.

Is there going to be a patch to fix this? Looks like the solution is editing user's registry - but what if I can't change the registry of the end user?

Is there some other type of workaround?

General troubleshooting

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ls_rbls

Community Expert

Hi,

Can you describe the steps on what you are really trying to accomplish?

Please also provide the Microsoft products and version, operating system and version, and Adobe Acrobat product and its latest version that you're currently using.

A

a2thekrigAuthor

Participant

I am just trying to create a hyperlink to open a file. That file happens to be a xlsm file. Earlier versions of Acrobat and Reader allow the file to open. The new version says those file types are unable to be opened. I have seen other users ask about this and the answer is to change the registry. If I am sending this to another user I do not have the ability to change their registry so it just shows an error. What I am asking is if there is a workaround to this problem and if Adobe will put these file types back on the whitelist.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

I am using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat DC and Microsoft Excel 365 on a Windows machine.

This is a known issue with Adobe Acrobat DC.

This has been a problem since the August 2017 update and there are a number of threads discussing this issue. The solution is change the registry to allow xlsm files to be opened. I can do that on my computer but when I send the files to another user I do not have the ability to change their registry so the links will not work.

I don't think this is entirely related to whitelisting in Adobe Acrobat, this looks more like a security layer that has been added to prevent XML exploits..

Microrosft implemented the XML in MS Word documents as the new standard but people in general continued saving files using the old .doc format for a MS Word file. See here: https://www.howtogeek.com/304622/what-is-a-.docx-file-and-how-is-it-different-from-a-.doc-file-in-microsoft-word/

And the same goes for XLSM files with macros enabled: https://fileinfo.com/extension/xlsm

Possible work arounds is to disable Data Execution Prevention for the program that open those type of files OR for all programs and see how it works.

See here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-atp/enable-exploit-protection

and here: