Trusted Locations

The Trusted Locations tab of the Trust Center dialog box enables you to add, remove or modify trusted locations. If you are receiving macros from an external source that you need to run on your computer without alerts, then you need to place them in a trusted location on your computer. In doing so, Excel knows that these files are safe, and you are not prompted with security alerts when you open them.

You can use the following options to change Trusted Locations settings:

• Add new location : To add a new trusted location, click the Add new location button at the bottom of the screen. On the Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box, click on the Browse button and navigate to the folder that you want to add to the list of trusted locations. After selecting the folder, click OK on the Browse dialog box, and OK again on the Microsoft Office Trusted Location dialog box to confirm the entry.
• This will add in a new trusted location on your computer and you can store any externally created macro-enabled files in that folder.
• Allow trusted locations on my network (not recommended) : Click this option if you want to add folders on your network to your trusted locations. As indicated by the label, this is not recommended by Microsoft as you cannot entirely trust the safety of external locations. However, if you’re working on a shared network drive that you trust, and that is the only way you can collaborate with others, then this may be an option for sharing macro-enabled files. Only use as a last option.
• Disable all trusted locations : Check this box if you want to immediately disable all trusted locations. This means macros in these locations would not run and only the macros that are digitally signed and recognised as trustworthy by Excel will run on your computer.

Note : The macro-enabled worksheets you create locally on your computer do not need to be stored in a trusted location to run on your computer. This is because they’re automatically digitally authenticated by Excel.