Excel 2019 Standard - Visual Basic & Macro buttons are grayed out / Alt+F11 not working

Question

1. Office Excel
2. Microsoft Office VBA
3. Office Management

Hello, I am experiencing an issue with Excel in Office Standard 2019 on my company laptop.

1. Symptoms:

• In the [Developer] tab, the 'Visual Basic', 'Macros', and 'Record Macro' buttons are all grayed out (disabled).
• I cannot click them.
• The keyboard shortcut Alt + F11 does nothing.
• My existing VBA codes are not running at all.

2. Environment:

• Product: Microsoft Office Standard 2019 (Volume License)
• OS: Windows 10 / 11

3. Question: I checked the Trust Center settings, but I cannot access the VBA options properly because the buttons are disabled. Is this issue caused by a Group Policy (GPO) set by my company's IT admin, or could it be an installation error (e.g., VBA feature not installed)?

I have attached a screenshot of my ribbon menu. Please helpHello, I am experiencing an issue with Excel in Office Standard 2019 on my company laptop.

1. Symptoms:

• In the [Developer] tab, the 'Visual Basic', 'Macros', and 'Record Macro' buttons are all grayed out (disabled).
• I cannot click them.
• The keyboard shortcut Alt + F11 does nothing.
• My existing VBA codes are not running at all.

2. Environment:

• Product: Microsoft Office Standard 2019 (Volume License)
• OS: Windows 11

3. Question: I checked the Trust Center settings, but I cannot access the VBA options properly because the buttons are disabled. Is this issue caused by a Group Policy (GPO) set by my company's IT admin, or could it be an installation error (e.g., VBA feature not installed)?

I have attached a screenshot of my ribbon menu. Please help

Answer 1

Dear JH Bae,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A. 

Thanks for sharing the screenshots. Based on what we see:

• The Developer tab is visible, but Visual Basic, Macros, and Record Macro buttons are all grayed out.
• Even in a blank workbook, these options are disabled.
• Trust Center settings are accessible but changing them does not enable VBA.

This strongly suggests one of two causes:

1. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) was not installed when Office Standard 2019 was set up.
2. Your organization applied a Group Policy (GPO) or Intune policy that completely disables VBA.

Here are some steps you can try:

1. Check if VBA is installed:

• Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Microsoft Office > Change > Add/Remove Features.
  
• Ensure Visual Basic for Applications is set to Run from My Computer.
• If not, select it and complete the installation.

2. If VBA is Installed but Still Disabled

• This means your organization’s security policy is blocking macros.
• You cannot override this yourself.
• Contact your IT admin and ask them to check:
• Group Policy:
• ScssUser Configuration → Administrative Templates → Microsoft Excel → Excel Options → Security → Trust Center → VBA Macro Settings
• Or Intune/Endpoint Manager settings.

3. Verify Protected View

Excel > File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Setting > Protected View.

Disable Protected View temporarily (if allowed) and test again.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.  

I hope this information helps point you in the right direction. If you run into any issues while trying the steps, or if something still doesn’t feel quite right, please don’t hesitate to reach out again. I’ll do my best to support you however I can.  

Looking forward to hearing back from you with any updates or additional details. 

Warm regards, 

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".    

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.