Enable or disable hyperlink warning messages in Office applications

In an Office application, if you select a hyperlink or an object that links to an executable file, you receive the following warning message:

Opening "path/filename".
Hyperlinks can be harmful to your computer and data. To protect your computer, click only those hyperlinks from trusted sources. Do you want to continue?

This behavior occurs regardless of your security level settings.

Additionally, when you open TIFF images, you receive the following warning message:

Opening path/filename.
Some files can contain viruses or otherwise be harmful to your computer. It is important to be certain that this file is from a trustworthy source. Would you like to open this file?

You receive this warning message even if you have already implemented the registry key that this article describes. This warning message is generated by the HLINK.dll file when link navigation is handled. You can differentiate the Office hyperlink message from the HLINK message by looking for quotation marks around the file path in the message. Only the Office message contains those quotation marks. Office tries to determine whether the file type itself is unsafe by checking the extension, the progid, the class ID, and the MIME type of the document.

Important

The following sections contain information about how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.

Globally enable or disable hyperlink warnings

To enable or disable hyperlink warnings when an https://, notes://, or ftp:// address is used, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key+R to open the Run window, enter regedit, and then press Enter.

2. Locate the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Security

   If the subkey doesn't exist, create the subkey.

3. Right-click the Security subkey, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

4. Enter DisableHyperlinkWarning as the entry name.

5. Double-click the DisableHyperlinkWarning entry, select Decimal, enter one of the following values in the Value data field, and then select OK:

   • 0: Enables the hyperlink warning message
   • 1: Disables the hyperlink warning message

6. Exit Registry Editor.

Disable hyperlink warnings for a specific protocol

Follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key+R to open the Run window, type regedit, and then press Enter.

2. Locate the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Security\Trusted Protocols\All Applications

3. Right-click the All Applications subkey, and select New > Key.

4. Enter the name of the protocol that you want to exclude as the name of the key. For example, to disable the display of a security warning for the Notes: protocol, enter Notes:.

5. Exit Registry Editor.

You still receive a warning message

If you still receive a warning message after you disable warning messages through the registry, try the following method to disable the warning.

Note

After you follow these steps, you'll still receive the warning message if you open files in Protected View.

1. Press the Windows key+R to open the Run window, type regedit, and then press Enter.

2. Locate the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<CLSID>

   Note: <CLSID> is a globally unique identifier that identifies a COM class object. For example, if the file name extension is WMV, select HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WMVFile.

3. Under this subkey, right-click the EditFlags entry, and then select Rename.

4. Type OldEditFlags, and press Enter.

5. Right-click an empty space in the right pane, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

6. Enter EditFlags as the entry name.

7. Double-click the EditFlags entry, select Hexadecimal, enter 10000 in the Value data field, and then select OK.

8. Exit Registry Editor.

To re-enable the warning message, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key+R to open the Run window, type regedit, and then press Enter.

2. Locate the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<CLSID>

3. Double-click the EditFlags entry, enter 0 in the Value data field, and then select OK.

4. Exit Registry Editor.