You receive a virus warning message when you click hyperlink to a program in Office 2002 or Office 2000

In the Microsoft Office programs listed at the beginning of this article, when you click a hyperlink or object that links to an executable file, you may receive one of the following messages: -or- -or- NOTE: This behavior occurs regardless of your Security Level settings. To locate your Security Level settings, point to Macro on the Tools menu, and then click Security.

The warning message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article is issued by Microsoft Office. This warning is referred to as the "open programs" warning, not the "macro virus protection" warning. It appears any time that you click a hyperlink to a program or run a program. You also receive this warning when you click a hyperlink to certain types of document files. You cannot disable this warning. Similar behavior occurs in other Microsoft Office programs that allow you to use hyperlinks.

This feature is designed into Microsoft Office to help protect you from malicious code.

For any Microsoft Office program, you can work around this behavior by viewing the page in a Web browser.

Microsoft Office cannot scan your floppy disks, hard disks, or network drives to find and remove macro viruses. To obtain this kind of protection, you must purchase and install specialized antivirus software. For more information about using antivirus software with Microsoft Office, browse to the following Microsoft Web sites: Microsoft Office offers the following levels of security to reduce macro virus infections:

High: You can run only macros that have been digitally signed and that you confirm are from a trusted source. Before trusting a source, you should confirm that the source is responsible and uses a virus scanner before signing macros. Unsigned macros are automatically disabled, and the presentation is opened without any warning.

Medium: Microsoft Office displays a warning whenever it encounters a macro from a source that is not on your list of trusted sources. You can choose whether to enable or disable the macros when you open the document. If the document might contain a virus, you should choose to disable macros.

Low: If you are sure that all the document and add-ins that you open are safe, you can select this option, which turns off macro virus protection in Microsoft Office. At this security level, macros are always enabled when you open documents.

If the security level for Microsoft Office is set to Medium or High, you can maintain a list of trusted macro sources. When you open a document or load an add-in that contains macros that were developed by any of these sources, the macros are automatically enabled.

NOTE: When you open a template or load an add-in that was installed with the Office programs, macros within the file are automatically enabled. You can have the Office program warn you about previously installed design templates and add-ins, according to the level of security that you choose.

For more information about security levels, click Microsoft (program) Help on the Help menu, type change security level for macro virus protection in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.