Do not open files in unsafe locations in Protected View

UserNeeds changes for IntuneL_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView

Supported on SUPPORTED_Windows7 (defined in the Windows templates)

5568.1000

What it does

This policy setting lets you determine if files located in unsafe locations will open in Protected View. If you have not specified unsafe locations, only the "Downloaded Program Files" and "Temporary Internet Files" folders are considered unsafe locations. If you enable this policy setting, files located in unsafe locations do not open in Protected View. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, files located in unsafe locations open in Protected View.

What it writes

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Registry key: software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview
Value name: disableunsafelocationsinpv
When enabled: DWORD 1
When disabled: DWORD 0

Why it needs changes for Intune

Policy references a Windows supportedOn definition.
ADMX-INTUNE-WINDOWS-SUPPORTEDON-REFERENCE

Security baselines

Microsoft's Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise 2512 sets this to Disabled, in its GPO “MSFT Microsoft 365 Apps v2512 - User”.

Policy value disableunsafelocationsinpv: Sets disableunsafelocationsinpv to 0 (REG_DWORD).

Read from the registry.pol files in the baselines' GPO backups, downloaded from Microsoft's Security Compliance Toolkit. All baselines

Configure and deploy

Choose a state; the output below is generated from the template for exactly that.

Enabled · User · template defaults

Registry file (.reg)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview]
"disableunsafelocationsinpv"=dword:00000001

PowerShell

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

function Set-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $PropertyType,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][object] $Value
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        New-Item -Path $Path -Force | Out-Null
    }

    New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -PropertyType $PropertyType -Value $Value -Force | Out-Null
}

function Remove-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name
    )

    if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

function Clear-RegistryKeyValues {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return
    }

    foreach ($propertyName in (Get-Item -LiteralPath $Path).Property) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $propertyName -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

# Policy: Do not open files in unsafe locations in Protected View
# Name: L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView
# Scope: User
# State: Enabled
# Source: excel16.admx

Set-RegistryValue -Path 'Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview' -Name 'disableunsafelocationsinpv' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Value 1

The OMA-URI is an inferred ADMX-backed Policy CSP candidate derived from the source ADMX file name and policy name.
Some Microsoft policies use built-in Policy CSP pages whose area names don't match the ADMX file name, so verify the candidate against Microsoft Learn before deployment.

ADMX profile candidate (OMA-URI)

./User/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ADMX_excel16/L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView

ADMX SyncML candidate

<SyncML xmlns="SYNCML:SYNCML1.2">
  <SyncBody>
    <Replace>
      <CmdID>1</CmdID>
      <Item>
        <Meta>
          <Format>chr</Format>
          <Type>text/plain</Type>
        </Meta>
        <Target>
          <LocURI>./User/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ADMX_excel16/L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView</LocURI>
        </Target>
        <Data>&lt;enabled/&gt;</Data>
      </Item>
    </Replace>
    <Final/>
  </SyncBody>
</SyncML>

Intune remediation scripts

Detection

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$reasons = [System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]::new()

function Test-RegistryValueExists {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return $false
    }

    return $null -ne (Get-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
}

function Test-RegistryValueEquals {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Kind,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][object] $Expected
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return $false
    }

    $valueObject = Get-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    if ($null -eq $valueObject) {
        return $false
    }

    $actual = $valueObject.$Name
    switch ($Kind) {
        'String' { return [string]$actual -ceq [string]$Expected }
        'ExpandString' { return [string]$actual -ceq [string]$Expected }
        'DWord' { return [uint32]$actual -eq [uint32]$Expected }
        'QWord' { return [uint64]$actual -eq [uint64]$Expected }
        'MultiString' {
            $actualArray = @($actual)
            $expectedArray = @($Expected)
            if ($actualArray.Count -ne $expectedArray.Count) { return $false }
            for ($index = 0; $index -lt $actualArray.Count; $index++) {
                if ([string]$actualArray[$index] -cne [string]$expectedArray[$index]) { return $false }
            }
            return $true
        }
        'Binary' {
            $actualArray = [byte[]]$actual
            $expectedArray = [byte[]]$Expected
            if ($actualArray.Length -ne $expectedArray.Length) { return $false }
            for ($index = 0; $index -lt $actualArray.Length; $index++) {
                if ($actualArray[$index] -ne $expectedArray[$index]) { return $false }
            }
            return $true
        }
        default { return [string]$actual -ceq [string]$Expected }
    }
}

# Policy: Do not open files in unsafe locations in Protected View
# Name: L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView
# Scope: User
# State: Enabled
# Source: excel16.admx

$isMatch = Test-RegistryValueEquals -Path 'Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview' -Name 'disableunsafelocationsinpv' -Kind 'DWord' -Expected 1
if (-not $isMatch) {
    $reasons.Add('Value mismatch: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview\disableunsafelocationsinpv') | Out-Null
}

if ($reasons.Count -eq 0) {
    Write-Output 'Compliant'
    exit 0
}

$reasons | ForEach-Object { Write-Output $_ }
exit 1

Remediation

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

function Set-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $PropertyType,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][object] $Value
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        New-Item -Path $Path -Force | Out-Null
    }

    New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -PropertyType $PropertyType -Value $Value -Force | Out-Null
}

function Remove-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name
    )

    if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

function Clear-RegistryKeyValues {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return
    }

    foreach ($propertyName in (Get-Item -LiteralPath $Path).Property) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $propertyName -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

# Policy: Do not open files in unsafe locations in Protected View
# Name: L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView
# Scope: User
# State: Enabled
# Source: excel16.admx

Set-RegistryValue -Path 'Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview' -Name 'disableunsafelocationsinpv' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Value 1

History 1 retained release

5568.100010 Aug 2026
- Already present in the first release ChangeIntel keeps.

Template

Internal name: L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView
Namespace: excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows
Template file: excel16.admx
Release: Microsoft 365 Apps 5568.1000 · file set 8be05d876aae137d…

Definition, editor controls and support

Definition

<policy Area="Security Baseline" AreaCategory="File validation" class="User" displayName="$(string.L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView)" explainText="$(string.L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedViewExplain)" key="software\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\security\protectedview" name="L_DoNotOpenFilesInUnsafeLocationsInProtectedView" valueName="disableunsafelocationsinpv" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_ProtectedView" />
      <supportedOn ref="Microsoft.Policies.Windows:SUPPORTED_Windows7" />
      <enabledValue>
        <decimal value="1" />
      </enabledValue>
      <disabledValue>
        <decimal value="0" />
      </disabledValue>
    </policy>

Editor controls

Supported platforms and category

excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_ExcelOptions
<category displayName="$(string.L_ExcelOptions)" name="L_ExcelOptions" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel" />
    </category>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel
<category displayName="$(string.L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel)" name="L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions" />
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_ProtectedView
<category displayName="$(string.L_ProtectedView)" name="L_ProtectedView" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_TrustCenter" />
    </category>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_Security
<category displayName="$(string.L_Security)" name="L_Security" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_ExcelOptions" />
    </category>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_TrustCenter
<category displayName="$(string.L_TrustCenter)" name="L_TrustCenter" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_Security" />
    </category>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:unresolved:Microsoft.Policies.Windows:SUPPORTED_Windows7
<unresolved reference="Microsoft.Policies.Windows:SUPPORTED_Windows7" />
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_ExcelOptions
<category displayName="$(string.L_ExcelOptions)" name="L_ExcelOptions" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_ExcelOptions">Excel Options</string></strings>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel
<category displayName="$(string.L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel)" name="L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions" />
<strings><string id="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_MicrosoftOfficeExcel">Microsoft Excel 2016</string></strings>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_ProtectedView
<category displayName="$(string.L_ProtectedView)" name="L_ProtectedView" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_TrustCenter" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_ProtectedView">Protected View</string></strings>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_Security
<category displayName="$(string.L_Security)" name="L_Security" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_ExcelOptions" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_Security">Security</string></strings>
excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:L_TrustCenter
<category displayName="$(string.L_TrustCenter)" name="L_TrustCenter" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_Security" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="excel16.Office.Microsoft.Policies.Windows:L_TrustCenter">Trust Center</string></strings>