Hi, I've downloaded Office 2013 Administrative Templates (ADMX, ADML) but cannot import it on my system based on WS2008 R2. While opening GPO and User Configuration - Policies - Administrative Templates - Browse cannot point to extracted folder. Windows Server 2008. Adding New Administrative Templates to a GPO. If you do not have GPMC or cannot install it then you’ll need to edit the GPO via the regular means, i.e. PowerShell Scripts to Install/Uninsta ll Office 2013 products using GPO Two PowerShell scripts that will install or uninstall Microsoft Office products using user definied Office installation configuration files (*.xml or *.msp). These scripts are intended to be used in GPOs to silently install or uninstall Microsoft Office 2013 products.

• Office 2013 Gpo Theme
• Download Gpo Templates
• Office 2013 Gpo Administrative Templates

On 11/5/2012, the Office engineering team released updated Office 2013 Administrative Templates and Office Customization Tool (OCT) files which administrators can download here: Office 2013 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool. Included in this download is an Excel spreadsheet (office2013grouppolicyandoctsettings.xlsx) that lists the Group Policy and OCT settings. The policy settings apply to both Windows Installer-based (MSI) and Click-to-Run Office 2013 Preview installations.

To learn about new settings related to Office 2013 Add-ins management, Apps for Office, escrow keys, Office Start, Office templates and backgrounds, One Note synchronization, Outlook, service level options for Office online features, sign-in, subscription activation, and Telemetry Dashboard, see Office 2013 Administrative Template files (ADMX, ADML) and Office Customization Tool.

For more information about Outlook settings, see Plan feature customizations in Outlook 2013.

Due to popular 'locky' and similar malware out there I need to disable macros for all installed Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel...) globally for any user who logs in into a particular server running Windows Server 2012 R2.

How to do that?

The server is not a domain controller, so I have no Administrative templates available, as suggest some resources I've read.

Thank you!

crysmancrysman

2 Answers

It can be done via Group Policy with appropiate Administrative Templates present. This HOWTO is for machines with no GPO central store [1]. You might use the classic templates (ADM) [2], or the new ones (ADMX). I recommend ADMX, not only because it is newer and not obsolete, but mainly because it allows you to browse All Settings in the GPOs at once.

1. Download the templates: go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download and search for 'Office 20xx Administrative Template files', where xx is your Office version installed.
2. Extract the files to some temporary location (it is usually a self-extracting exe, or msi package). Here is how to extract files from msi [3].
3. Copy all the ADMX files into %systemroot%PolicyDefinitions and included language files into %systemroot%PolicyDefinitions<appropiate_language_directory> (probably en-US)
4. Set-up the GPOs:
   1. under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft Office 20xx -> Security Settings -> enable the Disable VBA for Office applications.
   2. [optional] you might also want to enable the Disable All ActiveX option in the same branch.
   3. go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft 20xx -> Options -> Security -> Trust Center -> enable the VBA Macro Notification Settings as 'Disable all with notification'

hint: Group Policy Editor is 'gpedit.msc'

[1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929841/how-to-create-the-central-store-for-group-policy-administrative-template-files-in-windows-vista

[2] https://superuser.com/a/1073064/440382

[3] How to extract files from MSI package?

crysman

Office 2013 Gpo Theme

crysman

Download Gpo Templates

It can be done via Group Policy with appropiate Administrative Templates installed/imported.

1. Download the templates: go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download and search for 'Office 20xx Administrative Template files', where xx is your Office version installed.
2. Import them to Group Policy Editor: right click on User Configuration -> Administrative Templates and click 'Add/Remove Templates' -> Add -> browse to the folder you saved the templates to (browse to the ADM folder) -> OK
3. Set it all up:
   1. under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Clasic Administrative Templates (ADM) -> Microsoft Office 20xx -> Security Settings -> enable the Disable VBA for Office applications
   2. in the same branch select all product you want to have macros disabled (typically Word, Excel and Powerpoint) and go to Microsoft 20xx -> Options -> Security -> Trust Center -> enable the VBA Macro Notification Settings as 'Disable all with notification'

hint: Group Policy Editor is 'gpedit.msc'

crysman

Office 2013 Gpo Administrative Templates

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