PowerShell Method to Unblock a Workbook with Macros

[chrisw76]

Hello all!

I recently found a new way to unblock a file downloaded from the Internet with Macros in it and I thought I'd share.

The two most common ways are (see article here: How to fix “Microsoft has blocked macros” [exceloffthegrid.com]

1. Right-click on the file in File Explorer and in Properties window check the Unblock checkbox, or
2. Change the Trust Center settings

However, if you are working in a corporate environment you may find that neither of these options work as the Unblock checkbox may not even show up in the Properties window. So the third option is to use PowerShell to run the cmdlet Unblock-File. This cmdlet removes the Zone.Identifier alternate data stream which has a value of 3 to indicate that it was downloaded from the internet. Once removed Excel thinks it is now a locally created file. Obviously, don't do this unless you are very confident that the VBA contained in the file is not dangerous.

For example:

Unlock-File -Path <Path to your blocked file>

Cheers, Chris W.