How to Disable Protected View in Microsoft Office While Opening Email Attachments or Downloaded Files

If you are using Microsoft Office 2010 or Office 2013 versions, you might have noticed this problem. Whenever you try to open an Office document (Word, Excel or PowerPoint file) which was downloaded from Internet or was attached in an email, Microsoft Office program opens it in Protected View which is also known as Read Mode or Restricted Mode.
In this mode, the file is opened as read-only. You can't edit the file until you click on "Enable Editing" button as shown in following image:

In Protected View you also get a message bar at the top of the window containing messages similar to following:

• This file originated from an Internet location and might be unsafe
• This file originated as an e-mail attachment and might be unsafe
• This file was opened from a potentially unsafe location
• Editing this file type is not allowed due to your policy settings
• Editing this file type is not recommended due to your File Block settings in the Trust Center
• Office has detected a problem with this file. Editing it may harm your computer

Protected View mode was introduced in Office 2010 version which is present in the latest Office 2013 version as well. It was designed to provide better security as the files downloaded from Internet or attached in emails might contain viruses and can be dangerous for your computer system. Protected View protects your computer from being infected by these suspicious items automatically.
But if you are sure about the file and if you know that the downloaded file is absolutely safe, then this Protected View might become annoying for you. Every time you try to open such a file in an Office program, you'll need to click on the enable editing button each time to edit the file.
Don't worry! Here is the solution. Microsoft Office comes with an option to disable this built-in Protected View feature in any desired Office program.
If you also want to turn off Protected View feature in Office 2010 or Office 2013 version, check out following simple steps:
1. First launch any Office program such as Microsoft Word and then click on File menu present in the ribbon.
2. Now click on Options tab present in the left sidebar.
3. It'll open Options window. Now click on "Trust Center" tab given at the end in left-side pane and then click on "Trust Center Settings" button.

It'll open a new window to customize Trust Center settings.
4. Click on "Protected View" tab and in right-side pane, you'll see following options:

• Enable Protected View for files originating from the Internet
• Enable Protected View for files that are located in potentially unsafe locations
• Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments

5. All options are enabled by default. Disable the desired option or disable all given options to turn off Protected View completely and click on OK button to save the changes.
6. Close the Office program and now whenever you open a file downloaded from Internet or attached in an email, it'll open normally instead of Protected View.
NOTE: You'll need to follow the same procedure for each Office program such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint separately.

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Office 2013 Professional Plus for download

We know that Microsoft has released the final RTM version of its latest Office suite "Office 2013" to TechNet and MSDN subscribers and a free Customer Preview (Beta) version of Office 2013 is available for download to public:
Microsoft Releases Office 2013 Customer Preview Free to Public
Now the good news is that if you are not a TechNet or MSDN subscriber but want to test the final version of Office 2013, you can download a fully functional copy of Office 2013 RTM version absolutely free from Microsoft. Keep in mind that its a 60-day trial version but there are no limitations or restrictions. So you can use it for 2 months approx.

Microsoft is providing Office 2013 Professional Plus version for download which comes with following Office programs:

• Microsoft Word 2013
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
• Microsoft Excel 2013
• Microsoft Access 2013
• Microsoft Outlook 2013
• Microsoft OneNote 2013
• Microsoft Publisher 2013
• Microsoft Lync 2013

Free 60-day trial versions of Microsoft Visio Professional 2013 and Microsoft Project Professional 2013 RTM versions are also available for download separately.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit editions are available for download and its available in many languages such as Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish.
System requirements:

• Processor: 1 Ghz or faster 32-bit or 64-bit processor with SSE2 instruction set
• Memory (RAM): 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• Hard Disk space: 3.0 GB available
• Display: Graphics hardware acceleration requires a DirectX10 graphics card and 1024x576 resolution
• Operating System: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012

You can download the free trial versions using following links:

Download Free Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus Trial Version

You'll need a Windows Live ID to register before downloading the free RTM version. As soon as you register, you'll get your working product key to install Office 2013 RTM in your system.
Let us tell you again that this final version of Office 2013 comes with 2 new color schemes (themes) to choose which are Light gray and Dark gray.

PS: If you are using a preview version of Office 2013, you'll need to uninstall the existing version from your system to be able to install this final version. The good thing is that if you install this free trial version and later you purchase full version of Office 2013, you can convert this trial version into full version by just entering the new product key using your Account settings in Office 2013.

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