David, there are three settings for protected view that you can turn off. Maybe try turning them all off and see if the problem goes away. Then you can turn on just the ones you want. The three settings are: Enable Protected View for files originating from the internet Enable Protected View for files located in potentially unsafe locations Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments. To change the settings, Press Alt F, T Down arrow to Trust Center, Press Tab to Trust Center Settings... Button and press Enter Down arrow to Protected View. Tab to the first of three check boxes. Uncheck them all. Tab to the Ok Button and press Enter Tab to the OK Button again and press Enter. Not try opening files and see what happens. Steve --------- Original Message --------- Subject: [adaptivetec] Re: protected word and excel files From: "David Hoffman" <davidhoffman1965@xxxxxxxxx> Date: 10/27/14 8:30 pm To: adaptivetec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Thanks Kathy. I have another way of doing something that rids the file of its protected status - your way may be faster so that does help. What I am really hoping for is a way to change the settings so I only get protected files when I first download them and notwhen I make copies of them on my own hard drive or change the name of them on my own hard drive From: adaptivetec-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:adaptivetec-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kathy Morales Sent: Monday, October 27, 2014 12:13 PM To: adaptivetec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [adaptivetec] Re: protected word and excel files Hello, David. I, too, have been experiencing this with protected files. What I have been doing is: Control F and arrow down the “home” ribbon (it is quite a ways down) to the “save as”, and enter. It will tell me it cannot open so I tab twice to “enable saving” button and select this choice. It then allows me to resave it and I can open it without a problem. But, just to be certain, I save it as an .rtf. I hope that this helps, and that you have not lost a toe over it! Kathy From: adaptivetec-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:adaptivetec-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Hoffman Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2014 6:32 PM To: adaptivetec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [adaptivetec] protected word and excel files Hello folks smarter then I: In order to prevent me from shooting my left toe off in frustration please help me with the following. I have settings that make all word and excel files that I save off emails are saved as protected files. This is grand. Simply trippy. However, and this is only recently, whenever I copy a compatible (i.e., unprotected) file or rename a file, when I open that newly named/copied file it becomes protected again. Please help. Please please. I searched online and all I get is how to trun off protection of all files downloaded from email. That is not what I had before and not what I want