The decision to allow macros again is temporary, Microsoft says. Last week researchers saw that Office macros, which had been blocked for a while, could again. However, that will not last long, as it turns out.
Microsoft says turning off automatic blocking for Visual Basic Applications (VBA) macros in Office is only temporary. Macros allow you to perform all kinds of tasks and processes in documents automatically. This is particularly useful for companies to speed up everyday tasks such as data readout. But macros are also often misused by criminals to infect computers with malware. Microsoft decided early this year to block macros by default unless the user explicitly allows them.
That change was applied in April and May, and a month later, Microsoft warned that it would be withdrawn. The tech giant was scant with information about why Macros were allowed to return, saying only that the decision to roll back is based on feedback.
The company is currently about equally scanty with information about the timeliness of reversing that decision. “This is a temporary change, and we are committed to making the standard change for all users. More details on the timing will follow in the coming weeks,” Microsoft said.
It’s not entirely clear why Microsoft is so back and forth about blocking a feature, but macros have been around since the 1990s and are widely used by a slew of companies. If the adjustment does not go smoothly, and IT services, for example, cannot reactivate specific macros, this can cause significant problems. The tech giant may still need to fix a few bugs from the system before it is fully rolled out.
