Ask a new question

Outlook 2016 Attachments will not Open in Protected Mode

About two weeks ago, I could no longer open Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) that were Outlook attachments.  My machine (HP Envy) was running WIN 10 and Office 2013.  This seemed to coincide with a regular WIN 10 update.  I then upgraded to Office 2016.  This did not fix the problem.

A workaround is to right click the file, save the file and then open it.  This however is very awkward.

Currently as a work around I have "Enable Protected View for Outlook attachments" unchecked in the Trust Center under Protected View in the Office apps, but this is an insecure workaround.

I do not have this problem on my Surface Pro 3 running WIN 8.1 and Office 2013.

On-line searches have failed to reveal a satisfactory solution.

What caused this problem and how do I fix it. 

Answer
Answer

MS Outlook Team finally helped me to resolve this on my WIN 10 Office 2016 HP Envy, though not permanently.  The November 12, 2015, Windows Update created an issue related to some graphics accelerator drivers and somehow this would not permit WIN 10 Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 to preview or open Office files in protected mode.  To "fix" this go to Outlook > File > Outlook Options > Advanced > "Disable hardware graphics acceleration" and check the box so as to disable this.  In my case, after doing this, preview worked fine and I could open Office attachments in protected mode with no issue.

Microsoft needs to fix the underlying issue.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

 
 

Question Info

Last updated October 4, 2021 Views 2,317 Applies to: