Announcement

ActiveX Disabled by Default in Office LTSC 2024

The slow death of Microsoft's desktop application capabilities marches on as another COM technology struggles against a grim fate.

Mike Wolfe

• 3 min read
ActiveX Disabled by Default in Office LTSC 2024

Microsoft just released its Overview of Office LTSC 2024, and the article includes this little nugget of information:

ActiveX
In Office LTSC 2024, ActiveX controls are disabled by default. However, IT administrators can re-enable ActiveX where necessary.

Before anyone accuses me of misleading my readers, I want to highlight that Microsoft clearly states the ActiveX capability can still be re-enabled.

At least for now.

Recent history would suggest, though, that this is simply Phase One of a plan whose ultimate goal will be the elimination of support for the technology entirely, as we've seen with VBScript:

VBScript is being deprecated. In future releases of Windows, VBScript will be available as a feature on demand before its removal from the operating system.

Unlike VBScript, there's no official announcement from Microsoft that ActiveX controls will be eliminated entirely from the affected Office applications. That said, there hasn't been this much writing on a wall since 1982.

Something tells me this initial deprecation will not be the end of the story.

Full Announcement

The full detailed announcement is available in the Microsoft Message Center (note that this link requires a Microsoft login and [probably] an active M365 license).

Here's a summary from the Message Center announcement:

ActiveX will be disabled by default in Office 2024, affecting Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio. This change occurs in October 2024 for Office 2024 and begins in April 2025 for Microsoft 365 apps. Users can re-enable ActiveX by adjusting Trust Center Settings, the registry, or group policy settings.

Notably absent from the above list (thankfully) are both Classic Outlook and Access. Of course, Classic Outlook has its own set of problems to worry about.

What's the Impact on Access?

Nothing at all at this point.

That said, it's yet another worrying data point in Microsoft's continued assault on COM, VBA, and desktop applications in general.

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All original code samples by Mike Wolfe are licensed under CC BY 4.0