Trust Bar Notifications for unsigned application add-ins in Access must be disabled and blocked.

This policy setting controls whether the specified Office application notifies users when unsigned application add-ins are loaded or silently disable such add-ins without notification. This policy setting only applies if the "Require that application add-ins are signed by Trusted Publisher" policy setting is enabled, which prevents users from changing this policy setting.

If users enable this policy setting, applications automatically disable unsigned add-ins without informing users.

If this policy setting is disabled, if this application is configured to require that all add-ins be signed by a trusted publisher, any unsigned add-ins the application loads will be disabled and the application will display the Trust Bar at the top of the active window. The Trust Bar contains a message that informs users about the unsigned add-in.

If users do not configure this policy setting, the disable behavior applies, and in addition, users can configure this requirement themselves in the "Add-ins" category of the Trust Center for the application.

Verify the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Access 2016 >> Application Settings >> Security >> Trust Center "Disable Trust Bar Notification for unsigned application add-ins and block them" is set to "Enabled".

Use the Windows Registry Editor to navigate to the following key:

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\access\security

If the value NoTBPromptUnsignedAddin is REG_DWORD = 1, this is not a finding.

Set the policy value for User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Microsoft Access 2016 >> Application Settings >> Security >> Trust Center "Disable Trust Bar Notification for unsigned application add-ins and block them" to "Enabled".