Why does the "Restart Office to apply privacy settings" not go away

With respect Tracy, I recently had two MS support staff do all that you suggest and the problem still exists across all my computers. MS has a problem and for some reason will not acknowledge the problem. Restarting the computer, deleting registry keys, and reinstalling Windows 11 Pro does not make any difference. You need to put down AI searches and refer the problem to a manager, or go around them to the next manager.

Dear lubeman66

Welcome to the Microsoft Community, we are glad to assist you.

We understand that you are experiencing an issue with repeated prompts for privacy settings in Office, usually this is due to changes in the privacy settings, which we can review.

1. Open Excel.
2. Click File -> Options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings.
3. Under "Privacy Options", look for the "Turn on optional connection experience" box and uncheck it if it is checked. If it is unchecked, uncheck it, and if it is unchecked, check it. Then click "OK".
4. Restart your computer and open any Office component again to see if the message appears again.

If it doesn't work, you can try to reset Word to restore it to its default settings.

1. Exit all Office programs;
2. Make sure there are no files in the following folders:
   1. Locate to C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP and press Enter to see if the file exists, if it does, delete it, if it does not, close it;
   2. Locate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\STARTUP or C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\STARTUP to see if there is a file professional knowledge, if there is, please delete it likewise, if not, close it;
3. hold down the Windows key + R at the same time, type regedit and press enter;
4. locate the following keys in turn and rename the word folder (right click on it and select rename, for example rename word to wordold);

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\word

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\word

5. Click Start, type %AppData%\Microsoft\Templates in the search box and press Enter;
6. Backup and delete files with a .dotm extension, such as Normal.dotm;

Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, clickHow to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Supportto view the article.

I hope the above information is helpful to you. If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply.

Best Regards,

Tracy | Microsoft Community Support Specialist