Information
This policy setting controls whether Office users can add password encryption to documents. (Users would access this feature in Microsoft Office tab--click Info, click Protect Document, then click Encrypt with Password.)
The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled.
Rationale:
This capability can provide an extra level of protection to documents that are already protected by access control lists or provide a means of securing documents that are not protected by file-level security.
If a document is password protected, users without the proper password will be prevented from opening the document(s).
Impact:
The recommended settings enforce the default configuration, and therefore will not affect usability. Typically, this setting should not be enabled, because doing so will prevent users from adding passwords to Office files.
Solution
To establish the recommended configuration via GP, set the following UI path to Disabled:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016\Security Settings\Disable password to open UI
Default Value:
Disabled. (Users can encrypt their 2016 Office files with passwords)