Microsoft Excel offers a powerful feature in the form of macros, which can automate repetitive tasks, and accomplish many operations that built-in Excel features cannot achieve. However, there are instances where these macros might become redundant or even pose potential security risks, especially when sharing your workbook with others. For these moments, understanding how to safely and effectively remove macros becomes essential. This guide is crafted to walk you through the varied methods of removing macros from your Excel workbooks, ensuring you have a clean, streamlined file when needed.

• By saving the file in xlsx format
• With a one-click option provided by Kutools

• Remove macros from workbooks in a folder with VBA
• Remove macros from any specific workbooks with Kutools

Things to know before removing macros in Excel

• When opening a macro-enabled workbook and attempting to remove the macros, you must first click the Enable Content button in your workbook. This is necessary before you can proceed to delete them.
• 

• Note: If you don't see this button, it's a green light for you to go ahead and delete the macros. The reason for its absence might be if you've created a workbook embedded with macros yourself and saved it. When reopening that workbook on the same computer and with unchanged Excel settings, the Enable Content button often doesn't show up. That's because the file comes from a trusted source (you) and is located in a trusted location (your computer).

• Please remember that once a macro is removed, recovery is not possible. To safeguard your work, it's advisable to create a backup copy of your workbook before deleting any macros.

Remove a specific macro

Step 1: Open the Macro dialog box

Navigate to the Developer tab and select Macros to open the Macro dialog box. (If the Developer tab is not visible in your Excel, see the note after the steps.)

Step 2: Select and delete the specific macro

1. Expand the "Macros in" drop-down menu and select the desired destination from where to remove macros.
2. From the list of macros, select the one you want to remove.
3. Click Delete.
4. 

Delete all macros from a workbook

In cases where you need to remove all macros from a workbook, here are two methods:

Delete all macros from a workbook by saving the file in xlsx format

The "Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)" format inherently lacks support for macros. As such, saving your workbook in this specific format will result in the automatic removal of all embedded macros. To execute this method, kindly proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to File > Save As.
2. Expand the file type drop-down menu and choose the "Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)" format.
3. Tip: You can enter a new name for the .xlsx file in the textbox above the drop-down menu. To save the file in another location, click Browse.
3. Click Save.
4. 

   Note: The Save As interface might differ across various Excel versions. If you don't observe the right pane as shown above, where file format selection is available, you can always click Browse and then choose the "Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)" format.

4. In the prompt box that appears, select Yes.
5. 

Result

As a result, a new file in ".xlsx" format without macros is saved. This .xlsx file will adopt the name of the original .xlsm file and be saved in the same location.

Delete all macros from a workbook with a one-click option provided by Kutools

Kutools for Excel, an advanced Excel add-in, provides users with a one-click option to effortlessly delete all macros embedded in a workbook. With a single click, you can purge VBA modules, UserForms, Excel 5/95 dialog sheets, and Excel 4 XLM macro worksheets.

Once you have opened the workbook containing macros you want to delete, navigate to the Kutools tab, and select Delete > Remove All Macros. And voilà, you're done!

Delete all macros from multiple workbooks

When faced with the task of eliminating macros from several workbooks, there are two approaches you can take:

Remove all macros from workbooks in a folder with VBA

In this section, I will demonstrate how to efficiently remove macros from all workbooks within a designated folder using a VBA macro.

Step 1: Create a new module

1. Press Alt + F11 to open the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor.
2. Click Insert > Module to create a new module.
3. 

Step 2: Copy VBA code to module window

Copy the below VBA code and paste it to the opened Module window.

Sub RemoveMacrosFromWorkbooks()
' Update by ExtendOffice

    Dim wb As Workbook
    Dim FolderPath As String
    Dim filename As String
    Dim VBComp As Object
    Dim VBProj As Object

    With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
        .title = "Select a folder"
        .Show
        If .SelectedItems.Count = 0 Then
            MsgBox "No folder selected. The procedure will exit.", vbExclamation
            Exit Sub
        End If
        FolderPath = .SelectedItems(1)
    End With

    If Right(FolderPath, 1) <> "\" Then FolderPath = FolderPath + "\"

    filename = Dir(FolderPath & "*.xls*")
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    On Error Resume Next
    Do While filename <> ""
        Set wb = Workbooks.Open(FolderPath & filename)

        If wb.HasVBProject Then
            Set VBProj = wb.VBProject
            
            For Each VBComp In VBProj.VBComponents
                VBProj.VBComponents.Remove VBComp
            Next VBComp
        End If

        wb.Close SaveChanges:=True

        filename = Dir
    Loop
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    MsgBox "Macros removal completed!", vbInformation

End Sub

Step 3: Run the VBA code

1. In the Module window, press F5 or click the button to execute the pasted code.
2. In the Select a folder window that appears, select the folder containing workbooks you will remove macros from, and click OK.
3. 

Result

After the macro has finished processing all Excel files in the selected folder and removing the macros from them, you will see a "Macros removal completed!" message box.

Remove all macros from any specific workbooks with Kutools

Kutools for Excel provides a user-friendly way to remove all macros from multiple workbooks. For those hesitant or unfamiliar with VBA techniques, Kutools serves as an ideal alternative. With this tool at your disposal, VBA modules, UserForms, Excel 5/95 dialog sheets, and Excel 4 XLM macro worksheets can be removed effortlessly.

After downloading and installing Kutools for Excel, proceed with the following steps:

1. Select Kutools > Delete > Batch Remove All Macros.
2. 
2. In the Batch Remove All Macros dialog box that appears, all open workbooks are listed for macro removal. Here's what you need to do next:
   1. To add more workbooks for macro removal, click the Add button, and choose either File or Folder.
   2. If there are any workbooks you wish to exclude from the macro removal process, click the button to remove them.
   3. Once you've listed all the desired workbooks for macro removal in the dialog box, click OK.
   4. 

Result

A new dialog box appears, indicating how many workbooks Kutools has processed for macro removal. After pressing OK, an automated summary workbook will be generated to outline the results.

Above is all the relevant content related to removing macros in Excel. I hope you find the tutorial helpful. If you're looking to explore more Excel tips and tricks, please click here to access our extensive collection of over thousands of tutorials.

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