vba - Lock down Microsoft Excel macro

Question

I've spent some time writing an Excel Macro that is potentially worth money to a lot of companies.

How can I lock down the macro to prevent people seeing the source / forwarding to other people?

Thanks

Answer 1

Protect/Lock Excel VBA Code:

When we write VBA code it is often desired to have the VBA Macro code not visible to end-users. This is to protect your intellectual property and/or stop users messing about with your code. Just be aware that Excel's protection ability is far from what would be considered secure. There are also many VBA Password Recovery [tools] for sale on the www.

To protect your code, open the Excel Workbook and go to Tools>Macro>Visual Basic Editor (Alt+F11). Now, from within the VBE go to Tools>VBAProject Properties and then click the Protection page tab and then check "Lock project from viewing" and then enter your password and again to confirm it. After doing this you must save, close & reopen the Workbook for the protection to take effect.

(Emphasis mine)

Seems like your best bet. It won't stop people determined to steal your code but it's enough to stop casual pirates.

Remember, even if you were able to distribute a compiled copy of your code there'd be nothing to stop people decompiling it.