Microsoft Office Drops Support For Older File Formats
You might not have noticed it yet, but the recent service pack 3 release for Microsoft Office 2003 contains a hidden "feature" - it disables support for older Microsoft Office formats. If you’ve got any old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents hanging around your hard drive you’ll need to delve into the Windows Registry to open them.
A note posted to the Microsoft Support Center says that “by default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure,” and goes on to warn that “they may pose a risk to you.”
Which files are blocked depends a bit on your environment since network administrators can add whatever file formats they want to the registry, but by default it appears most files in formats which existed prior to Office 97 won’t open.
The particularly annoying part of the change is that there’s no easy workaround. To get Office 2003 SP3 to open older files you’ll need to hack the Windows registry.
While it’s easy for the casual user to dismiss this sort of break in backwards compatibility since it’s unlikely they have many key documents in older formats, there’s some understandably upset folks who have to maintain legacy documents in large corporate and academic networks. As one commenter points out in the Slashdot thread, the situation for large customers is quite complicated:
- There is no easy way to identify the files that need conversion. Microsoft gives you no tool or flag to quickly identify old files, which share the same filename conventions as current files. Except of course to open them in Office 2K3SP3 and watch them fail.
- Although bulk conversion tools exist, they cost money and they won’t reach files that are secured in such a way that IT support staff can’t get at them (e.g., on a CD-ROM in a locked filing cabinet).
- Because a ridiculously complicated registry hack is required to enable the converters for the old documents, there’s no easy way to apply it, for example as an Active Directory group policy. We’re left with error-prone methods like push tools & login scripts.
To add insult to injury, Microsoft’s explanation for the changes doesn’t wash - file formats are not insecure and cannot by themselves allow something like a buffer overflow exploit. The security vulnerability is in the program that opens the files and allows the exploits to execute. The issue then is not the older documents but that Microsoft has decided that, rather than address the insecure code in Office, it will simply disable support for the formats which could exploit those insecurities.
If you’re affected by the changes and want to open your documents, have a look at the registry hack - according to Microsoft it’s your only option.
Naturally, there’s an alternative which is somewhat easier (and free): just grab a copy of OpenOffice which can handle the older file formats. Once you’ve got them open, now might be a good time to convert them to ODF documents lest Office 2017 decide to again disable support for older file formats.
See Also:
