Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 Won't Open Old Files

Thu Jan 3, 2008 10:58PM EST

See Comments (14)

Microsoft rolled out the third service pack to Office 2003 last September, and while it's been generally fine for most users, it came with a surprise payload that no one had been expecting and took all this time to truly come to light. Namely, Office 2003 no longer supports old versions of Office files (predating Office 97), meaning you can no longer open them after the service pack has been installed. Old Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, and Corel Draw files are also affected.

Per a note on Microsoft's web site (which was posted a month ago but only discovered by most of us today), "these file formats are blocked because they are less secure. They may pose a risk to you."

Microsoft does offer a fix for this behavior: a rather complex series of registry modifications that power users will feel comfortable making but that will likely completely baffle novice users and will take the better part of your coffee break either way. (The full instructions are outlined in the "note" link in the previous paragraph.) There appears to be no other way to re-enable the opening of these old file formats.

Wired offers a considerably simpler alternative that I won't argue with: Install OpenOffice instead.

For the record, Office 2007 behaves the same way, and I don't believe there's any workaround at all to allow it to open file formats older than Office 97.

LINK: Microsoft Office 2003 Abandons Support for Older File Formats

Comments on Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 Won't Open Old Files

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  • 6 Posted by bberg72 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    OK, they should have let folks know. But really, how many people are impacted here? For those who are, I do have a "workaround", though. Just continue to use your pre '97 files on the 286 running Windows 3.1 that I'm sure you are keeping around, too. Problem solved!!

  • 7 Posted by cnull on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse

    bberg - the issue primarily affects corporations with thousands or millions of old files from the '80s and '90s that were never converted... but which might still be needed. Legacy stuff is a big problem...

  • 8 Posted by bberg72 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    I understand the "legacy" issue, but "big problems" don't take 4 months to surface. This is a very small problem. .

  • 9 Posted by tom.leverenz on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    I don't loose my job too often so trying to read my 10 year old resume or letters that I wrote 10 years ago is not an unreasonable thing. Taking away capability is just stupid. I have been a big MS fan because they were the standard but they keep turning their back on lon term users. First they screw up the interface so that I can't work and then they block access to my older files when I really need them.

  • 10 Posted by muziotouch on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    why not use openoffice? my reason is simple, the new "tabbed" interface that MS office 2007 offers is much easier to use than the traditional drop menu interface present in previous versions of office. other than that, yeh, I have no problems w/openoffice

  • 11 Posted by scoutchuck on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    MS released partial fixes for those "behind the times". http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810/en-us

  • 12 Posted by sciencetroll@verizon.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    anyone today that is even remotley smart would not be using office 97. i have office 2007 and it works great. open office works but i would never leave microsoft! i am sad that they removed the office assistant buddy.

  • 13 Posted by shariqhashme on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    hey did u know that linux has been predicted to overtake the UK market by 2012? thats cuz its free, costs less to run (ubuntoo is free n PC doesnt have to be that powerful), n cuz it has NO COMPATIBILITY ISSUES. it was made to combat them. i still use vista n office, but im thinking of switching over. go linux!!!

  • 14 Posted by twin_57103 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm all for Open Office. I was hesitant about it at first - the "free software" stigma is that it is low-quality, but that is definitely not true of Open Office. Things are often in different places (i.e. page setup is under the format menu), but it has just as much functionality with zero price tag. As I move more into the Linux world, I am finding that there are often good-quality free options for many tasks - and this is one of the best.

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