<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> I happened across this item in the free version of the Windows Secrets newsletter (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://WindowsSecrets.com">http://WindowsSecrets.com</a>): <blockquote><big>Office 2003 SP3 hurts Access, old file formats </big> If you've decided to spend time installing all the latest service packs this holiday season, Office 2003 SP3 is something you should consider — as long as you don't have an Access 2003 database. Access developers are still recommending that you hold back before installing SP3 for Office 2003. For the rest of you, if you've already installed SP3 and you find you can't open older versions of files in Word and Excel, a documented Registry edit can allow you to use those files once again. Microsoft's Knowledge Base article <a href="http://WindowsSecrets.com/links/te2bufym8yyzd/7ab365h/?url=support.microsoft.com%2Fkb%2F938810%2Fen-us">938810</a>, which describes this workaround, is a bit tricky. For this reason, I built a file that makes the necessary Registry changes for you. It's posted on a <a href="http://WindowsSecrets.com/links/te2bufym8yyzd/ee2c6dh/?url=msmvps.com%2Fblogs%2Fbradley%2Farchive%2F2007%2F11%2F28%2Fstill-having-issues-post-office-2003-sp3.aspx">blog page</a> from which you can download a .zip file that contains officefix.reg. Right-click this file, then click Merge to make the changes to your Registry. </blockquote> Sure enough: two of my three machines running Office 2003 had picked up the SP3 service pack, and could no longer open Word documents from the early 1990s or .WKS (Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets) from the 1980s -- very troubling for a digital preservation nerd like me! So I quickly ran the registry update described in the linked-to blog page, and breathed a sigh of relief when it restored my ability to revisit my digital past. I then checked out the cited Microsoft Knowledge Base article. The punch line: <blockquote>After you install Office 2003 SP3, some Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, and Corel Draw (.cdr) file formats are blocked. By default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure. They may pose a risk to you. </blockquote> In other words, instead of fixing the security bugs in their applications, they decided to "wall off" your access to your old data files.And they were too lazy to add appropriate user-sensible configuration dialogs, and relegated this to arcane registry settings.  If you know anyone in the Office division of Microsoft, you might complain to them. If you own any Microsoft stock, you might sell it! Paul </body> </html>