Microsoft Fixes Office 2003 File Format Blocking the “Right Way”

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

As I wrote earlier, installing Office 2003 SP3 also meant you were blocked from using some file formats. Microsoft had a workaround, but for most people this meant editing the registry. You would have thought they would have learned from the earlier IE6 mess what public reaction would be to registry edits, but apparently not.

Microsoft should know better than to force end users to make not just one, but a series of registry edits to fix an issue.

That said, Microsoft has released a set of registry files that will make the appropriate changes to your registry for you. You just download them and double-click on them. This information is at the original KB article, 938810. They’ve even registry files that will reverse these changes, and change the settings back to the SP3 defaults.

They could still have done better, a simple app that lets you select which ones to enable (with checkboxes) and then click “Go” or something. But I’m being picky.

To Re-Enable Access:

To re-enable Word file types only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.
To re-enable Excel file types only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.
To re-enable PowerPoint file types only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.
To re-enable the CorelDraw (CDR) file type only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.

Note: You must log on to the computer as a user who has administrator rights to re-enable the CorelDraw (CDR) file type.

Double-click the file(s) that you saved above.

Click Yes to confirm the installation of the file.

If an Office program is running, restart the Office program. After you install the update, the registry settings will be updated to allow you to open and to save all file types that are supported by Microsoft Office 2003. These file types include the file types that are blocked by default in Office 2003 SP3.

To Restore Blocking:

To restore blocking of the Word file types only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.
To restore the blocked Excel file types only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.
To restore the blocked PowerPoint file types only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.
To restore the blocked CorelDraw (CDR) file type only, save the following file to a folder on the computer.

Note: You must log on to the computer as a user who has administrator rights to restore the blocked CorelDraw (CDR) file type.

Double-click the file(s) that you saved above.

Click Yes to confirm the installation of the file.

If an Office program is running, restart the Office program.

Of course, you can still use the alternatives I outlined in my earlier post.

We Say: While Microsoft has stated categorically that they are not removing support for these file types, it would behoove them to make it easier for end users to restore usage when they make such moves in the future, particularly since this is twice they’ve had to “redo” a workaround after requiring registry edits.