Microsoft no longer supports old file formats
Microsoft has dropped its support for older file format as service pack 3 for Office 2003 contains a hidden feature which disables support for formats prior to Office 97 such as Word 95, Excel 95, dBase II, Quattro and Corel Draw. Microsoft's support...
Microsoft has dropped its support for older file format as service pack 3 for Office 2003 contains a hidden feature which disables support for formats prior to Office 97 such as Word 95, Excel 95, dBase II, Quattro and Corel Draw.
Microsoft's support centre warned that "by default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure". While home users may have not as many documents in older formats, corporate users may have thousands of legacy documents in these old formats.
"As technology continues to advance, the more dated technology brings serious downsides from a performance/reliability and security standpoint," said Pierre Mallia, manager of Microsoft Malta. Microsoft is committed to protecting our customers, and Microsoft standardises a minimum of 10 years of product support in addition to security patches. You will find that this is common and normal practice in the industry."
There is a workaround but this involves changes with Windows Registry. This is explained in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810/en-us. However, the first thing users read is "These steps may increase your security risk. These steps may also make the computer or the network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses."
Another option is to use OpenOffice which handles old file formats. This suite is free of charge and offers word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and other applications on similar lines to Microsoft Office.
Lately Microsoft has opened its binary document formats from previous office versions *.doc, *.xls and *.ppt to the public. All these documents are based on Microsoft's Open Specification Promise and therefore anyone can use this documentation to implement their own solutions.
The company also started an Open Source Project to develop a converter from the binary formats to the XML format. This converter should be available in July.
"This demonstrates another effort on our commitment to standards and support for OpenXML as an open platform," added Mr Mallia. In the meantime Microsoft announced it would publish critical information so rival programs can work better with Windows, Office and other major products.
The world's largest software maker will share the underlying technology that connects its software to other programs, considered a built-in advantage that has been the basis of antitrust scrutiny of the company.
Microsoft's new policies are seen as a way of heading off future battles with regulators in Europe, Asia and the US who have long accused it of using its dominant position to move into new businesses and squeeze out competitors.
Microsoft said it published more than 30,000 pages of Windows documentation that had only been available previously with a trade secret license and it also pledged to license patents at low royalty rates and without discrimination.
The company's moves bring Microsoft closer in line with a software development trend taking root on the internet based on creating new programmes using parts of existing applications. Web companies such as Google and Facebook embrace open systems, as well as community-developed software such as Linux.
In one example cited by software giant, it will be easier for outside developers to create a new e-mail application to rival Office Outlook because they have the same information as Microsoft's own developers about how to link up to Microsoft's Exchange server.
In January, the European Commission launched new antitrust investigations into Microsoft to see whether the company broke competition rules to help its web browser and its Office and Outlook products.
Microsoft said the moves just announced apply to these products: Vista, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007, as well as all future versions of the same products.
Microsoft's support centre warned that "by default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure". While home users may have not as many documents in older formats, corporate users may have thousands of legacy documents in these old formats.
"As technology continues to advance, the more dated technology brings serious downsides from a performance/reliability and security standpoint," said Pierre Mallia, manager of Microsoft Malta. Microsoft is committed to protecting our customers, and Microsoft standardises a minimum of 10 years of product support in addition to security patches. You will find that this is common and normal practice in the industry."
There is a workaround but this involves changes with Windows Registry. This is explained in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810/en-us. However, the first thing users read is "These steps may increase your security risk. These steps may also make the computer or the network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses."
Another option is to use OpenOffice which handles old file formats. This suite is free of charge and offers word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and other applications on similar lines to Microsoft Office.
Lately Microsoft has opened its binary document formats from previous office versions *.doc, *.xls and *.ppt to the public. All these documents are based on Microsoft's Open Specification Promise and therefore anyone can use this documentation to implement their own solutions.
The company also started an Open Source Project to develop a converter from the binary formats to the XML format. This converter should be available in July.
"This demonstrates another effort on our commitment to standards and support for OpenXML as an open platform," added Mr Mallia. In the meantime Microsoft announced it would publish critical information so rival programs can work better with Windows, Office and other major products.
The world's largest software maker will share the underlying technology that connects its software to other programs, considered a built-in advantage that has been the basis of antitrust scrutiny of the company.
Microsoft's new policies are seen as a way of heading off future battles with regulators in Europe, Asia and the US who have long accused it of using its dominant position to move into new businesses and squeeze out competitors.
Microsoft said it published more than 30,000 pages of Windows documentation that had only been available previously with a trade secret license and it also pledged to license patents at low royalty rates and without discrimination.
The company's moves bring Microsoft closer in line with a software development trend taking root on the internet based on creating new programmes using parts of existing applications. Web companies such as Google and Facebook embrace open systems, as well as community-developed software such as Linux.
In one example cited by software giant, it will be easier for outside developers to create a new e-mail application to rival Office Outlook because they have the same information as Microsoft's own developers about how to link up to Microsoft's Exchange server.
In January, the European Commission launched new antitrust investigations into Microsoft to see whether the company broke competition rules to help its web browser and its Office and Outlook products.
Microsoft said the moves just announced apply to these products: Vista, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007, as well as all future versions of the same products.