Reopening old, blocked documents in Word 2003, 2007

The file you are trying to open has a different format than the specified file extension. Word 2003 refuses to open old documents and pops up an annoying message after the installation of Service Pack 3. Word denies access due to security reasons, since there is a possibility of hidden security loopholes in the old 1.0/2.0 formats. A lot of work is required to open such documents, even with the 2003 for Windows XP SP3 and 2007 program versions.

1. Open a new text file with Wordpad.
2. Type the following lines in it:     Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ MICROSOFT\OFFICE\11.0\WORD\ FileOpenBlock] ‘FilesBeforeVersion’=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\ Security\FileOpenBlock] ‘FileBeforeVersion’=dword:00000000
3. Now save the file with the ‘REG’ extension. As a precautionary measure, close all open Office applications.
4. Double click the ‘REG’ file to add its contents to the registry. You can also add the entry by right-clicking it and selecting ‘merge’.
5. You should now be able to re-open older Word files normally.

NOTE: You can also use this file on computers with Word 2007. In this case, change the name of the subkey from ‘11.0’ to ‘12.0’ before using it.