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Office 2003 Service Pack Disables Older File Formats
time961 writes "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft disabled support for many older file formats. If you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source. Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward 'Do you really want to do this?' dialog boxes to click through. And of course because these are, after all, old file formats ... many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives."
> They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which
> actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from
> some untrustworthy source.
How can a *file format* be more or less secure?
Surely it is the application that is being used to parse said file that does it in a secure or insecure manner. A file format is just a means to store data in an orderly manner.
That said, why doesn't M$ adopt the Open Document format, given that it is the ISO standard?
(rhetorical question - already know the answer - "vendor lock-in" and screw the competitors again)