Affected are documents that have been created with old versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Corel Draw and Lotus Notes dating back to the pre-Office 97 era. This won’t be a problem for the majority of users but some, like me, will question the purpose of blocking those old document formats.

Microsoft is claiming security reasons for the blocking. The old file formats can apparently be used to execute malicious code. Instead of fixing the security holes they decided to block the file formats, the Download Squad calls them lazy, I would prefer the term incurious though.

Instead of giving the user the choice to enable or disable these old document formats he has no other choice but to edit the Registry or download a tool from Microsoft that changes the Registry for him.

It is interesting to note that only Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 can’t open those old file types while third party software like Open Office can open them without difficulties.

Besides the security update Office 2003 Service Pack 3 contains also stability improvements which have been implemented after receiving enough user feedback on several issues. There is no Windows Genuine Advantage check before you can download the new service pack and I assume there will also be none when installing it.

All important applications like Word 2003, Excel 2003 and Outlook 2003 receive at least one security update. Cautious users can also download and install updates separately if they feel that they do not want to download the 117 Megabytes.

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Office 2003 Service Pack 3