MicroSoft Office 2003 Conspiracy

[Malruhn]

I haven't seen anything about MicroSoft in recent months - and I just received this. Any veracity?
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This is relevant just to Windows users with Office 2003 installed (Word 2003, Excel 2003, PowerPoint 2003, Outlook 2003, etc…).

Microsoft has just released a new service pack for Microsoft Office 20003. Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes a few new features and a couple of bug fixes, but not much of great use to most users. The reason I am brining SP3 to your attention is because it does include one very nasty feature; after SP3 is loaded, you will no longer be able to open office documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc…) that were created in versions of Office products prior to Office 2003 SP3. This is by design, and Microsoft explains their decision to do this by saying that previous office documents may no longer be considered as secure as documents created with Office 2003 SP3 or Office 2007. (By “coincidence”, Office 2007 products will still be able to open those older documents, so if you load SP3 for Office 2003 and find that you really need to be able to open your older documents, you will be forced to either wipe and totally rebuild your workstation or you’ll have to upgrade to Office 2007).

Basically, if you install SP3 for Office 2003, you will no longer be able to use any of your older documents with your Office 2003 products. This is a one-way service pack installation, which means that once it is done, it cannot be undone without totally rebuilding your entire workstation, (uninstalling Office 2003 and then reinstalling it will not correct the problem since the portions of the service pack that prevent opening of older documents are embedded into Windows Security rather than into Office itself).

So, do NOT install Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 on your workstation, (this includes individual Service Pack 3 upgrades for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc…). What you choose to install on your home PC is up to you, but I would recommend against loading SP3 for Office 2003 there as well, (unless you have absolutely no old documents or emails saved and/or you are already planning on upgrading to Office 2007… I am running Office 2007 already, and I really dislike it).

The information I am sharing here is based on reading several articles from reliable sources on the subject, and not from my first-hand experience. If I learn anything new, or if I discover any of the above information is incorrect, I will update everyone.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments and feel free to contact me at any time.

Thank you for your time and cooperation.