Certain file formats blocked after installing Office 2003 Service Pack

I am not able to work with some file format in Microsoft Office 2003 after applying a SP3 patch. The update was fine and there were no error. Before that I use to view lotus file format in Excel. They were wk1, wk3, etc. But after installation of the update I cannot see any of them opening up in Excel. The formats are blocked by Office update. I found a registry tweak that also did not helped much. I had changed that the keys of FileOpenBlock key located under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\. And another one located under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security. But that did not helped much. The below kb article also did not helped much in fixing the issue.

Information about certain file types that are blocked after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3

The link of KB article that you had given has the solution. Look into Method 3 : Manually set the registry values. I am sure you had not tried everything from that article. The third method has registry tweak that can help you to unblock those formats. You must perform the same as it is mentioned. There is hotfix available for that. Before doing the changes in registry do take a backup so that you can restore the same in case of crash. The updates are really buggy and I do not understand the reason behind blocking those file formats. How that can help Office to perform better.

Check the registry key FileOpenBlock under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\. I am asking you to recreate the same one more time. Delete the old one if exist and then try back. The location here matters the most which allows Excel to open the file. Once you are done with the same do not forget to restart your computer. Restarting will allow the configuration settings to take place well. I had face the similar issue after update. The only thing I am stucked with saving the file in Lotus format. I can view those files, but saving does not show up the Lotus format. It looks the full registry settings are missing. The last kb article that I saw was talking about FileOpenBlock, FileSaveBlock and OICEExemptions key value.

I just required a way by which I can simply create or open Lotus flies in Word. This was fine with older version but after upgrade I am not able to work on the same. This formats are blocked and I do not understand those registry tweaks.

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It looks like a issue with Microsoft word to me. I had modified the entries of FileOpenBlock and FileSaveBlock. After making changes Word did not worked well. I think I had done all the steps properly as mentioned. I also added ExemptDirectory which I found in a blog about fixing the old format issue in Office. There are two thing that worked for me. I had mentioned those registry tweaks below. Try the same and reboot your system. This things are complicated to configure for everyone. I hope there would be a way by which you can simply install a patch to fix the issue.

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common \OICEExemptions ExemptDirectory=c:\Safe (String)
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel \Security\FileSaveBlock LotusandQuattroFiles=00000000 (DWORD)

I created a .reg file with the following to solve this problem (note that there should not be spaces in the words Excel or Office - the forum software put those there, also I think the contents inside the []'s are meant to be on one line):

----- start of file allow_wks.reg --------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileOpenBlock]
"LotusandQuattroFiles"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileOpenBlock]
"LotusandQuattroFiles"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileSaveBlock]
"LotusandQuattroFiles"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileSaveBlock]
"LotusandQuattroFiles"=dword:00000000

----- end of file allow_wks.reg --------