How to remove passwords on Microsoft Word documents
Ok, so you’ve found yourself in the situation where you can’t update an MS Word document that you created years ago and can’t remember the unprotect password! D’oh! Well, don’t be drawn in by premium/commercial solutions to this problem – when you can solve it for free! Forget dictionary attacks, you weren’t silly enough to use a plain word - right?! Also, forget cracking by brute force – because you don’t have the time!
Simply follow these steps:
- Open the protected document in Word as normal.
- File/Save As…
- Select ‘Rich Text Format (RTF)’ from the ‘As Type’ drop-down list box and save it.
- Close Word
- Open Notepad (Start/Programs/Accessories/Notepad)
- Open your RTF file in Notepad
- Do a text search for ‘password’. It should return something like:
{\*\password 5edc3b9c}
(Obviously your password data will be different!) - Delete this entire section, save it and close Notepad
- Open the RTF document in Word and hit ‘Unprotect’. If you get a password dialog box – just leave it blank.
- Now, do a ‘Save As’ again – but this time save it as a regular word document.
All done!
Is this legal? Well, I’d say so. It’s your document – and not your fault that you forgot the password! I think a slap around the back of the head is due though!
