File wants password, but never had one

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Guest

I have Vista Home Premium.
I have successfully burned files to CD, but when I read one back, which is
just a MS Word doc, access is prohibited.
I saved it as Word 97-2003 in Compatibility mode, so that those without
Vista can read it.
I cannot access it with XP either.
I formatted the CD as one that would burn files perminently onto it.
I was the user and administrator (whatever it's called).
I did not select a password or protection.
On accessing the file, I am told that it has been protected.

How can I access it?

I am so worried now, as I have written several files to CD for security and
to save on memory.

Anne.
 
Is it Word that is asking for a password when you try to open it? Most likely
the file got corrupted in the burning process. Can you copy it off the CD and
then compare its properties to the original? If the file sizes are different
most likely the file got corrupted. That happens sometimes.

To check the properties right-click on the file and select "Properties".
 
It also happens with files saved on PC.

Message in column on right hand side:
Restrict Formatting and Editing
Your permissions
This document is protected from unintentional editing.
You may only view this region.
....2 buttons Next region....All regions

Button at bottom of column:
Stop Protection
Click.....Pop-up entitled Unprotected Document
Password:______
OK or Cancel

But I never gave a password.
I wrote read only to CD so that the files would always be protected....

Anne.
 
That makes sense. Those are definitely Word restrictions.

What happened is that you have somehow protected this document. If it is in
Word 2007 there is a button called "Protect Document" on the Review ribbon.
If it is in Word 2003 it is in one of the menus, but I can't remember which.

If you did not set a password the protection is likely not password
protected. Do you see a "Stop Protection" button in that pane on the right
hand side? It would be all the way at the bottom. Can you click that and make
the protection go away? If it asks for a password (it should not) then try to
just hit OK without typing one.

I am not really a malware expert, and it has been a few years, but I have
heard of malware that destroys data by protecting it. Have you done a recent
anti-malware scan on your computer?
 
Button at bottom of column:
Major problem?


Jesper said:
That makes sense. Those are definitely Word restrictions.

What happened is that you have somehow protected this document. If it is in
Word 2007 there is a button called "Protect Document" on the Review ribbon.
If it is in Word 2003 it is in one of the menus, but I can't remember which.

If you did not set a password the protection is likely not password
protected. Do you see a "Stop Protection" button in that pane on the right
hand side? It would be all the way at the bottom. Can you click that and make
the protection go away? If it asks for a password (it should not) then try to
just hit OK without typing one.

I am not really a malware expert, and it has been a few years, but I have
heard of malware that destroys data by protecting it. Have you done a recent
anti-malware scan on your computer?
Click to expand...
 
annieuk said:
I have Vista Home Premium.
I have successfully burned files to CD, but when I read one back, which is
just a MS Word doc, access is prohibited.
I saved it as Word 97-2003 in Compatibility mode, so that those without
Vista can read it.
I cannot access it with XP either.
I formatted the CD as one that would burn files perminently onto it.
I was the user and administrator (whatever it's called).
I did not select a password or protection.
On accessing the file, I am told that it has been protected.

How can I access it?

I am so worried now, as I have written several files to CD for security
and
to save on memory.
Click to expand...

Did you right-click the file when using Explore, go to Properties and viewed
the Read and Write properties of the file? If it's Read only, then it might
be protected.
 
Unfortunately, yes. The encryption used for that is quite good these days.

You are absolutely sure this was not something you did? It almost worries me
more that this just happened than that you can't edit this document. You said
you have other documents that spontaneously encrypted themselves? If so I
think you have some form of malware on the computer. You may want to go do a
scan. If you do not have an anti-malware program, please start with the Live
OneCare Safety Scanner at
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/whatsnew.htm.
 
No, that wouldn't be it. A read-only document can be saved into a writeable
location. She can't do that.
 
Encryption requires a password to allow the file to be opened...
My PC does not have the capability to Restrict...
My files require a password, for some reason, to allow editing of a text box.
I created the text box by selecting to Draw it.

I have redone everything, bar powering off, and it seems to be working OK
now... but I am only using 97-2003 Word documents.
I can copy my text boxes, from these uneditable files, to get their exact
position and paste them into new documents.
I can even replace the existing (burned) file on CD.... with only a warning
message.... how secure is that???

All very strange....

Thank you for your help anyway....

Anne.
 
It is not secure at all. Fortunately the protection was only for editing, not
for copying.

I'm still very curious how this happened.
 
I am more scared than curious... I shall continue to use 97-2003 files and
see what happens after POPO.

Anne.
 
I still highly recommend that you do a malware scan. As I said, it is not
unheard of that malware does this.
 
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