Knowledge Base

You receive an error message when you try to open a file type that was blocked by your registry policy settings in Word 2007 or in Word 2003

Article ID: 922849

Article Last Modified on 12/12/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Office Word 2007
Microsoft Office Word 2003

Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows XP and Windows Vista

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Office Word 2007 or in Microsoft Office Word 2003, you try to open a file that was saved in a Microsoft Word format. When you do this, the file does not open. Additionally, you receive one of the following error messages:

You are attempting to open a file type that is blocked by your registry policy setting.

You are attempting to open a file that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Office. This file type is blocked from opening in this version by your registry policy setting.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if one of the following conditions is true:

You try to open a file that was saved in one of the following earlier Word formats. Word 2007 no longer supports documents that were saved in the following Word formats:
- Microsoft Word for Windows 1.x
- Microsoft Word for Windows 2.x
- Microsoft Word for the Macintosh 4.x
- Microsoft Word for the Macintosh 5.x
An administrator has restricted the types of documents that you can open or save in Word 2007 or in Word 2003. An administrator can set a registry key to restrict this functionality.

For Word 2007, the registry key can be set in the 2007 Office System Administrative Templates. For more information, see the "Word 2007" subsection of the "More Information" section.

For Word 2003, security update 934181 enables the administrator to block the ability to save or to open files in Word 2003. For more information, see the "Word 2003" subsection of the "More Information" section.

RESOLUTION

To open filesthat are blocked by the registry, you can disable the restriction on opening presentations that were blocked by the registry settings of Word. To do this, use one of the following methods.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

Method 1: Use a trusted location, or create an exempt location

To do this, follow these steps, as appropriate for the version of Word that you are running:

In Word 2007, if you trust the file that you want to open, you can open that file even if the file type is blocked by the registry. You can override the registry policy settings by moving the file to a trusted location.

For more information about how to create, to remove, or to change a trusted location for files, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100319991033.aspx
In Word 2003, there are no trusted locations. You can create an exempt location to override the registry policy settings. To create an exempt location, follow these steps:
1. Exit Word 2003.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
  
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common
4. Point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
5. Type OICEExemptions for the name of the key.
6. Point to New on the Edit menu, and then click String Value.
7. Type a string name, and then press ENTER. For example, type ExemptDirectory.
8. Right-click the string name that you typed in step 7, and then click Modify.
9. In the Value data box, type the path of the directory that contains the file, and then click OK. For example, if your document is in the C:\My Documents folder, type C:\My Documents in the Value data box.
  
  Note You must create the folder. Any subfolders are not automatically exempted. For any additional folders that you would like to make exempt, repeat steps 6 to 9 by creating string values such as "ExemptDirectory1," and "ExemptDirectory2."
10. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Method 2: Disable the restriction on opening documents of certain types

To disable this restriction, change the value of the FileOpenBlock subkey. To do this, follow these steps:

Exit Word.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys, as appropriate for your version of Word:
Word 2007

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock

Word 2003

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock
After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, locate the DWORD value. You may check for the different DWORD values in the "More Information" section of this article based on the version of Word.

For example, if the opening of files that were saved in earlier file formats is restricted, locate the "FilesBeforeVersion" DWORD value in the registry for the FileOpenBlock subkey. When you change the value of "FilesBeforeVersion" from 1 to 0, you can open files that were saved in earlier file formats.
Right-click the DWORD value that you want, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Method 3: Contact the system administrator

Contact the system administrator to change the registry settings by changing the policies.

MORE INFORMATION

Word 2007

To restrict the types of files that you can open or save in Word 2007, an administrator can use the 2007 Office System Administrative Templates to configure the registry on the client computer.

The following table contains the DWORD values that an administrator can add to the registry to restrict certain file types by using the FileOpenBlock subkey. Additionally, the table contains the corresponding file types that are restricted.

DWORD value	File types that are restricted
OpenXmlFiles	.docx, .dotx, .docm, .dotm, .xml (Word Flat Open XML)
BinaryFiles	.doc, .dot
HtmlFiles	.htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml
XmlFiles	.xml (Word 2003)
RtfFiles	.rtf, .doc (Word 95), .doc (Word 97 release version)
Converters	All file formats that are available by using a text converter
TextFiles	.txt
InternalFiles	All Word file types that have a non-RTM nFib value
FilesBeforeVersion	All Word files that have an nFib value lower than the minimum nFib value as set by an administrator

Notes

To download the 2007 Office System Administrative Templates, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92d8519a-e143-4aee-8f7a-e4bbaeba13e7&DisplayLang=en
For more specific information about how to use settings to block the opening and saving of file formats in the 2007 Office programs, visit the following Microsoft Web site, and then see the "Enforce settings by using Group Policy in the 2007 Office system" topic:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/873a5392-1b1a-47a1-a863-1f29ef116d0e1033.mspx

Word 2003

An administrator can restrict the types of files that you can open or save in Word 2003. This ability was not provided in Microsoft Office 2003 when it was originally released. To restrict the types of files that can be opened or saved in Word 2003, install security update 934181. For more information about security update 934181, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

934181 Description of the security update for Word 2003: May 8, 2007

To restrict the types of files that you can open or save in Word 2003, an administrator can use one of the following methods:

Use the updated Office 2003 Administrative Templates to configure the registry on the client computer.
Modify the registry by adding a registry key setting on the client computer.

To download the Office 2003 Service Pack 3 Administrative Template (ADM), OPAs, and Explain Text Update, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BA8BC720-EDC2-479B-B115-5ABB70B3F490&displaylang=en

The following table contains the DWORD values that an administrator can add to the registry to restrict certain file types by using the FileOpenBlock subkey. Additionally, the table contains the corresponding file types that are restricted.

DWORD value	File types that are restricted
BinaryFiles	.doc, .dot
HtmlFiles	.htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml
XmlFiles	.xml (Word 2003)
RtfFiles	.rtf, .doc (Word 95), .doc (Word 97 release version)
Converters	All file formats that are available by using a text converter (including the Office Compatibility Pack)
TextFiles	.txt
WllFiles	.wll
InternalFiles	All Word file types that have a non-RTM nFib value
FilesBeforeVersion	All Word files that have an nFib value lower than the minimum nFib value as set by an administrator

To enable the FileOpenBlock subkey settings, follow these steps:

Exit Word 2003.
Install update 934181 if it is not installed.
Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileOpenBlock

If the FileOpenBlock subkey does not exist, follow these steps to create it:
1. Click to select the Security subkey.
2. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
3. Type FileOpenBlock, and then press ENTER.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type the DWORD vlaue that you want to restrict, and then press ENTER. For example, type BinaryFiles to restrict the opening of .doc and .dot file types.
Right-click the DWORD value that you typed in step 6, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

945800 Error message when you try to save a document in Word 2007 or in Word 2003: "You are attempting to save a file that is blocked by your registry policy setting"

Additional query words: word2007 word2k7 word12 wd2007 wd2k7 wd12 word2003 word2k3 word11 wd2003 wd2k3 wd11

Keywords: kbsavefile kbopenfile kberrmsg kbsetup kbtshoot kbexpertisebeginner kbprb KB922849

Microsoft KB Archive/922849

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