Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

Can I crack a password protected Microsoft Word file?

Dave, I just got another read-only password-protected Word file from my boss and I'm hoping there's a way to sidestep the password because he gets really mad every time I ask him to unlock the file and/or send me an unprotected version. I dunno if this is legal, though. Can you even answer this for me?

Dave's Answer:

Okay, everyone who thinks this is illegal, click here and you can go shopping instead. :-)

Good, we've gotten rid of those sticklers and can talk about the relatively simple technique that you can use to sidestep the password protection on a Word file. Is it illegal? I don't think so, since it's a document that your boss sent you.

Here's how you crack the password protected Microsoft Word file:

First, open the document and do a "Save As..." specifying Rich Text Format (RTF). It'll end up being called something.rtf.

Now open the RTF file by double-clicking on it. It should look identical to the original Word file.

Final step: save the RTF file with a new name as a Microsoft Word format document.

That's all there is to it. You've sidestepped the read-only lock on the file your boss sent you and are good to go.

In terms of actually breaking the password on a file that has it set as the "open file" password, that's beyond the scope of what I'll write about here. But I will say that there are some Google searches that can probably help you track down plenty of tips on doing just that.



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Comments

I can't seem to get this to work. I have a word document that is a form and the form is protected with a password. I need to modify the form to add a graphic of a signature, and in order to do that I must unprotect it. And it keeps asking me for the password, even though I have done the above (saved as RTF, openened the RTF and saved as a new word document) for a password. Is there another trick I should know? Thanks!!!

Posted by: Laura at June 3, 2005 12:09 AM

How can I crack password of my MS word file ?

Posted by: Monty at June 21, 2005 4:34 PM

"First, open the document..."

Isn't this the point?? You can't open the document because you don't have the password. Duh!

Posted by: ME at August 5, 2005 5:26 PM

If you can't open the file at all, then you need to use a different tool to break the password, and I'm not going to go down the road of cracker tools like that. I'll just suggest you spend some time on Google looking for "download word file password crack" or similar.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at August 5, 2005 5:30 PM

For those having problems, my resaved document was also still protected.

Selecting "Unprotect Document" from the menu will unprotect the resaved document without prompting for the password.

Posted by: Nordberg at October 4, 2005 9:14 PM

You are the man! I just used your advice on unprotecting a protected Word doc and it worked great (I couldn't remember the password).

Thanks again, wonder man! Matt Brown

Posted by: Matt Brown at November 14, 2005 5:48 PM

Nice bit of lateral thinking there... saved me digging through tons of costly password cracking software. Thanks a lot!

Posted by: Jess Lailey at November 21, 2005 1:22 PM

oooh....I could just kiss you. This one just saved me a ton of hassle with a freaky boss who thinks EVERYTHING should be password protected, and that we should just retype everything from scratch so as not to mess up her stuff.

Ahhhh... the sweet smell of common sense....I am SO bookmarking this page.

Posted by: Mintlatte at December 28, 2005 1:12 PM

Hello,

I am trying to open a word document that I have password protected, I was able to open it in read only the other day and I have no idea how I was able to do that, now I can't get the document open at all and I really need to print out the contents of the journal I have been saving since December 14, 2004. Is there a way for me to open the file so I can print it out? I am not able to safe the file in another form, however I can email it to myself, but still can't save it in another form when I do this either.

Thanks so much.

Posted by: Stardust at January 9, 2006 2:22 PM

Stardust:

Rename the file and put .rtf extension. Try opening it with Notpad or somthing. If this doesn't work open the .rtf file with OpenOffice (its a free alternative to MS Office.) If it still won't open at all the file is probably corrupted. Hope you have a backup!!!

Posted by: |{oopa at January 9, 2006 4:02 PM

Good Morning,

I was doing searches yesterday to solve the password problem for what seemed like forever. Thank you so much for this page and your extremely helpful advice. I will bookmark and visit this site again soon - keep up your great work!

Posted by: Rache at January 12, 2006 3:07 PM

Mr Dave.. can you help me to open the Word Document with Password protect. I can't even open the file. I just set a password to protect this file, and after a month I forgot it.
Password to get in Word document file, High protect... hichici

Posted by: Kevin at January 19, 2006 11:01 PM

Superb! It's always the simple, overlooked things; I don't think this method could get any simpler.

And for the record this method was used to unprotect some Microsoft press releases available for download. Oh the irony...

Posted by: digitaljhelms at March 3, 2006 11:01 AM

it worked like a charm. Thanks Dave....

Posted by: napster at March 13, 2006 7:32 PM

Thanks! Your tip worked perfectly. Now all the admins are amazed by my mad tech skills. (i.e. Google) Saved me the trouble of having to crack the password

Posted by: brian at March 16, 2006 1:20 PM

Filling out a job application for depended upon unlocking the form. If I get the position, I get a 'get outta debt free' card and you definitely get your chai!

Posted by: NaThemba at March 27, 2006 4:44 PM

One could also download "Passware" an automated password revealer for PDF, DOC, XLS, and many more at thier favorite free online store like KaZaA or Bearshare. lol

Posted by: Lance at April 25, 2006 1:55 PM

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! You saved my hide with this bit of info!

Posted by: Amy at May 1, 2006 11:29 AM

Hmmm, not having any luck. Does this work in Office 2003? My document is remaining protected regardless of the format I resave to. It's important that I maintain my formatting if possible, I've tried RTF and MHT with no luck. I've also tried saving these formats as an earlier version (in Word 2003). Any thoughts?

Posted by: Kelly at June 22, 2006 9:35 PM

Nordberg you are the BEST with your idea you can unprotect the whole document

Posted by: eva at June 23, 2006 7:35 AM

Also does not work for me with Office 2003 :( Doc stays protected no matter what. I'm trying to unlock a form since the formatting doesn't fit my data.

Posted by: alchemist at June 26, 2006 6:27 PM

hi alchemist and all,

always good to work with two computers in parallel...
with word 2003 I had also no chance to unprotect a protected word doc (I saved it rtf, but the document was still protected in this form).
then I tried word2000, and WOW! in the rtf format the document was protected (u can see it easily in the "forms" toolbar) but could be unprotected without the password - then I stored it as a .doc again and everything was fine

thx for the idea, but MS has fixed it in the newest office version... :-(

KR
Thomas

PS: always keep your old software... :)

Posted by: Demiurg at July 6, 2006 5:06 AM

Hi:
Was able to save password protected (lost!) Word doc. to text doc. per above, but when I open it in Notepad, it is all gibberish. Any way to correct that? I tried to in turn save the doc. back to a Word doc., but it still calls for the password. Thanks.

Posted by: Zach at July 25, 2006 3:26 PM

This will remove the password from a protected Doc

From - http://itmanager.blogs.com/notes/2005/04/how_to_crack_un.html

If you are using office XP or 2003, you can change the view to HTML-Code using Microsoft Script-Editor by pressing the [Alt]+[Shift]+[F11] key combination.

Search for "Password" and you will find somethimg like this:
ReadOnly
19E8E61E

To remove the protection:
-Just remowe those two lines, and after saving the document , the protection is gone.

Posted by: Andy at August 9, 2006 2:41 PM

hey dave,
My office people have protected the job search web sites with a fire wall, Is there any way that i can bypass the fire wall?

Posted by: anupam at August 19, 2006 5:56 AM

cool very cool it works...gr8 work man...

Posted by: Plash at August 29, 2006 8:15 AM

I figured out there should be one more simple step in the process, (between step 2 and 3). Step 2.5: when you have the .rtf document and just before you save it back as a .doc, just make sure you operate a change (typing one letter should do it), then save. ;)

Posted by: Mike at October 21, 2006 6:21 AM

Thank you. You saved my day(week)as I've been trying to solve this petty problem for a few days now. This hint has been really helpful.

Posted by: Hulttio at January 9, 2007 8:31 AM

Funny guy....nothing can be done with password protected doc files try some password recovery programs available for free downloads at misc sites. It's Nepali guy!!!!!

Posted by: Dhanu Saud at January 19, 2007 9:58 PM

Dave you are the man.
just a note.
on the step of opening the .rtf
you should make sure it opens with wordpad.
in my case it opent with word.
so i had to specificly open it with wordpad.
Thank you very much again.

Posted by: Manny at February 13, 2007 10:45 AM

Worked like a charm. You rock.

Posted by: Anna at February 20, 2007 1:42 PM

Excellent tip by Andy. In my case, after opening the script editor I deleted the following line...

[HashedPassword]

(where [HashedPassword] will depend on the original password)

Then I hit save and closed the script editor. After that, choosing Unprotect Document from the Tools menu worked just fine.

Posted by: Todd at February 22, 2007 2:51 PM

Excellent tip by Andy. In my case, after opening the script editor I deleted the following line...

{w:UnprotectPassword}[HashedPassword]{/w:UnprotectPassword}

(where [HashedPassword] will depend on the original password)
(also, this post stripped out the tags that look like html, so replace the curly braces above with greater than / less than signs (like html tags))

Then I hit save and closed the script editor. After that, choosing Unprotect Document from the Tools menu worked just fine.

Posted by: Todd at February 22, 2007 2:55 PM

Great tip Andy, works perfectly and simple to do. thanks.

Posted by: alex at February 24, 2007 7:14 PM

Sorry I'm italian and I will sure make few mistakes of language.. but: My problem is a word document protected.. I can't remeber the pass!!..
I alredy read this:
>
But I don't find the "menu"... which menu?
Please Help Me.. :(

Posted by: Luca at February 26, 2007 3:31 AM

The Menu is "Tools" on your top menu bar...
- Tools / Unprotect Document =)

Posted by: Banzai at February 27, 2007 9:37 AM

Here's how I got around the read-only password in Word 2002:
Open the file
Go 'Save As'
In the Save dialog box select Tools->Security Options
Clear the "Password To Modify" text box and press OK

Posted by: Tim at March 6, 2007 6:00 PM

very nice trick..
thanks alot..
got a praise(NOT RAISE! lol) from my boss.. haha..

Posted by: Malcolm at March 13, 2007 2:25 AM

Trying to unlock password in a protected cell on a MAC

Posted by: jeff at March 13, 2007 11:27 AM

Sir,
I forget my word file of university that was not opened without password. how can i open it without actual password. Please help me for this solution.I am very thankful you for this act of kindness.
Regard

Posted by: Samreen at March 14, 2007 4:43 AM

Can somebody tell me how Ican unlocked ms word officce 2007? This is an emergency

Posted by: R Ortiz at March 14, 2007 1:09 PM

Hi Guys,

One question. When you dont know the password, how can you open the file and save it as RTF format ? I have been looking the responses all over the world, but when a guy doesn't have the password, how can you suggest it to OPEN FIRST ??? and thn save it in the RTF format....
Correct me, if my understanding is wrong.....

Thanks

Posted by: Alok at March 15, 2007 6:03 AM

I followed Andy's trick for office 2003 however could not locate the fields mentioned but i deleted the complete line begninig with <password>=<password ID>.... and it worked.

Posted by: sbp at March 15, 2007 7:04 AM

Sir,

I forget my word file of CURRICULUM VITAE 1 that was not opened without password. how can i open it without actual password. Please help me for this solution.I am very thankful you for this act of kindness.

Regard

Posted by: Dened Max at March 17, 2007 6:39 AM

i cannot open the MS word file, it needs a password to open it. i forgot the password! help! how can i crack the code? THANKS.

Posted by: ALVIN RAY at April 3, 2007 6:52 AM

have file father cannot open he is 87 a vry important file how can I get into it
he has tried everything email me back asap @ mcmonday3@aol.com

Posted by: michael monday at April 9, 2007 7:25 AM

Thanks dave. It was so magic. Thanks for all. It did work.

Posted by: Sumya at April 17, 2007 6:05 AM

For those of you that are confused about this:

This hack is only good for Word files that have password protection on the read-only "status" of the file. This protection is used for files that the originator wants to keep unmolested. With a password protecting the file from changes, the originator can ensure his file won't be changed. HOWEVER, this hack has NOTHING TO DO WITH FILES THAT HAVE PASSWORDS TO OPEN THE FILE. Microsoft uses a very long 40bit encryption on these files. The only way to beat the password on a Word document that has been password protected for file opening is a vary good guess or a "brute force" program that will run through all of the possible combinations. Be aware that this will most likely take 1-3 days.

Good Luck!!

Posted by: Jon at April 25, 2007 12:58 PM

Perfect!!! Two-thumbs up!

Posted by: "PC" at April 25, 2007 4:33 PM

Good tips. We're on Word 2002 SP3 so these didn't quite work for me. I did however go to the HTML version by using the [Alt]+[Shift]+[F11] key combination.

I couldn't find the fields listed but I did find:

(HTMLopen)DocumentProtection Forms (HTMLclose)DocumentProtection

(Had to write it that way because this blog didn't like the actual HTML tags in there)

I removed that line, causing it to complain with a dialog box while saving but it saved anyway. I then altered the form, protected the form with a password I created and then placed it back on the LAN for my users.

Hope that works for somebody else out there.

Posted by: Bobby at April 26, 2007 1:16 PM

Perfect Man...Great work....You made my day! Thank you very much

Posted by: Gowtham at April 27, 2007 4:50 AM

I have a word document that in my PND-muddled state of mind I password protected and cannot recall. I've searched Google, but all I come up with are downloadable programs that cost over $50 USD (Just don't have that kind of money to spare) or shareware that only work on passwords that are under 4 characters long.

How do I know which one is safe to download?
How do I pick one that won't be a waste of money that I can't afford to spend?
Does anyone know of a free option? Its just one document - only of value to me as its a diary I kept while I was struggling with new motherhood.

Hope someone can help shed some light,

Tash

Posted by: Natasha at April 28, 2007 7:42 AM

Great Advice.. I work with Office 2003 and was finally able to unprotect the document using the HTML editor... Amazing!!

Posted by: Kelly at May 22, 2007 12:51 PM

I have a litlle bit trouble:
-I set the password for the file.doc
-2 weeks after, I changed the password of file.doc
===> I can remember the old password which I set before, absolutetly I can't remember the new pass, how should I do?

Posted by: Hiroshi at May 22, 2007 8:51 PM

Dear Dave,

Thanks very much for listing this tip, it was very helpful. You have a great website - thanks for sharing your knowledge with us great guru.

Robin

Posted by: Robin Berry at May 23, 2007 9:15 AM

Can I either turn off the 'save changes' confirmation box, or do a Save and Close at the same time in MS WORD? I know I want to save my changes and close the document, but don't want to do 2 clicks to have to get it done.

Posted by: Dan at May 25, 2007 8:03 AM

Hi Dave,

I have a problem in opening my MS Word document which is password protected as i forgot the password.The OS which i am using is Windows XP. I am scared to use any of the tools in the google search just because it would be virus infected. It would be great if you can help me out in sorting out this problem.Expecting your reply at the earliest...

Thanks

Posted by: Roshini at June 6, 2007 12:10 AM

Very helpful the [Alt]+[Shift]+[F11] key combination worked like a charm after deleting the entire line that contains the word "Password". Save me alot of time.. Cheers

Posted by: Nick Pereira at June 13, 2007 11:10 AM

Hello,
I can't open my a important file. i forgot my file password. so please tell me how can i open it again with safty and how can i broke this file password.

Posted by: Manoj at June 29, 2007 9:07 AM

Thank you dear Andy, your post at August 9, 2006 saved my life :), I needed to work with a very important document. Thanks a lot again, you deserve a huge kiss.

Your Peruvian friend, Sdenka :)

Posted by: Sdenka at July 23, 2007 7:29 PM

Sir, Pls Send me how to crack a word password without knowing them. actually I miss the my imported word file password and that how can i open then pls send me in my e-Mail ID = muskaandin@yahoo.co.in

hanking you in anticipation

Posted by: Dinesh at July 25, 2007 10:01 PM

Hellow,
Here i tried a lot to open the MS Word 2000 file which is password protected.I forgot the password which i have set for this document.Now how can i open this file please guide me.
Thank you.

Posted by: Kaushal at August 3, 2007 12:39 AM

First, open the document and do a "Save As..." specifying Rich Text Format (RTF). It'll end up being called something.rtf.

how can u open the document when the file is itself password protected????

Posted by: marc at August 26, 2007 8:20 PM

Mr Dave.. can you help me to open the Word Document with Password protect. I can't even open the file. I just set a password to protect this file, and after 5 month I forgot it.
can you help me to open it.

Posted by: armedos at August 31, 2007 5:31 PM

i have a password on my word document and i forgot the password. Can i crack into it without any downloads from the internet?

Posted by: jess at September 7, 2007 4:11 AM

Hi :)
how do i get into a word document without knowing the password? I need ur help! :(
hope u can help me

Posted by: alex at September 7, 2007 4:19 AM

this works for formatting locked files, not for files where you need a password just to open it. open the locked file that you've "forgotten" the password for and save it as an .rtf. open the .rtf in wordpad, then click on save as. change the file extension to .doc and save. it's now unlocked. alternatively: while u have the document open in wordpad press ctrl+a and then ctrl+c. open word and press ctrl+v, this will copy and paste everything from the .rtf. ur welcome.

Posted by: Tim at September 7, 2007 3:10 PM

This amazing ..and so simple Thanks

Posted by: Priya at September 7, 2007 9:54 PM

well i have encrypted a word document in microsoft office 2007 i.e i have given a passwor & forgotten it
i tried all your tips but i am unable to open it
could u please help me?????????

Posted by: abhishek at September 9, 2007 10:18 AM

Thanks Dave! Anyone still having trouble try saving the doc in HTML format. Open it > cut and paste the contents to a new word doc. Should do the trick.

Posted by: Joelthrow at September 11, 2007 3:33 PM

Yes, It is nice to read that you can read your password protected documents.
In Your`s comments are sad that: "Open a password protected document, change the name (Save As)...bla bla bla. But probblem is there that I can`t open a pasword protected documen and change the name (give rtf type, I can only rename by clicking right mouse), if I could open the password protected document, i dont understand why I need samsing to change in order to open this document agan...
Thank You!

Posted by: maris at September 17, 2007 8:22 AM

I did my best to crack the password in MS office, But in vein...

anyone can help me...

Posted by: shanim at September 18, 2007 12:25 AM

THERE IS A H U G E DIFFERENCE BETWEN OPENING PASSWORD PROTECTED WORD DOC, AND REMOVING PASSWORD WHICH WAS PLACED O N L Y FOR PREVENT EDITING FILE (sorry for my english I'm polish but I couldn't read it any more)and I'm a GIRL(woman, FEMALE)!!! ;P

Posted by: Agata at September 25, 2007 8:40 PM

Worked like a charm my man - except for one litle adjustment in my case. From RTF I had to save it as a MS Works Word processor Document. And then back to RTF and again to word document. Awesome tip.

Posted by: Anand at October 1, 2007 9:45 PM

Convert read-only .doc files to .pdf and then save as .doc again is another way to get rid of read-only password protect.

I like the way that Zach, PC shared to romove password because it can keep original format of documents.

Posted by: Dịch Vụ Quảng Bá Web at October 9, 2007 9:49 PM

I had word 2003 files that were p/w protected and would not open and found a handy little free program
http://www.shareup.com/Ms_Word_Excel_Cracker-download-49181.html

Worked like a charm for me. Good luck!!!

Posted by: ian at October 11, 2007 8:36 AM

pls tell me,

i forgot my word file password, then what to do

Posted by: shailesh at October 26, 2007 4:43 AM


This is working very fine. Just need to do one more step. After you save as rtf file to MS-Word file. Open the Word File and click on Tools - Unprotect, now it will not ask you the password and you can edit.

Enjoy !!!

Posted by: test at October 28, 2007 1:53 AM

Open file with notepad/wordpad then save as *.rtf.
Open rtf file and save as *.docx

This removed all password protection.

Posted by: Rich at November 19, 2007 10:52 PM

All i did was save as rtf, rename to file.txt (from rtf) then open it in notepad etc.
Search for password... and replaced the adjacent the hash (eg 9d734ndf74 or somethign like that) with: (nothing). The rename to rtf, resave as as word doc and click unprotect. The password is blank, so just hit enter.
done!

Posted by: user at November 21, 2007 3:44 PM

Hi,
i can not open my word doc. I tried all the options,but still in vain. its kinda imp.
have to open this doc file,
please suggest
Thanks
Narry

Posted by: narry at December 4, 2007 8:06 PM

I had open password protected my resume and now i cannot remember it. it is about more than eight character long. can you guide me on how i can open this word document without downloading any software or is there any free software to download that can help. please this is urgent.

thanks

Posted by: Exec at December 9, 2007 8:55 PM

Andy's trick works well with MS word to unprotect an MS Word 2003 document.

Thanks Andy

Posted by: Noor at January 9, 2008 6:23 AM

The simple solutions... saving to .rtf and back again, and simply choosing Tools --> Unprotect Document... did not work for me.

Opening the HTML code and deleting the two lines that referenced the ReadOnly status DID work, though those lines looked a little differen, but they were easy to find with "Find"! (That's the tip posted by Andy on Aug 9 2006) YES! Thanks!

Posted by: Susan at January 11, 2008 2:32 PM

Does anybody know how to unlock VISTA files for editing?

Posted by: David at January 17, 2008 9:47 PM

Does anyone know how to crack the password for a word document on Vista, I can not remember what I set it as and I really need to open the document and cant do anything.
Thank you

Posted by: Carly at January 20, 2008 3:37 AM

sir,

I am not able to word file after ilost my password. i have tried the option given to save the filein HTML formAT AND THAN TO SEARCH "password". i did all thatbut i am not getting any word related to "password" in that file. pls suggest what to do asit is an urgent documents.

Regards

Posted by: shy at January 23, 2008 2:16 AM

Wow.......... can't tell u how surprised i am to find it so simply done. I was working on several programs to solve this problem and !!!!!! 2 my surprise i find ur site. Thanx frnd its been great help and I guess how many of u out there find it the best solution. Take care and i will be a fan and also post what i know on ur site.

Posted by: Mohammed at January 25, 2008 2:00 AM

Open a new, blank Word document and Hit Insert -> File, and insert your password-protected file. Done

Posted by: Steve at January 27, 2008 8:01 PM

You really found the cure, alright! ;)
Thnx

Posted by: Z1ldj1an at January 30, 2008 3:55 AM

Well done!

It work with my word 2003 file.

Thanks Dave and regards!

Posted by: �ng Nhòm at February 23, 2008 1:25 AM

Awesome. It worked with the bit about changing the file extension to rtf, and then opening it with wordpad. Thank you.

Posted by: eckecko at March 4, 2008 1:16 PM

I've just spent 4 hrs on google trying to find out how to overcome the MSWord Forms password under and found lots of so called solutions that will cost me money for a program. I just tried your solution of saving the .doc as a .rtf and then saving that .rtf back to a .doc. IT WORKED, the password under TOOLS/PASSWORD was reset to unprotected and I now have full access to the document. Tks very much for such a simple and elegant solution, Chris.

Posted by: Chris Buchtmann at March 5, 2008 7:00 PM

i have tried saving the file to .rtf and then .doc.but i couldnt recover the document to read.vil u help me with some other tricks to break password.am using xp.

Posted by: ranjan at March 7, 2008 2:05 AM

Absolutely brilliant - thank you!

One of our employees password protected a file to make it read-only and has since moved on, and we needed to edit said document - your advice worked perfectly. Here's to lateral thinking!

Once I opened the newly saved document I had to (like others here) select "Unprotect Document" but once that was done, it worked like a charm!

Posted by: Andy H at April 2, 2008 2:12 AM

thank uvery much

Posted by: rod t at April 7, 2008 6:26 AM

I have password to open and password to modify. I can`t opet document at all. How to do anything while i can not open document. At start shows to write mesage and that is all.
I using Microsoft Office 2003
Help please!!!

Posted by: Miroslav at April 13, 2008 11:04 AM

Send me any office file which had read only security on. I will try to help you lot.

Dont forgot its illegal to do such a job. So i would need some sort of explanation why you need to do this so.

Good Luck

Posted by: Helpee at April 15, 2008 6:44 AM

If you can save the doc as .rtf, you can then edit it with notepad and remove the '\readonlyrecommended {\*\writereservation }' and '{\*\password something}' elements... worked for me.

For the technically inclined, looky here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922681

Posted by: SK at April 20, 2008 4:52 PM

How do i crack, unprotect or remove protection of password from excel file. can you help me in this.

regards,
harish

Posted by: Harish at April 23, 2008 5:05 AM

hello sir,

i have forgot password for my very very important word file. please help me, how to open that word file.

please it is very urgent for me. it is based on my life. so please help urgently.

Posted by: karthikeyan at May 3, 2008 11:48 AM

Sup dude,

i have a microsoft excel file with all ma password son it. The only problem is i secured it with a pass and now iv forgotten it! Can u plz help me to recover it? its really urgent.

Posted by: Tom at May 4, 2008 3:13 AM

i forget my password . how can i break my password.the id is (neha_arya86@rediffmail.com

Posted by: devenderpal at June 21, 2008 9:14 AM

The making the file into the .rtf, changing it, and then saving it back works, but, I lose the graphics that were in the original file so the file looks different.

Posted by: Sam OGrady at July 11, 2008 9:07 AM

First of all we are talking about password protected documents which cannot be opened because a password needed in order to open them!!! Do i have to say that again?! The file cannot open unless u enter a password, so dont mention any instructions saying: go under this menu, check this, tick that, and bs! It doesnt let you in!
Secondly, do not use passwords if you are about to forget them!at least use a password like 1234 or your name! I am bored to listen to people saying: i forgot my password how can i crack it!

Posted by: kostello at July 21, 2008 5:56 AM

hi! i forget my word document pass word how can i open it?Help me please....

Posted by: venkat at August 4, 2008 7:26 AM

Voila!! That Word to RTF to Word does the trick! Good advice.

Posted by: Vince at August 6, 2008 6:52 AM

Hi I forgot mij password. I have an file on word.
File encrijption option for this document.
I have put an password on this file and I forgot it, please help me.

Posted by: brain at August 10, 2008 8:04 PM

This is too good. You r really genius guy .

Thanks

Posted by: Ajit Patil at August 11, 2008 3:31 AM

Hey ...the best way, without any password breaking and anything... is to just open the file in word pad...copy paste the entire thing in a new word document...thats it ...no password required or anything....it worked for me..hope it works for others also...
thanks...amit

Posted by: amit at August 13, 2008 12:11 AM

Thank you so much! you saved me tons of work!!!

Posted by: Me at August 22, 2008 7:38 AM

Thanks for the advices.

Posted by: J.J at August 25, 2008 11:41 AM


i having very big problem i want to open a microsoft word file and it is password protected modify and readonly please help me i want to open that file please please help me

Posted by: vishal at October 1, 2008 12:16 AM

I saw this somewhere else and it worked for me in 2003.

Simply open a new document, in menu choose insert, file and walla unprotected.. Don't forget to save ;)

Posted by: David at October 8, 2008 1:23 PM

hey thanks man! great its working very nice.

Posted by: anish at October 17, 2008 2:33 AM

Hey Dave,

Thank you for the tip, it works great I was able to unprotect the word doc and fill the form.

Thanks man!!

Posted by: CRV at October 17, 2008 11:33 AM

hi, i foregtten my word file password so please tall me how to open my .doc file/

Posted by: waseem at October 26, 2008 12:59 AM

It works 100 % Thanks Dave very much
Alex from VietNam.

Posted by: Alex Le at November 3, 2008 5:13 AM

The way to remove the password of a word file.
Its really simple posted by Dave Taylor:
Here's how you crack the password protected Microsoft Word file: Re copy by Alex Le VietNam
freeboyvnn@yahoo.com

First, open the document and do a "Save As..." specifying Rich Text Format (RTF). It'll end up being called something.rtf.

Now open the RTF file by double-clicking on it. It should look identical to the original Word file.

Final step: save the RTF file with a new name as a Microsoft Word format document.

That's all there is to it. You've sidestepped the read-only lock on the file your boss sent you and are good to go.

In terms of actually breaking the password on a file that has it set as the "open file" password, that's beyond the scope of what I'll write about here. But I will say that there are some Google searches that can probably help you track down plenty of tips on doing just that.

Posted by: Alex Le at November 3, 2008 5:17 AM

Hi Dave, I seem to have lost my microsoft works word processor. it says that i've lost wkwdll,so if i remove the word processor, i can put it back on, how do i put it back on???

Please help! Sylvia.

Posted by: Sylvia Knecht at November 4, 2008 10:55 PM

Hi Dave,I have powerpoint document and I forgot the password.I can't use the tehnic you used for Word.I can't use save as.What should i do?
thk

Posted by: n4speed at November 11, 2008 12:15 PM

I notice that a majority of people are interested to have something to break the password which they have forgotten or lost, not to open a read-only file...
So please anyone who has the knowledge about this thing would oblige everybody by doing that.. I am also facing the same problem.. Forgot the password and now unable to open the word file.

Posted by: DJ at November 16, 2008 11:51 PM

i have no idea how to hack password of word file.please help me.when i am opening the word file it is asking for password.please tell me what will i do to open that file?it is very important file.i have 7 files like this.it is very urgent . please tell me as soon as possible .
from nihar

Posted by: nihar behera at December 2, 2008 12:50 PM

I have password protected my notepad and now I forgot the password, can any one tell me how can I open these notepad ?

Thank you

Kristanto siswanto

Posted by: Kristanto at December 11, 2008 11:50 PM

I want to know that how can login password protected window without knowing password and how remove it.

Posted by: vijay at February 13, 2009 2:09 AM

hi, i've a word 2007 doc with all the permissions restricted except view. i want to take a print of this doc & due to the security permissions i'm unable to do so.
Can u pls help in cracking all the permissions and enabling all the options.

Posted by: kiran kale at March 8, 2009 1:06 AM

works like a charm

Posted by: Jay at March 16, 2009 1:31 AM

I tried this with Word 2003 SP3, and it did not work as described, but a slight change made it work.

Once saved as RTF, I opened it in a text editor, and searched for "password" - there was only one occurrence, contained in a pair of braces like this:

{\*\password 2adc74bd}

I deleted that section, making sure that I got the matching braces and everything between.

That worked like a charm, and the doc is no longer protected.

Posted by: Scottes at March 19, 2009 1:31 PM

Hi to all,

Please help me on recovering my word2003 document. its protected document. i cant able to open it. i tried all techniques mentioned above. when alt+shift+f11 it shows nothing. i opened it in notepad it shows junk code. i also opened in wordpad it shows error.

Posted by: Mukesh at March 29, 2009 7:26 PM

i cant get it to work. every time i click on the file it asked for a password...i click cancel...i go to save as..and i have no idea what to do next..

Posted by: less is more at April 11, 2009 6:11 PM

I expected a good suggestion from Dave Taylor, but it was the worst..
I need to crack a Microsoft file, but this one is different.........

Posted by: RJ at April 19, 2009 10:36 PM

hi dave, i have try to solve my problem.. kuh2.. kan u help me? hint me.. i really2 need your help to remove a password.. kekkai_nojitsu@yahoo.com.my..

Posted by: senpai at April 22, 2009 10:36 AM

I have Vista and word 2007. I have a password protected document I cannot open as I have forgotten the password. How can I open the doc and save to RTF if it prompts me for a password. when i hit cancel there is no option for save as in the doc. Please help me.

tedbosse@comcast.net

Thank you

Posted by: Ted at April 24, 2009 2:05 PM

This does not work with Office 2003, however simply opening the file in Wordpad ensures the formatting remains and this can then be cut and paste into Word.

Posted by: Roger at May 8, 2009 12:15 PM

Brilliant!! A nice and fast way to unprotec document on Word 2003.
1.- Save as "rtf"
2.- Open "rtf" and save as "doc"
3.- Tools -> Unprotec

Fantastic, many thanks!!

Posted by: Chico at May 11, 2009 1:51 PM

pls tell me the steps how to crack the msword password

Posted by: maniats at June 1, 2009 7:25 AM

People I'm seriously in needy of anyone whom could help me to crack password for microsoft word 2007 document and I strived to do the attempts by taking heed to Mr.Dave advice but I do not get any results with regard. My problem people is exactly as Ted as he explained that " I have a password protected document I cannot open as I have forgotten the password. How can I open the doc and save to RTF if it prompts me for a password. when i hit cancel there is no option for save as in the doc. Please help me". Same applies unto me, so people could you help! Anyone please

Posted by: Sivu at June 5, 2009 11:00 AM

Hi Dave, I saved the document with the '.rtf' extension. When I tried to open it again, it still asks for the password. Now i am unable to 'unprotect the document' after renaming with the .rtf extension. I use Office 2003. Am that too good at word. So if u can guide me, it'l be a lot more helpful...Please

Posted by: Anthony Fernandez at June 10, 2009 6:28 AM

It is very easy to do that.

1. Open the document and do a "Save As..." specifying RICH TEXT FORMAT (RTF)
2. Close the file and try to opening it with Word pad or Notepad
3. Save as another file name in .rtf
4. Open it in MS word and you can now edit

Posted by: Mags at June 19, 2009 3:34 PM

What is Word file cracking type

Posted by: Abhishek Singh at June 30, 2009 7:22 AM

Hi,

is it possible to access a personal website when it is blocked in office, for example i need to check my yahoo mails, it shows as access denied. please help

Posted by: lohith at July 9, 2009 4:13 AM

great information..........
this saves lots of time to recreate the existing files........
thank you..............

Posted by: raghu at July 9, 2009 7:47 AM

hi...
i would like 2 ask 4 the same help that most ppl here hav been requesting for. And that is how 2 open the word document if it has a password-to-open protection. Bruteforce attack softwares arent that reliable and are taking 2 long. Im sure there is an easier but technical way to do it that soon sm1 here would find out...
thnx
Jawad

Posted by: Jawad at July 11, 2009 8:05 AM

Many many thanks! Going from doc to rtf and back has stripped the protection off my Word forms.
Now I can type, instead of having to fill it by hand :-)

Posted by: Keith Knott at July 26, 2009 6:11 AM

i can not delete passwordin winrar file

Posted by: veomany at July 28, 2009 1:36 AM

DEAR SIR,

i have lost passord , to using file .doc ( word document file,)


its very imp doc , so how to get password , do have help me,

or give us , modified solution on that one,

waiting reply,ls revert back on return ,

as on abovr address,


SUNIL

Posted by: sunil at July 29, 2009 1:32 AM

sir , i forget my password of microsoft office word 2003. how can i broke the password .plese sujjest me soon.

Posted by: vikas at August 20, 2009 4:36 AM

For anyone having problems with PROTECTED Word 2007 documents, try this

1. Open the protected document in Word 2007
2. Save the document as a "Word XML Document"
3. Open the XML document using Notepad
4. Search for and remove the documentProtection XML tag including the "<" and ">" - see below
5. Save the XML document
6. Open the XML document in Word 2007
7. Protection gone :-)

<w:documentProtection w:edit="forms" w:enforcement="1" w:cryptProviderType="rsaFull" w:cryptAlgorithmClass="hash" w:cryptAlgorithmType="typeAny" w:cryptAlgorithmSid="4" w:cryptSpinCount="100000" w:hash="rlylpUVRYgTZNzvcP4CFYTcISV0=" w:salt="4Akmxfm0igQhWYeAZ4BpcS=="/>

Posted by: Bruce at August 27, 2009 11:49 PM

I cannot get a word 2003 document to save in .rtf format! I only get two options when I try to "Save as" and they are both Microsoft Word documents. Has anyone come across this before?

Posted by: Cs at September 2, 2009 12:29 PM

Great tip! This was exactly what I needed to help me out. You rock.

Posted by: Aaron at September 3, 2009 4:06 PM

Sir

I have forgot the passowrd of my imp word file. Now the problem is while i open my file it asking for the password. so i cant change the extension of that file too. also i have rename the extension of that file from doc to rtf & then vice versa but still its not working.

Plz help me me to solve this issue

Regards
Amit Kumar

Posted by: Amit at September 8, 2009 3:21 AM

Hi Dave,

This worked a treat...you saved me a lot of perspiration on what I considered as the alternative.

Many thanks,

Fred

Posted by: Fred Di Gaspero at September 10, 2009 4:01 AM

i am not able to open word document i tried out all suggestions , rtf format, xml , txt didnt work .
can you suggest any other trick, I am working on xp word 2003 format.

Posted by: bhatt at September 10, 2009 10:23 AM

Hi Dave, Please help me out i lost my word paasword. I tried a lot and i couldn't able to retrive it please help me out. my mail id : balaji.gp3@gmail.com

Posted by: Balaji at September 18, 2009 4:50 AM

Hi. I have been searching every where for my technical solutions and at long last am sure you are the solution. pliz help me in this two issues that i have been struggling with;

I was browsing when i came across a site that claimed they could speed up my pc. iaccepted and what happened next worries me alot. the computer went blank and when it restarted it had an admin password. so am requesting if you can help me in

1. how to crack the admin password

2. how to crack word document password.

thanks in advance for your help

Posted by: enos at October 6, 2009 2:32 AM

Thanks very much for that - stripping out the HTML password section was soooo (Alt Shift F11 easy once I knew what to do. Thanks again,

Neil
was using Word 2003

Posted by: neil at October 13, 2009 11:05 AM

Awesome, Dave. Thanks for this.

Posted by: Reece at October 13, 2009 11:59 AM

hi,
i forget my word doc password how to get back that in xp

Posted by: aruna at October 21, 2009 2:27 AM

What about read only Excel files?

Posted by: Casey at November 5, 2009 9:36 AM

i just opened a pw protected docx (could not edit nor cut-n-paste from it), saved it as a word 2003 doc, opened it, went to review>protect document>un-ticked editing restrictions and voila!!!
>>--contrary to popular myth, MICROSOFT does NOT rule the earth, CHRIST does!--<<

Posted by: Gabriel at November 13, 2009 11:25 AM

see the thing is for me it doesnt let me go to save as let alone reach the rtf thing.If i close the password box and then try to go to save as the option is blacked out.I tried doing it in word pad like one comment suggested,i got the file open but it was in some weird format which which all boxes nd smbols and gibberish

Posted by: Rosh at November 16, 2009 11:29 AM

I currently use Word Password Recovery 5.0, which can recover lost or forgotten passwords of

Microsoft Word. Passwords to modify are recovered in just seconds!
http://www.recoverlostpassword.com/products/wordpasswordrecovery.html

Posted by: tony at December 2, 2009 7:44 PM

Hello Sir

i cant able to open a word document file which it was protected by a password i cant open the document the method was given above i tried it

Posted by: Arun Kumar at December 3, 2009 4:34 AM

Thanks Andy. Your post was exactly what I needed to unlock a document so that I could work on it.
Cheers,
H.

Posted by: Horace at December 11, 2009 1:34 PM

I have a laptop but i formated the laptop and password of ASUS Data Security Manager it change after format when i download ASUS Data Security Manager when i want to open the files not allow please help me how i can open and recovery the password

Posted by: khalid at December 26, 2009 2:18 PM

This works for Word XP (2002) if, at the end, you open the new doc you created and do the following: click on Tools, then Unprotect Document. Viola! Everything will be unlocked. Thanks, Dave, next I'll click on the link to buy you a cup of coffee!!!

Posted by: Anne G., Forest Lake, MN at January 8, 2010 4:34 PM

hello friends, i am unable to open my Word Document File , its protected with a password. i try many more but i cant to crack the file. plz help how to open or crack my word Document file.

Posted by: Narender Soni at January 10, 2010 12:04 AM

please send me the craker tools for microsoft word.

thanks

Posted by: munir at January 27, 2010 6:49 AM

Please send me by a software i want to open my all ms-office protect file.
it is urgent please send a link file with crack no.

Thanking You

Manish Bhargava

Posted by: Manish Bhargava at January 29, 2010 4:40 AM

Hi,
i have protected my word file with a password but i lost the password which i had written in a diary.Please mail me and help me its a very important file.

Posted by: Bini at February 2, 2010 12:25 PM

((((((((((((((((!!!!!!!!!!!!))))))))))))))))))

You forgot one crucial step.

ONCE YOU OPEN THE NEW DOCUMENT YOU HAVE JUST RENAMED, CLICK [STOP PROTECTING]. AND YOU WILL NOTICE YOU DON'T HAVE TO ENTER A PASSWORD.

Posted by: Robert at February 8, 2010 6:04 PM

Hi, many thanks but NONE of the options above worked, very frustrating - i am working with Word 2007 through windows 7, i couldnt break the document from the password protected status. It als insisted on running an "information management rights services" check, talking about court orders and things...so so frustrating, all we wanted to do wsa fill in a form!

Posted by: Sara at February 24, 2010 10:57 AM

These site is expansive...

did you try the word unlocker? isn't free... :(

Posted by: ssh at February 25, 2010 6:25 PM

Hi guys,
I saved a .docx file with password, after one year, i forgot the password and now I need the information inside it. If you have ways and means, please, send me email how to unlock the .docx file.
Do help me, please.
Thanking you in anticipation.
mungsan

Posted by: mungsan at February 26, 2010 11:42 PM

my email id is :
majimungsan@gmail.com

Posted by: mungsan at February 26, 2010 11:45 PM

lol.... just open it in wordpad... works like a charm

Posted by: richie at February 28, 2010 12:57 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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