Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are two common applications which offer password security  to protect your data. It is not uncommon to lose or forget that password of your vital files. But with the help of Word and Excel password recovery software, unlocking those files is not an impossible task. Read more to learn about this software and some of the best recovery packages.

Word password recovery

Two main types of passwords are used in Word files:

• File open password
• File reservation password.

File reservation passwords are less secure and can be accessed easily. On the other hand, File open passwords require more time and effort, particularly for Office 2007.

A Word file can be unlocked without a password by using encryption key or by finding the password by trying all possible character combinations, which can be time consuming. Searching for the encryption key is generally far quicker than finding the original password if you are using Office version 97, 2000 or 2003 (with default encryption).

However, Word 2007 uses strong encryption, which rules out finding the encryption key, and it is very time consuming to recover the original password.

Excel password recovery

There are four types of passwords that can be used in an Excel file:

• VBA password
• File open password
• Hidden worksheet password
• File reservation Password

Hidden Worksheet and File reservation passwords are used more to protect files from accidental deletion and they can be easily recovered.

As with Word passwords, it is usually faster to find the encryption key (which removes password protection) than to find the original password by trying all the character combinations.

However, due to advanced security system of Excel 2007, you will need to use the character matching approach to recover the password which is quite time consuming.

Word/Excel password recovery software

There are a number of recovery packages available for various vendors. Most are reputable, and don’t promise what they can’t deliver, but some are scams. Here are some leading recovery solutions from reputable firms that you may wish to consider.

Advanced Office Password Recovery

Elcomsoft is a leader in decryption technology, particularly noted for its expertise in Adobe Acrobat security.

Elcomsoft’s Advanced Office Password Recovery (AOPR) software offers wide range of recovery options for all Word and Excel versions from 2.0 to Office 2007. It comes up with highly optimized low level code that offers very effective recovery operations and capable of offering instant recovery for multiple Office products.

AOPR’s automatic preliminary attack system is often capable of providing positive result within 10 minutes. It can recover any Word / Excel 97 file open password protected files using a key recovery feature, which decrypts the file and removes the password.

Otherwise it tries a dictionary attack and brute force attack to recover the password.

AOPR Interface

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Tags: excel password, password recovery software, word password

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Choosing Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.