About File "types" and Office 12.1 Service Pack and double-clicking

New Thread!

OK -- the argument that some MVPs have been making is that the classic
"WDBN" Word file type has been depreciated from being
double-click-opened in Office 12.1 because of some as-yet-unannounced
security issue.

Fine.

"Security problems" are nice stop signs to throw up at people to get
their attention. You have mine. ;-)


This unilateral action begs the following questions:

1) Why is the file type of "WDBN" not a security issue for Word 2004?
Which, because of the lack of VBA in Excel -- is probably going to make
Office 2004 the default Office system for quite some time...

It's not (yet?) been made clear what the double-click-opening issue
with "WDBN" file types are that it only affects Office 2008, but not
2004. If this is an OOXML issue, will it (eventually?) hurt Office
2004 whenever the long-delayed translator for 2004 is released?


2) If the argument is that certain web browsers/mail programs are
doing things "wrong" about putting "old" file types on
downloaded/decoded attachments and should be leaving this *blank* and
relying on "extension" only (rather than updating for a more current
file type)...

Then why does Word 12.1:

A) Allow me to save/edit/open a word document with no extension,
without throwing up a red stop sign?

B) Still put a "W8BN" file type on documents it saves? If they
want to lead by example, why is this not blank as well (a type is added
if I save the document with or withouth an extension.)

C) Not allow "extensions" to override file types? -- Which would
resolve the problem (likely) for the vast amount of users.
(Admittedly, I can see why this might be considered a bad idea, but...)


Why is there not internal logic in the program that says something like
"well, it's "WDBN", but it has a ".doc" extension, so we'll open it
anyway...")

I would surmise "B" is being done because "A" is allowed. But,
according to the MVPs defending this results of applying the 12.1
service pack, neither "A" nor "B" should be done. "Extensions only"
from this point on to open files via double-click, right? :-/

- Steve
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: PROBLEM: 12.1 version of Word 2008 will not open WinWord .doc
    ... If I remove the type code the document opens normally on double-click, presumably now forced to use the extension only to determine file type. ... It should only have hit very old documents, because SP1 deprecated old type codes. ... File Type WDBN. ... I repeated the tests with a .docX that I'm pretty sure my Windows-using chair typed up a few weeks ago. ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: About File "types" and Office 12.1 Service Pack and double-clicking
    ... Steve, what is the point of asking these questions in this forum? ... To argue that MVPs are wrong to not get all heated up about it? ... Why is the file type of "WDBN" not a security issue for Word 2004? ... Allow me to save/edit/open a word document with no extension, ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard
    ... >>mail with a particular file type was not so smart. ... > to get one that has security. ... It was modeled after a server operating system. ...
    (sci.crypt)
  • Re: A criticism of MS Word 2008
    ... File Type" Deprecation. ... Corentin's script resolves the issue. ... that it is STILL believing the File Type Code. ... From what I've read of this thread you're discussing the WDBN file type ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: Fine-Tune Your Web Site for Windows XP Service Pack 2
    ... security something to consider 'after the fact' as this excerpt from ... the MSDN article indicates... ... file type that can potentially harm the user's computer and can be signed. ...
    (microsoft.public.frontpage.client)
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