Re: [ANN] "Dbl-Click Won't Open..." Issues

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Hi Steve:

The "reason" is that the double-click is just an instance of OLE -- Word
receives a "call" from a foreign code module to "Open" this file.

That call can come from anywhere: any piece of software on the computer (and
in some cases, from software on other computers). So it's a high-risk
function.

Deprecating the old file types that could potentially contain bad stuff
removes the ability for some piece of malware dropped on the desktop by a
browser, to inject a call into Word/Excel/PowerPoint and use this as a way
to execute potentially destructive code.

If the user explicitly uses File>Open and points out the file that they
want, there is a much lower chance that the file to be opened is some
tricked-up bit of code capable of doing bad things. The user knows in
advance what they are opening, they intended to open it, and if bad things
happened, they know immediately what caused it.

Using File>Open automatically emits a call from Word to the AntiVirus
application, which gets a chance to scan the file before handing it on to
Word.

The original poster needs to understand that there never was consistency
about this: they were always two separate functions. One has always been
more secure than the other. Until Macs became so popular, it was never
worth bothering about this, because the chances of getting a bit of malware
hiding in a Word file that could destroy the computer or email your credit
card details to Russia was very small.

Even if the bad guys could figure out how to do all of that, the chances
that they would have two versions of their crapware in the file, one coded
to drive a nail through the OS X security system, was tiny.

But now, Mac is more than five per cent of the market, and it is a hell of a
lot harder to drive a nail through Vista than it was through Windows 2000.
So the Mac market is now worth chasing: even for the bad guys.

Now, that's the "reason". Rather difficult to encapsulate in a marketing
soundbite for the general public. But System Administrators can get the
full explanation in the Microsoft Knowledgebase.

Cheers

On 20/06/08 11:36 PM, in article 200620080936567419%maser@xxxxxxxxx, "Steve
Maser" <maser@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <O$7hAKm0IHA.4848@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Daiya Mitchell
<daiyaNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You can share your opinion with MS by using Help | Send Feedback in any
Office app. They are very unlikely to see your criteria for when
something is and isn't a bug, and your preferred designs for Office
2008, in a post here.

Personally, I disagree with your basic premise. It would be a drastic
loss of a *feature* if File | Open and Double-Click behaved exactly the
same, in any app, as there are many legitimate situations when I want
them to behave differently--for instance, I might have .jpgs set to open
in Preview but want to use File | Open to access one in Photoshop.


I think his premise -- which I tend to side with -- is that if
Word/Excel will not open a file via double-click because it has a
depreciated file type, why does it allow the file to be opened via
File-->Open without throwing up a dialog box that "this file has a
depreciated file type" like one of the types of dialog boxes that Excel
2008 presents when you open a 2004 spreadsheet that contains VBA macros
in it.


Consistency is what the original poster is looking for.

- Steve

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxx

.

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