Cannot open Excel 2002 password protected file

[MWV Admin]

I currently have Microsoft Office XP (SP3) installed on my PC; the OS is
Microsoft Windows XP (SP2). I recently installed the Microsoft Office
Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats so I’d
be able to view .docx files. I then found out I was unable to open password
protected Excel files. I read the following article:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx

Noted the following:

"You will not be able to open password-protected files, even if you know the
password."

However, this was a direct quote relating to Word, not Excel. I then decided
to attempt to open the same file on a PC with Excel 2007 and had no issues
opening it. So I simply removed the password protection and saved it as an
Excel 97 - 2003 file and transferred it back to my PC. From there, using
Excel 2002, I was able to open, place password protection back on and
successfully reopen it using a password without any issues.

I am not sure if this is a bug with the Compatibility Pack or if the mention
of not being "able to open password-protected files, even if you know the
password" is for all Office files and not just Word.

Can someone please clarify this for me?

 

[ShaneDevenshire]

I can't tell you what's happening, but I can tell you there is an entirely
new implimentation of security in 2007, because of that it is not supprising
that this is happening. I suspect that this is not a bug, but Microsoft just
could not, or choose not to deal with the problem.