Word/Office

[Russ]

Here is an interesting situation. Somehow, some of my Word documents became
encrypted without me knowing it. I had just formatted my PC and when I
restored the Word documents, I couldn't open them because they are
encrypted. I had followed the procedures to decrypt them, but I cannot gain
access.

Is there any way around this?

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

How do you know they are encrypted and not corrupted?

 

[Bob I]

Did you encrypt them with Windows EFS ? If so and you didn't set up the
Recovery Certificate, you may consider them gone forever.

 

[Russ]

Honestly, I didn't encrypt them at all. For whatever reason, this happened
on its own. I don't know why. Only some of my files became encrypted, yet
others did not. I suspect a virus may have been involved before I formatted
the machine.

 

[Bob I]

Ok, so there was a virus involved? Or did you happen to get infected
with some blackmail malware? Perhaps you should start at the beginning
and provide some background on the reasons you re-formatted, when the
backups were made and what messages (dialog boxes or errors)appear when
you attempt to open the file. (the wording is important) You also might
want to start this as a new thread so as to get a larger audience.