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Subject:Homemade cure for Word macro viruses From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Mon, 4 Aug 1997 12:24:22 -0500
Apologies for cross-posting, but there's enough nonoverlap
between lists that I went ahead.
Jerry Pournelle's August '97 column in _Byte_ reports that
WordPad, a mini-wordprocessor that ships with Windows 95,
is an excellent tool for opening small MSWord files: it's
ostensibly limited to 32K, but often accepts much larger
files. Most interestingly, it has no macro function, and
will strip off macros when you save an MSWord file opened
in WordPad. This would seem to be an ideal solution if you
fear macro viruses in MSWord files sent by e-mail. I
imagine the same solution will work for any wordprocessor
that opens MSWord files in their native format, so if
you're on a Mac or use WordPerfect or Win3.1, you can
probably adapt the technique for your own use.
Caution: I haven't tested this myself (no Win95 installed
yet). Jerry's columns are usually pretty reliable, though.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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