Microsoft Word 2003 & older Word files not opening

I have some older word doc files from 1995 and when I try to open them up now in Microsoft Office Word (Professional Edition 2003 (11,8237,8221) SP3 I get a error message..
"You are attempting to open a file that was created in a earlier version of Microsoft Office. This file type is blocked from opening in this version by your registry policy setting" I have checked all the program options setting and can not find any way to change this setting. Am I asking too much or should my later version of Word be able to open old files?

 

And If you didn't have the office SP3 update you would be able to open those older files. If you had office 2007 the problem would be worse.

Anyway here is a set of directions that will help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810/en-us

You can also open the documents in Office 1997, save them and then open them in 2003 SP3. (been there, done that)

 

Yep..been there done that also...

When we upgraded from Office 95 to Office 2000 we had to setup a few Kiosk type PC's running Office 97 so users could "convert" their Access 95 files to Access 97. Once convert then office 2000 would be able to open & convert the 97 files to 2000.

 

Thanks Ranger SVO & dobhar for the reply's and solutions for my problem.

The registry change from Microsoft worked as stated...

thanks again...

 

Just to clarify... The set of instructions using "Method # 1" that Microsoft included with this link from above.... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810/en-us .... did not work. I need to use "Method # 3 ".. manual edit & add the registry changes to (0).