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Hi,
I've to modify macro of an excel workbook in my office.
The person who wrote them originally is no longer worked here.
He put a password protection on VBAproject so I can't even see the macro.
Is there anyway to recover or crack the password.
Cheers
Darknite
Contact Microsoft...they maybe able to help you
MLF
Yes,
Firstly, there are a lot of tools around to do this. Google for "excel password recovery" and you will find loads ;)
A lot depends on the version of Excel that it was written in and the OS that you are using, so make sure you pick one of the right ones. You will probably have to pay, but as it is for work, that might actually be a good idea?
If it is an option. you might also have to "take ownership" of the files (I can't quite remember that bit, as it has been a long time :D )
darknite,
you can follow Nihil's advice and google to see if there is a way to recover the password. However, depending on how complex the macro is, why not write your own macro?. There are a bunch of sites that provide code snippets depending on what you're looking to do.
Also, it's pretty bad company policy for only one guy to know the password to this macro (or anything else for that matter) that you need to change.
I just don't get it.
Your company knows of this macro (because they've asked you to modify it)...Yet the company doesn't know the password to the macro, has no documentation on this macro, has no one else in the company who knows of its password, and doesn't have any way to contact former employees (to obtain the password)?
Yet, you've been asked you to modify it...
ShagDevil my friend, I am afraid that I am all too familiar with this sort of situation :(
The problem begins when you give "tools" rather than applications to your user community. There will always be some with above average knowledge who start to use the "advanced features" to develop little applications of their own.
We used to call them "user mushrooms" and the majority of the company and especially IT were totally unaware of them until something goes wrong.......................
The chances are that the person who wrote them will not even remember what the password is......they probably haven't typed it since they finished the mushroom.
Certainly with earlier versions of MS Office, I do not consider these passwords to be true "security features". They are really only intended to prevent someone inadvertently screwing things up.
I always use the password "password" in these situations, but any other agreed common value will do.
A Google search as I suggested gives 388,000 hits................ so this is quite a common problem.
I seem to recall back then that MS Office was quite vulnerable to copying/importing into a new version of the item ;) You didn't even need a tool.
darknite
this is password protected file or the individual vba project?
Hi Chizra from what he has said it is the VBA Project.
What I forgot to ask was does he get a prompt for a password or some message that says that the project is not viewable when he tries to open/edit the project?
I believe that if you just get the "not viewable" message then there might be a problem with him not using a compatible version of Excel as well.
I seem to recall having problems with Office 97 projects that had had their passwords set in Office 2000.
:)
nihil,
the vba project is (embedded) within the .xls file itself rite? And that file is protected?
Hi Chizra, as you can see it would really help if we knew what version(s) we were dealing with :D
I would normally associate two files with Excel (OK forget templates), these being .xls, which is the spreadsheet, and .xla which are add-ins. The VB code would be in the .xla and the compiled version would run in the .xls
The .xla files are not viewable by the casual observer going into the Excel spreadsheet. They can be password locked from viewing/editing, which seems to be the situation that we have here?
The spreadsheet can also be password protected, but the Users would have to know it to use it?
I have a terrible confession to make............. I am more of an Access fan myself (assuming we are not talking anything heavy duty) and would prefer to give the users a database with Excel feeding off it, so they can grow "mushrooms" to their hearts' content
:D
PS. I think that in later versions you convert the .xls/xla files? If I knew which version, I would go and check.
Hi All,
Thanks for your valuable suggestions and questions.
The version of excel is 2003 and OS is WinXP SP2.
The VBAproject is protect by password. In VBA project properties there's a tab for protection and that person put a password there. When I click on VBAproject it prompts for password.
Usually it is not the policy to put a password on macro. But may be the macro also contains password for some important systems as it runs a BW report also and this guy put it so that end user of the report can't see them. And as he was a contractor so before leaving he forget to tell to anyone.
Now I need to change the BW query so I want to see first what macro is exactly doing and does my change going to make an impact on its working.
Cheers
Hmmmmm,
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone will be able to help you much. By the time Office 2002 (XP) and 2003 were released, Microsoft had hardened the security somewhat, so the common work arounds don't work anymore.
All I can suggest is:
1. Try the obvious: password, Password, PASSWORD, PassworD..........
2. Look at the project documentation. You might even find a listing of the macro?
3. Ask the person who signed off the project to go into production if they know.
4. Try to contact the author.
After that you will have to buy a tool that will do the job, or send it to a specialist company.
:)
We get this sort of problem all the time at work.
Try ElcomSoft Co.Ltd and download AOPR (Advanced office password recovery)
It will recover anything from office inclusing VBA, Excel, macro etc etc.
I do it all the time, there are other tolls out there too such as Password Tools.
Just google Password tools or just go to http://www.elcomsoft.com/aopr.html which is all you need for you what u describe.