At 07:45 AM 09/09/99 -0400, Karl Gottshalk wrote:
>www.lostpassword.com has a utility to get passwords for most any file,
>unfortunately it is a bit expensive. However, they have a downloadable demo
>version that shows you the first few letters of the password, which may be
>enough to jog your memory.


Seeking a solution to Revelation's limitation, I've just tried the Passware
demo for MS Word and Excel [the version that covers up to Word and Excel
95]. As Karl recalled, it shows the first two characters of the password
for a password protected file in these two programs.  There are versions
available for other programs.

To use, you simply drag the problem file from the Windows Explorer file
listing to the demo interface. Great!

Consequently, most people should be able to recover from a forgotten
password by using either Revelation, where the ********'d covering the
password is visible on screen, or one of Passware's versions where it is
not. I noticed that some of Passware's demos only uncover the first
character of the password. So, if one has been very "sneaky" and chosen a
totally random numeric password they would probably require the full
version of the program.

Thanks Karl,

Peter Darrach

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