How to Remove the Password Required to Open Excel

By Melissa King

Remove Excel passwords if your coworkers need to access a document.
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Microsoft Excel lets you create and organize household budgets and customer invoices, and makes it possible to quickly perform tasks like balancing your checkbook. If your Excel document contains personal or sensitive data, you can set a password to protect it so that only users who know the password can make changes to or see what you've entered. If you try to open Excel by double-clicking on a protected file, the program won't open without the password. There is a way to get around this issue and remove the need for a password.

Step 1

Open the Microsoft Excel application by clicking "Start" and typing "excel" into the search bar. Click on "Excel" in the list that appears to open it. You can also click "All Programs" and open Excel from there. You don't need a password to open Excel this way -- you only it when you double-click on a protected file.

Step 2

Click "File," then "Open." Click on the name of the file that is password-protected. Type the password and hit "Enter" to open the document.

Step 3

Click "File," then "Info" and "Permissions." Click "Encrypt with Password." The password entry box opens.

Step 4

Delete the password in the box, leaving the box empty. Click "OK" to remove the password from the document. Click "Save" before exiting the document.

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