A highly touted feature included in Microsoft Office 2010 will soon be added to previous editions.
The feature, known as Office File Validation, lets users open untrusted files in a “sandbox,” allowing them to view the document, while keeping any embedded code from affecting the system.
Microsoft announced the feature will be available as an optional add-on for Office 2003 and 2007 during the first quarter of next year, ComputerWorld reports.
The company decided to expand File Validation to older software after looking at data and determining that more than 80% of all Office security cases over the past four years would have been handled by the feature if it had been in place.