"Excel VBA Password Cracker Help?" Topic

So, I am working on a client deliverable. They provided us a "sample" Excel workbook (exactly what our competition was delivering to them) for us to replicate.

Being the slackers we are, we want to leverage any of the back-end work they have done in their excel workbook and just dump our data into it with any transformations we need to do.

Problem is, they have the VBA code password protected. There are several utilities out there that do this, but I can't find a free one. So if anyone knows of a free version please let me know.

Please note that some of the "free" ones like this:
vbapasswordremover.com crack the password for you, but then require you to buy the software to access the new key they set up!

Doesn't the client have the password for anything like that? I'd have the university sue the company if they did soemthing like that to us.

Unless the developer is selling their own off the shelf solution, when they develop a specific solution for a client's specifications, especially in software that's widespread like Office, they have no business whatsoever locking down the code.

The client should go after these guys for the password. They paid for the development, therefore, the code belongs to the client. Period.

I don't know about the business of locking down BA on Excel – if it's anything like it is in making an mde (or whatever the heck they call it in the world of the new accmdb crap of 2007+), you may want to contact these folks, Everything Access. They don't look like they deal with Excel, but might be able to refer you somehwere else? I'm just guessing. I used Everything Access about 6 years ago when my PC died and lost a number of MDBs (I always distribute MDEs) – now I religiously back up my code on a server! They were very good.

One thing, though, they, or (hopefully) someone they recommend will probably demand proof of ownership of the app that needs to be cracked. EA would not do a thing for me otherwise.

Other than that, I can't help you, sorry. I wish I could. I'm still developing in A2003 and have never bothered with Excel except to translate the graph library into VBA I can port to Access.
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Tim

Tim,

In my business, it is not uncommon for us to lock down the source code. Unless we have an explicit agreement with the client that they own the code we try to protect it for two reasons:
1. IP: in instances where we use simple programming (like VBA) to automate complex model processes. The modeling methodology is proprietary and needs to be protected.
2. Maintenance purposes: I have had several instances were clients have tried to make modifications to the embedded code, and then tried to make us fix their changes since it was "our code"

Since we are replacing the vendor who is supplyingthem with the information, I can pretty much guarantee that they would not supply the client with the password information. Also, the client would probably not ask them, since giving us the file is (most likely) a violation of their (soon to be ending) contract with that supplier…