Microsoft Office and Open Office documents stored in a File Share protected folder cannot be opened in Windows 7, 8.x, 10 and Server 2008 and 2012 after the Windows cumulative updates are installed.
Symptoms include:
Typically, non-Office files, such as Notepad (text files), WordPad (RTF format files) or Adobe Reader (pdf files) are decrypted correctly. In the copy/paste scenario other file types can be affected.
Note that .rtf files opened with Word will experience the same issue. Those same files can be opened with WordPad.
The Office application will state that it cannot open the file. Examples of the error messages are:
The file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.
We're sorry. We can't open <filename>
because we found a problem with its contents.
The file <filename> cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.
The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.
Unless the file is very small, Windows will generate a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) with the following message:
Stop code: SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED
What failed: PGPfsfd.sys
Due to some Network Redirector logic that was changed in these windows updates, applying any recent Microsoft updates can cause this issue. This issue started during the October Microsoft updates.
This issue is now resolved in Symantec File Share Encryption 10.4.1 MP2HF2 and can be downloaded from Fileconnect.
Review the Resolved Issues and Known issue below:
Known Issue in Symantec File Share Encryption 10.4.1 MP2HF2
Etrack 4159951: New PowerPoint 2010 and Excel 2010 files created using the right-click context menu in a network share may be corrupted when Symantec File Share Encryption 10.4.1 MP2HF2 is installed on the machine.
In order to work around this issue, either:
This issue has *not* been observed in Office 2013 or Office 2016. Symantec Development team is currently working on addressing this issue.
Resolved issues in Symantec File Share Encryption 10.4.1 MP2HF2
NOTE: Please contact support if the following applies: