Using excel starter for excel files

[glendot]

I have a new computer which came with office starter, including word starter, excel starter. The office starter and excel starter work fine for creating new documents. The word starter works fine for opening older files originally done with word. But the excel starter will not open older excel files. I have a flash drive with older excel files on it. When I put the flash drive in my new computer, it can't find the excel starter program. When I open the excel starter program on my new computer program it can't find the flash drive. Any suggestions?

[C J Squibb]

Have you tried copying the files to your new computer?

[glendot]

I downloaded from the flash drive to the new computer and the old excel files opened OK with Excel Starter. What I wanted to do was leave some personal finance data on the old computer which is a desktop and keep it out of the new computer which is a laptop and more liable to theft or loss. But the old computer will not boot up anymore. So perhaps I can put the data into the laptop and put it in a folder/files with a password, or just leave it on the flash drive and load/unload to the new computer when I need to get at it.. Thanks for the help.

[C J Squibb]

Sadly, you can't password-protect an entire folder, just individual files, so I suggest you do that. You could also "Hide" the folder (right-click, properties) but this will only be at all effective if you run Windows with "Show hidden files and folders" turned off. Personally, I think a flash drive is much more liable to be lost or stolen than a laptop, unless you have one specifically for sensitive data and keep it locked up when not in use. If your old computer no longer boots up, it's not really safe to rely on it for keeping your files! Good luck!