{"id":8658,"date":"2024-01-29T12:13:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T12:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8658"},"modified":"2024-01-29T12:18:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T12:18:39","slug":"removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm","title":{"rendered":"Removing password protection from PDF files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Important note: this post wont help you if you have a PDF file and don&#8217;t know the password. This is for removing passwords on PDFs that you have legal access to, but don&#8217;t want to be password-protected any more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A while ago, one of my employers started emailing payslips in PDF format. Now, I know there are many issues around accessibility with PDFs, but it works for me &#8211; I get a digital version of a document that looks exactly as the printed one would have. Except that someone decided email (even to a company-secured account) was not secure enough, and they password-protected the files. In theory, this stops another employee from opening my payslip. In practice, they used a known piece of personally identifiable information (PII).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, I wanted to keep a copy of the files on my own file storage. I can do this because, technically, they are not company data and they are (or at least should be) private to me. Indeed the company in question has since moved to a system that emails a link to a personal email account, inviting the employee to download their payslip from a portal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn&#8217;t want the copies of the payslips that I held to be password protected. That meant I needed to remove those passwords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">QPDF<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/qpdf.readthedocs.io\/\">QPDF<\/a> is a computer program, and associated library, for structural, content-preserving transformations on PDF files. It&#8217;s not for creating, viewing or converting PDF files. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things it can do, is remove the password protection on a file. Remember, this is a file that I have legal access to, so removing the password protection is not a crime. I&#8217;m not hacking the file &#8211; in fact I need to know the password in order to remove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>QPDF can do much more than remove passwords (for example I think I could use it to create new versions of a PDF file with just a subset of the pages), but this was what I needed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A little side-note<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This was the second time I performed this exercise. I first did it a few years ago, but only on the payslips I&#8217;d received up until that date. Later ones were still password-protected. I didn&#8217;t document my method the first time around though&#8230; so I had to work it all out again. This time I decided to write it down&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A little PowerShell Script<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It looks like, the first time I ran this, I downloaded a Windows executable version of QPDF and either wrote, or more likely found, a PowerShell script to adapt. The script is called <code>payslips.ps1<\/code> and looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>$children = Get-ChildItem # Save files in a variable. Piping the rest of the script from Get-ChildItem in a single line was a bad idea\n$children | ForEach-Object {\nWrite-Debug \"Working on $_.Name\"; #Doesn't actually display a lot\n$fileName =&#91;System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($_.Name); #Strip name, we will append \"tmp\"\n$ext =&#91;System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($_.Name);\n$tempFile = $fileName + \"tmp\" + $ext; # Append \"_tmp\" Move-Item -Path $.Name -Destination $tempFile; #Move the file to a temporary location\n..\\qpdf.exe --password=<em>AB123456C<\/em> --decrypt $tempFile $_.Name; #Use qpdf to decrypt it, save in original location\n#Remove-Item $tempFile #Remove temporary file\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><em>ABC123456C<\/em> should be replaced with the actual password. Actually, it shouldn&#8217;t, because including credentials in code is sloppy security practice. There are better ways to pass the password, but I&#8217;m just converting 50 files as a one-off exercise, not building a repeatable business process. If you go on to use this in a business environment, please don&#8217;t do it this way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Release notes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The script makes a temporary copy of each file, suffixed with _tmp but preserving the file extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you run the script against the current folder, it will run against all files, not just PDFs. That means it will rename itself and all the QPDF files with _tmp. This will cause it to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It looks like, when I ran this a few years ago, I used a <code>files.txt<\/code> file to control this behaviour. <code>files.txt<\/code> was just a list of filenames and is easily generated using the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>dir \/b \/a-d &gt; files.txt<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>But, this time, I couldn&#8217;t see how to provide that as a parameter to QPDF, so I had to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Place all the files to be converted in a subfolder of the folder containing QPDF and my PowerShell script.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Edit the <code>payslips.ps1<\/code> script to refer to <code>..\\qpdf.exe<\/code> (i.e. <code>qpdf.exe<\/code> in the folder above the current one).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Change directory into the subfolder.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run <code>payslips.ps1<\/code> from the subfolder &#8211; i.e.:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>..\\payslips.ps1<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>This means it will only run against the files in the subfolder, and not against QPDF, the script, or anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t seem to remove the temporary files. I didn&#8217;t try to work out why. It had already created what I needed by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Featured image: author&#8217;s own<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Important note: this post wont help you if you have a PDF file and don&#8217;t know the password. This is for removing passwords on PDFs that you have legal access to, but don&#8217;t want to be password-protected any more. A while ago, one of my employers started emailing payslips in PDF format. Now, I know &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Removing password protection from PDF files<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[732,43,39],"class_list":["post-8658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-pdf","tag-security","tag-useful-software"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Removing password protection from PDF files - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A short post about removing the password protection from some PDF files that I intend to keep long after I&#039;ve forgotten the password\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Removing password protection from PDF files - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A short post about removing the password protection from some PDF files that I intend to keep long after I&#039;ve forgotten the password\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-29T12:13:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-29T12:18:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"649\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"Removing password protection from PDF files\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-29T12:13:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-29T12:18:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\"},\"wordCount\":723,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"PDF\",\"Security\",\"Useful Software\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\",\"name\":\"Removing password protection from PDF files - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-29T12:13:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-29T12:18:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"A short post about removing the password protection from some PDF files that I intend to keep long after I've forgotten the password\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1\",\"width\":649,\"height\":414},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Removing password protection from PDF files\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Removing password protection from PDF files - markwilson.it","description":"A short post about removing the password protection from some PDF files that I intend to keep long after I've forgotten the password","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Removing password protection from PDF files - markwilson.it","og_description":"A short post about removing the password protection from some PDF files that I intend to keep long after I've forgotten the password","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2024-01-29T12:13:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-29T12:18:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":649,"height":414,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"Removing password protection from PDF files","datePublished":"2024-01-29T12:13:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-29T12:18:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm"},"wordCount":723,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1","keywords":["PDF","Security","Useful Software"],"articleSection":["Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm","name":"Removing password protection from PDF files - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1","datePublished":"2024-01-29T12:13:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-29T12:18:39+00:00","description":"A short post about removing the password protection from some PDF files that I intend to keep long after I've forgotten the password","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1","width":649,"height":414},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/removing-password-protection-from-pdf-files.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Removing password protection from PDF files"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/password-protected-pdf.png?fit=649%2C414&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8074,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/08\/bulk-removing-passwords-from-pdf-documents.htm","url_meta":{"origin":8658,"position":0},"title":"Bulk removing passwords from PDF documents","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 21 August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My payslip and related documents are sent to me in PDF format. To provide some rudimentary protection from interception, they are password protected, though the password is easily obtained by anyone who knows what the system is. Because these are important documents, I store a copy in my personal filing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3404,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/12\/a-workaround-for-ipad-users3-subscribers-to-access-their-mobile-broadband-bills-on-another-device.htm","url_meta":{"origin":8658,"position":1},"title":"A workaround for iPad users\/Three UK subscribers to access their mobile broadband bills on another device","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Sunday 18 December 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Three UK (3) has just been added to my list of mobile operators who haven't got a clue about customer service. For the last few months I've been using Three's mobile broadband service on my iPad. The in-store service when I joined the network was pretty lousy but today that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":461,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/07\/windows-mobile-device-security.htm","url_meta":{"origin":8658,"position":2},"title":"Windows Mobile device security","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 13 July 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the years, I've attended various presentations featuring mobile access to data but most of them have been along the lines of \"look at all this cool stuff I can do\". Last week I was at the Microsoft IT Security Summit and saw a slightly different angle on things as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Windows Mobile\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Windows Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/windows-mobile"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5805,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/08\/short-takes-excel-tips-display-worksheet-name-validate-data-editing-microsoft-project-files-stored-sharepoint-xps-pdf-conversion-service.htm","url_meta":{"origin":8658,"position":3},"title":"Short takes: Excel tips to display the worksheet name and validate data; editing Microsoft Project files stored on SharePoint; and an XPS to PDF conversion service","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 17 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Another collection of mini-posts based on recent IT trials and tribulations... Excel tips to display the worksheet name in a cell\u00a0and to validate data Last week, I was working on an Excel spreadsheet that acts as a plan for a series of tests. Each sheet has the same format, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":966,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/12\/migrating-passwords-with-the-active-directory-migration-tool.htm","url_meta":{"origin":8658,"position":4},"title":"Migrating passwords with the Active Directory Migration Tool","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 21 December 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've spent most of this month working with a customer who is consolidating various Active Directory forests into a single domain. We didn't use any third party tools - just the standard Microsoft utilities, i.e. Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) v3 and Exchange Migration Wizard (one of the Exchange Server\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft Active Directory\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft Active Directory","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/active-directory"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1116,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/07\/generating-secure-passwords.htm","url_meta":{"origin":8658,"position":5},"title":"Generating secure passwords","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 14 July 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"One corporate blogger at Symantec recently wrote about the useless passwords that people use (with various lists placing \"password\") at or close to the top of the list. His source contained some dubious claims (e.g. it claimed that one of the top passwords across Europe is \"monkey\"... maybe that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Security\"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8662,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8658\/revisions\/8662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}