Joe’s Tech

It’s recently come to my attention that there is an interesting error involving Microsoft Word and Symantec Endpoint Protection (aka SEP).  Under the right circumstances, attempting to save a file directly from Word onto a USB-connected drive (flash or hard drive), results in an error:

“Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error”

The problem doesn’t appear to affect Windows Vista users, only XP, and quite possibly, only XP installations that have been patched to Service Pack 3.

Luckily, on my network, it mostly won’t matter.  About 95 percent of my clients have Symantec Antivirus (SAV), not SEP.  My user’s home PCs, however, may have this version.  I know at least one person does.

Thankfully, there’s a rediculously easy way to work around the problem:  Save your file to your computer first, and then copy it to the flash drive.  That’s it.

If you don’t know if you have either one installed, or can’t tell one from the other, just check out this page for even more details.