How can I remove password protection from excel file in Windows 11?

You can use The ZIP File Trick if you want to remove password from Excel file in Windows 11.

This method works for worksheet or workbook protection on modern Excel files (. xlsx), but it will not work for the password required to open the file itself. It exploits the fact that .xlsx files are actually compressed ZIP archives.

1. Back up your file first — seriously, do this before anything else. Work on a copy.

2. Rename the file extension:

• Right-click your Excel file and select Rename.
• Change . xlsx to . zip. So MyFile. xlsx becomes MyFile .zip.
• Click "Yes" when Windows warns you about changing the extension.

3. Open the ZIP file:

• Right-click the .zip file and select Extract All to extract the contents into a folder .

4. Find the protected sheet:

• Navigate into the extracted folder, then into xl → worksheets.
• Inside, you'll see files like sheet1. xml, sheet2. xml, etc. The protected sheet(s) will have protection code inside.

5. Edit the XML file:

• Right-click on the relevant sheet1.xml (or whichever) and open it with Notepad.
• Search (Ctrl+F) for the word protection.
• You'll find a tag that looks something like:
• <sheetProtection algorithmName="SHA-512" hashValue="..." saltValue="..." spinCount="..." sheet="1" objects="1" scenarios="1"/>
• Delete this entire tag and save the file .

6. Re-package everything:

• Go back to the main extracted folder, select all the files and folders (xl, _rels, [Content_Types].xml), right-click, and select Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder .
• Rename this new ZIP file back to .xlsx.

Open it up—the protection should be gone. If you have multiple protected sheets, repeat the XML editing for each one .