Disable "These files might be harmful to your computer" warning?

Question

I keep getting this irritating warning when copying files over the network:

These files might be harmful to your computer

These files might be harmful to your computer

Your internet security settings suggest that one or more files may be harmful. Do you want to use it anyway?

I am copying a file from \\192.168.0.197\c$ (home server) to my local machine which is at \\192.168.0.4.

How do I turn off this meaningless "warning"?

If I cut and paste (Ctrl-X then Ctrl-V) I do not get this issue. If I click and drag the same files (from the same source as Ctrl-X and to the same destination as Ctrl-V), I do. This seems a bit odd to me, although I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something semantically or this is a bug. — fostandy, Jun 16 '19 at 02:23
I have this same issue but for doing file operations with SharePoint's File Explorer. I have the SharePoint path for the File Explorer (\\####.sharepoint.com) added as a Trusted Site as well as the normal URL (https://####.sharepoint.com/) and still getting the warnings. Any thoughts? — dylan murphy, May 12 '21 at 18:47

score 204 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 15 '17 at 07:27

204

I found a fix by changing "internet options" -- so I guess Windows is detecting the "internet" as my own network.. sigh.

Click Start / Control Panel / Internet Options
Click Security tab.
Click Local Intranet
Click Sites button.
Click Advanced button.
Enter the IP Address of the other machine or server (wildcards are allowed) and click Add
Click Close, then OK, then OK again.
Disconnect, and reconnect the network drive

Changing Internet Options screenshot

This worked for me, but it's a bummer I have to manually enter IPs here.. it would be nice if Windows could detect this is a local network file copy and skip the irritating (and pointless) warning about "dangerous" files.

Sidenotes:

If you are using a DNS name to map the network drive, adding the IP address of the server to the zone will not work. You will need to add the DNS name, and vica-versa.
When adding an IP address, you can use wildcards like so: 192.168.1.*
Whan adding a DNS name, you can use wildcards like so: *.example.com

edited Dec 15 '17 at 07:27

iBug

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answered Jun 05 '10 at 08:02

Jeff Atwood

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I'm curious what you network adapter settings are (`ipconfig /all`) - It should be catching those addresses under "Automatically detect intranet network". – Darth Android Jun 05 '10 at 08:34
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If you use names for the computers (i.e. not IP addresses) then the default rules for local intranet (those three "include..." checkboxes) should apply. – Richard Jun 05 '10 at 09:51
@Richard They should apply anyways, I have a number of windows system which I just reference by IP address and they copy files just fine. – Darth Android Jun 05 '10 at 10:09
Does anyone know if this is a sort of operation that could be scripted for application on multiple computers? Or where the first step to look for that would be? We map all our network drives by IP and it would be great to apply this fix as a script rather than manually. >> edit >> here is a start http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303650 – bsigrist Jun 16 '11 at 15:36
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note @gerbenny answer at the bottom about wildcards in the sites dialog. – IgalSt Aug 01 '11 at 09:04
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Note that if the network share is open while this change is made, it has to be closed and reopened to see the change. – dvs Sep 25 '12 at 13:14
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Didn't work here; still get the warning. – gravitation Apr 21 '13 at 23:22
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This also increased copy from network speed by 50% !! (through wifi) – Odys Oct 29 '14 at 14:26
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It seems to have worked with the 10.0.0.0/24 format too. – Nulano Mar 22 '17 at 18:36
Also note that it's not required to disconnect the drive. Restarting explorer, or signing out/in again also updates the security policy. – René Apr 07 '17 at 18:09
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If you mapped your drive you can add it by its letter, e.g. "N:\". And please note I did it many times and never needed to disconnect the drive or restart explorer, so I suggest to give it a try first. – Kar.ma Mar 21 '18 at 12:00
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This still works on Windows 10. +1 – Phlucious Jul 19 '18 at 22:51
This change is too small for me to do it (2 chars, minimum is 6). In the post, it says "vica-versa", when it should be [vice versa](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/vice-versa). Also, I confirm that it still works in Windows 10. – Ismael Miguel Jun 15 '20 at 08:35

score 58 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 18 '12 at 03:12

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Using Windows 7, I added my IP address with a wildcard:

10.55.25.*

Now all the ip's in this range are part of the "Local Intranet".

edited Feb 18 '12 at 03:12

Tamara Wijsman

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answered Apr 23 '11 at 10:54

gerbenny

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ah, good tip, it is not clear that dialog supports wildcards. – Jeff Atwood Apr 23 '11 at 10:56
Can you explain what you add this IP address to? – Charlie Harding Sep 16 '16 at 15:48
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@CharlieHarding: This answer was an addition to Jeff's answer of June 5 2010. So, you'd add this to the Local intranet zone dialog box. – Wouter Feb 23 '17 at 09:22
It tells me I have entered an invalid wildcard sequence when I try to add `*.local`. – mm201 Aug 24 '18 at 04:30

score 31 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 16 '16 at 15:16

If you want to do this in Group Policy, this quote may be helpful to you.

You can control this with Group Policy, as well. Use gpedit.msc and drill down to

User Configuration → Policies → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Internet Explorer → Internet Control Panel → Security Page

Enable "Intranet Zone Template" with the Low option.

Then enable "Site to Zone Assignment List" and use the Show button to add your "sites" (servername, servername.domain, ipaddress - the values you enter depend on what name or IP you use to access the share) with a value of 1.

Lastly - and this is the most important step - drill down one folder in gpedit to "Intranet Zone" and enable for "Show security warning for potentially unsafe files", choosing Enable from the drop-down.

Close gpedit, reboot or run gpupdate /force and enjoy no more annoying Windows Security dialogues!

From the bottom of http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/fi-FI/w7itprosecurity/thread/35ca8f9c-5e69-4b7f-a002-0d72fa0dc14b

For anyone else following this, I couldn't find the `.../Intranet Zone/Launching programs and unsafe files` setting in my policies. However just doing the first step with `file://*.example.com`=1 did the trick. — Samuel Harmer, Jun 28 '14 at 10:30
The last setting seems to now be called "Show security warning for potentially unsafe files" and needs to be Enabled with the option set to Enable. — thaimin, Jan 03 '16 at 05:17

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 03 '15 at 16:46

10

I have been getting the same error recently, and found a way to disable this warning forever (I know what files I want to open, so yes, I am sure I want to disable this warning...):

go to Internet Settings (in Internet Explorer)
go to the "Security" tab
click on "Custom level" (with "Internet" selected = first icon)
in the "Miscellaneous" part, select "Enable (not secure)" for the option "Launching applications and unsafe files (not secure)"
click "OK" and then apply the changes; you'll have a warning asking if you're sure you want to do this (you'll have to say yes)

And that's it. :) Have fun.

answered Oct 03 '15 at 16:46

Pete

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You are likely to find you get downvoted for this answer as it leads to an unnecessarily vulnerable system. – Andrew Morton Oct 03 '15 at 17:11
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I'm upvoting, seems harsh to downvote as the OP is asking a question on how to make the system slightly more vulnerable - so any answer could fairly assume that the OP isn't looking for the most perfectly secure answer.... – leinad13 Oct 31 '16 at 16:05

user4892 · Answer 5 · 2010-06-06T04:10:52.643

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I believe you wouldn't get the warning if you used the netbios name of your home server instead of the ip address. If you use the ip address or say the fully qualified dns name of the remote computer it doesn't recognize it as being in the intranet zone. the other option as mentioned earlier is to manually add it to the intranet zone list.

edited Jun 06 '10 at 04:10

answered Jun 05 '10 at 17:31

user4892

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Many years after you wrote this -- but yes this appears to be the main reason for this popup to show up. – Fred Sep 07 '20 at 00:46

score 6 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 21 '12 at 14:27

6

We recently put in a new server using DFS and I was having this same error. I ended up putting in:

" \\\servername.local.?"

After clicking add, it then showed:

file://*.servername.local.

I tried the * verses the ?, but that was not allowed.

edited Mar 21 '12 at 14:27

slhck

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answered Mar 21 '12 at 10:57

Jeff Cornell

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KERR · Answer 7 · 2017-09-22T12:27:35.623

I did a procmon and found where the settings are stored in the registry - this is for my 192.168.1.* network:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Ranges\Range1]
"*"=dword:00000001
":Range"="192.168.1.*"

This is for my \\NAS server:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains\nas]
"file"=dword:00000001

This is how it looks in the internet settings control panel:

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Nov 11 '13 at 18:34

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Adding these two lines (without changing the default Local Intranet settings) is a quick fix:

file://10.*.*.*
10.*.*.*

You need to disconnect and reconnect shares for this to work.

edited Nov 11 '13 at 18:34

Mogget

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answered Nov 11 '13 at 17:13

jott14

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 21 '13 at 23:25

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The other solutions here didn't work for me on Windows 7, but I found one that worked: remove Internet Explorer through Add/Remove Programs and then Adjust Windows Features. Unclick Internet Explorer 8. No more nag dialog!

answered Apr 21 '13 at 23:25

gravitation

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 26 '20 at 12:42

This is what worked for me;

Click Start / Control Panel / Internet Options

Click Security tab.

Click Local Intranet

Click Sites button.

Click Advanced button.

Where it says "Add this website to the Zone:" you want to switch to Explorer and copy the URL in the address bar; Eg if your network drive is mapped to your N: drive the address you copy would be "N:\" or if it's a network share it would be "\\Sharename", and click Add.

These will show as something like; "file://192.168.100.123" and "file://Sharename"

Click Close, then OK, then OK again.

If "Require server verification..." is ticked, untick it.

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 03 '21 at 18:59

Faster Way:

Open the Internet Properties dialog box, go to the Security tab, and click on "Trusted sites":

Select the "Sites" button
Enter your private domain (i.e. "192.168..")
uncheck "Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone"
click Add to close the dialog box
then Apply the changes

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 05 '21 at 17:16

I tried Everything Above Said but Using the Reg Code Mentioned below Did it for me.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\ProtocolDefaults]
@=""
"http"=dword:00000000
"ftp"=dword:00000000
"file"=dword:00000000

And Restart after that!

Disable "These files might be harmful to your computer" warning?

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