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You’ve downloaded a program, and unzipped it to your Programs folder, but every time you run it, you get a security warning that the publisher isn’t known. You’ve unchecked the Always ask before opening this file box, but the next time you open it, it’s back again. What’s going on?
When you have an unsigned application, Vista ‘blocks’ it to protect your machine, and you have the option of unblocking it. This works fine if the application is on your Desktop, or in your Documents folder, or on another disk. But put that same application in the Program Files folder, or System folder before you unblock it, and Vista doesn’t let you unblock it.
To remedy this, you must unblock the application first, then move/copy it to your Program Files directory. To do this, right-click the application file while it is in a location like Desktop, Documents, or Downloads. Choose Properties and you’ll see at the bottom of the window a section called Security where it says: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer. Click the Unblock button, and hit OK and your program is now unblocked. You can now copy or move it to the Programs File folder, and it won’t prompt you every time you start it.
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Comments
Paul
Jan 22, 2007 at 8:43 am
Thank you for this tip. Doesn’t it strike you as insane that you’ve got to go through such hoops to obtain such a simple result?
jpfieber
Jan 22, 2007 at 8:47 am
Yea, took me a while to figure that one out.
30 Tips for Getting More (or Less) Out of Windows Vista | ITsVISTA
Jan 31, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] Stop Security Warning from Apps on Vista [...]
jjones
Mar 24, 2007 at 8:10 am
My PCAnyWhere and many other applications don’t have the unblock option - am I missing some thing?
Joe
Mar 24, 2007 at 9:10 am
Hard to know for sure without seeing your specific setup. I’d try moving the main exe file to the desktop, then see if you can unblock it, then move it back.
Vaughan Howard
Mar 25, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I accidentally left a movie DVD I had been watching in my D:\ drive which is one of 4 DVD drives I have. I rebooted my comuter with the movie DVD in the drive. It clobbered my boot sector. I can’t believe Microsoft didn’t do a simple check in their code for a move DVD. I repaire this error with the original Windows Vista Ultimate DVD I have. I now can boot and run software again, but the Open File Security Warning comes up with EVERY program I try to run…. from boot software through applications software. I have found 4 programs that won’t run at all. One is important to me… iolo System Mechanic Pro 7 for Vista. The others are graphic programs from MAGIX. I have been literally living with this ridiculous error for 2 days now attempting to avoid a reinstall of Vista (or maybe a dropback to XP after paying several hundred dollars for Vista Ultimate). I have been searching the web for solutions to this problem, but all I have found so far is older solutions that don’t work. There are dozens of solutions out there. I hope from the bottom of my heart that you solution works. I won’t even mind the extra work it will create for me (I have 133 programs loaded) if it works. Thanks for hopefully the answer to this stupid problem.
Kishore
Oct 5, 2007 at 3:17 am
Even after unblocking a file after downloading it is giving open file security error
Marc Sabatella
Dec 14, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Thanks for this! I just spent the last couple of hours browsing for help with this, finding all sorts of references to solutions varying from completely disabling UAC to fiddling with IE’s Intranet security settings to messing the DEP settings - none of which were effective/relevant/appropriate.
I had even found the “unblock” command myself, but it too was ineffective. Luckily, my confidence that this *must* be part of the solution at least gave me the appropriate search term to find this site. Needless to say, it probably never would have occurred to me to move the file out of Program Files first then move it back after unblocking. Crazy, but it worked.
Kagan
Dec 22, 2007 at 8:25 am
Thanks for the tip, I’ve been trying “unblock” but it was useless. It worked now.
Louis
Feb 18, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Thank you very much. It worked for me.
rodrigo
Feb 29, 2008 at 3:52 pm
those vista notifications drives me insane! this tips works fine whit most apps, but it´s just to much trouble.. i find it easy just turnning of the UAC. althought it “protects” my PC, i find it to much intrusive.
i don´t like being limitated by any kind of app…
veronica
May 29, 2008 at 6:21 pm
What do I do to obtain downloaded exe files that just dissapears right after download??
James
Jul 5, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thank you! I had found the block button, but it was being ineffective as I hadn’t moved the program out of the system32 directory. (It was running on startup as well, so very annoying!) You’d think Vista would notify you as to why you couldn’t unblock. I was caught assuming I didn’t have sufficent permissions, and was trying to do it as Administrator, but couldn’t find out how.
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