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Q: I hate the fact that my computer has suddenly
started asking me if I really want to open a file when I double-click
it. It never used to do that, why is this happening?
A: This is Microsoft protecting you from yourself,
whether you want them to or not. This behaviour started with
XP Service Pack 2, because of the addition of the Attachment
Execution Services (AES). In continues with Vista and probably
Windows 7, too. AES considers the downloaded update file to be
from the Internet Zone and thus potentially dangerous. Therefore,
AES displays the Open File - Security Warning dialog box.
A big Security Warning box appears in the middle of
the screen, stopping you from clicking anywhere else. It's the
one with a yellow shield icon in the bottom, complaining about
the Unknown Publisher and asking "Do you want to
open this file?".
Well, of course you do, you just double-clicked it. It's a
stupid question, but fortunately you can get rid of it permanently
for certain file types, such as images and movies. Do NOT disable
it for executable files, as for those files types, it's a valid
question; EXE files can contain viruses, so asking makes you
think twice. But for images, it's a stupid question.
One caveat: this does not work with the Home editions of either
Vista or XP (and probably Windows 7) because they don't come
with Group Policy Editor. You're stuck with this intrusive message
popping up all the time.
To disable the warning, start the Group Policy Editor
which should be in the Administrative Tools section of Control
Panel but isn't. (Why not? Only Microsoft knows and they ain't
talking.) The only way to invoke it is:
Start
Run
type gpedit.msc
press OK
Then navigate to
User Configuration
Administrative Templates
Windows Components
Attachment Manager
Then right-click on the line Inclusion list for low file
types and choose Properties. Note that the text should
read "Inclusion list for low risk
file types". They can't even get the dialog messages right.
When you click Properties, this window appears:
Set the option to Enabled and enter the file types
in the box that you don't want to be warned about in the future,
for example:
.bmp;.gif;.png;.jpg;.jpeg;.tif;.avi;.mpg;.mp3;.mov;.divx;.xvid;.wav;.wmv
Click OK and close the Group Policy editor. You don't
need to reboot.
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