How to disable "Opening these files might be harmful to your computer" warning popup in AppData sub folders?

Question

On Windows 10 with latest updates, I have a ZIP file in an AppData\LocalLow sub-folder:

C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Test\test.zip.

From Windows File Explorer, whenever I right click on this zip file to open the context menu, I get a warning popup saying "Opening these files might be harmful to your computer":

The same ZIP file placed on my Windows Desktop doesn't trigger this warning, so it seems it has something to do with the AppData folder.

I've read this related post: Disable "These files might be harmful to your computer" warning?

But my problem is not for a network copy and solutions described here does not work for my case.

Solution

This happens if the folder's integrity level is Low, which means applications running in Low integrity level usually write to those folders, like your web browser etc.

You can check the integrity level for a folder by running this command:

icacls %userprofile%\AppData\LocalLow

The Windows Security warning is protecting you from accidentally running files that may be risky.

Other folders with Low IL:

%temp%\Low

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\low

It's best to leave them as they are.

Comments

[Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style]

You'd likely want to leave that in place as per the below answer for security reasons but following the article you referenced, adding the value file://C:/Users/<username>/AppData/LocalLow to the site zone may do the trick you really want to risk it.

[Stéphane]

Maybe is there a way to only change the integrity level of the sub-folder I'm interested in ? This sub-folder is a folder I totally control for one of my personal application, so I'm not sure this would be risky.

[w32sh]

Yes. This command should do it. icacls %userprofile%\AppData\LocalLow\testfolder /setintegritylevel medium

[Stéphane]

Great ! It worked perfectly ! Thanks very much