Why does this message 'Your internet security settings prevented one or more files from being opened' pop up?

Question

On several occasion the message that your internet settings prevented one or more file from being opened pops up and I am unable to carry out the tasks further. Why is that ?

One of the instance when this message pops up is shown below. Adobe updater fails to run because of this message.

As I click close,update fails.

Solution 1

Found this in an article located HERE.

To resolve this problem, set the Launching applications and unsafe files setting to at least Prompt. To do this, use one of the following methods:

Method 1: Reset Internet Explorer security zone settings to their default level

To reset Internet Explorer security zone settings to their default level, follow these >steps:

Start Internet Explorer. Click Tools, and then click Internet options. Click the Security > tab. Click Reset all zones to default level, and then click OK.

Method 2: Reset Internet Explorer settings

To learn how to reset Internet Explorer settings, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: How to reset Internet Explorer settings

Note The steps in this article may not fully resolve the issue. For example, if the current Internet Explorer settings are being enforced by a Group Policy object (GPO), these steps may not resolve the issue. If you want further assistance in resolving the problem that is described in this article, contact Microsoft Customer Support.

Solution 2

One possible reason is for the executable to be signed with an expired certificate. (In my case it was SysInternals Process Monitor 3.3, so updating to a more recent version solved the problem.)

The folder in which the executable is located also makes a difference although I haven't figured out the logic yet.

Solution 3

The reason this happens is because NTFS has an awesome feature of Alternative Data Streams (ADS). These are special files that are typically hidden from Windows Explorer and the Command Prompt that give extra details about a file. For example, it's original location (i.e. from a flash drive, from your hard drive, from the Internet), extended file attributes, and likely some other meta data.

These streams are usually referred to with a colon between the original file, and its meta data (i.e. UpdateProgramForAdobe.exe:Meta). Nirsoft has a utility called Alternate Stream View that lets you view these streams.

Comments

[CharlieRB]

Did you happen to click the link at the bottom of the window which states "Why can't these files be opened?"

[Suhail Gupta]

@CharlieRB yeah ! It got me nothing

[Ahmad Mushtaq]

This happened to me when I downloaded Microsoft Office from another site. I moved the executable files to another folder and voila! I think Windows 10 is somehow able to blacklist certain folder names.