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I recently reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP (I know I'll have to take the plunge and commit to Win8 "real soon, now", but I'm just not quite ready for the upheaval yet! :)

I used to use WinRar (and later, when I got fed up with the "nag" messages, 7-Zip), but I haven't installed either of them in my new configuration, so I must be using the built-in XP facility when I open *.zip files.

For years, I've been opening downloaded *.zip archives, and using "drag & drop" to copy to a File Explorer window open on the folder where I want the files to end up (usually, My Documents\Downloads).

But now I find that when I "drop" the file(s), I get a pop-up Windows Security Warning saying

Are you sure you want to copy or move files to this folder?
You should only move or copy files from locations that you trust

Can anyone explain why I'm getting this message, and is there any (reasonably easy, please! :) way to suppress it? Since I've already put the *.zip file on my computer, it seems a bit late to ask if I trust it.

(Thus far, the files in question have always been plain text, so it's not a matter of dodgy programs, etc.)

Apologies for the low quality image - I don't have the appropriate tools or knowledge to do any better, and it doesn't help that my "PrtScr" screen capture has included what would have been on my second monitor (TV) if it had been turned on. If you can't read it, trust me - I have copied the text verbatim.

enter image description here

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  • Is that the real message? It seems as though Windows recorded that that file came from the Web, and he flags differently, although I NEVER saw anything like it in all my experience with XP. Can you post a screenshot?
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 1:03
  • It's a bit messy because I still don't have many of the "utility" routines I used to use for capturing screenshots, etc. But I'll try to post something as an "answer" to avoid messing up my question text...
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 1:13
  • After probing a little I found this. Maybe it is because of some settings in IE that are higher that what is usual.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 1:16
  • @Doktoro: One of the few things I have downloaded is Google Chrome. I have to have IE because Windows Update refuses to use Chrome, but that's the only thing I normally use IE for. Windows File Explorer (which is what's involved here) doesn't seem to have any configurable security options.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 1:23
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    @FumbleFingers I added an answer. In my answer i also showed how you could circumvent the block for trusted sites you visit often. That way you don't have to completely disable the functionality and still not have the message for trusted files from those sites.
    – Rik
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 18:51

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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This is the message you get:

Windows Security Warning

It's Windows warning you, you are trying to copy a file out of a non-trusted location. In this case it is from a zipped-file downloaded from the internet (which its content Windows still does not trust).

The easiest way to get rid of this message is to unblock the zip-file. When you right-click on the file and choose properties you get the option to Unblock the file. After that you don't get the message anymore if you drag the content from that zip-file.

Properties

If you download a lot of files from certain sites and you trust those files you could also add these sites to your "Trusted Sites". In your case you could add http://subscene.com and any other sites you often use, to your trusted sites like this (in your "Internet Options"):

Trusted sites Trusted Sites

It is possible to eliminate it for all sites but that's not advised.

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  • Excellent answer, thanks! Particularly since you've saved me the bother of having to think too much about whether (and to what extent) I might want to bypass the default security measures. So far I'm only really concerned with downloaded *.zip files from that one subtitle site (my aging father can no longer watch movies without subtitles, and a surprising number of the older titles in his dvd collection don't have them). I've just added it to my "Trusted sites" as above - everything now works exactly as I want, without compromising security elsewhere.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Nov 9, 2013 at 21:16

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