Windows 10 (and 11) The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer

Install Linux.

I have applications that won't run under Linux. I can run Linux in a VirtualBox.

I was seeing that behavior a couple months before that KB came along.

And at first, it wasn't the Alternate Stream marker doing it either. There were files without the Alternate Stream marker set, triggering that dialog. It just wastes an extra click, to click past it and get to where I intended to go.

This morning when I tested for it, I couldn't get it to trigger, and I set out a piece of "fresh meat" for it and everything.

File 38 \Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso $STANDARD_INFORMATION (resident) $FILE_NAME (resident) $DATA (nonresident) logical sectors 6701312-19797583 (0x664100-0x12e164f) $DATA Zone.Identifier (resident) <=== alternate stream marking the file as having come from the Internet.

PS D:\> Get-Content .\Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso -Stream Zone.Identifier # Shows alternate stream text. # Streams are addressed by their # made-up names.

PS D:\>

Now, such info is not relevant, if files that don't have an Alternate Stream have also managed to pop up that security dialog (that you click past and curse).

I get this dialog. This is not the one I've been fighting with. This is a more normal zone.identifier based warning.

Do you want to open this file?

Name: D:\Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso

Publisher: Unknown Publisher

Type: Windows.IsoFile

From: D:\Win11_23H2_English_x64.iso

Open

Cancel

Always ask before opening this file

While files from the Internet can be useful, this file type can potentially harm your computer. If you do not trust the source, do not open this software. What's the risk?

However, I've been getting a second security dialog with a different color. As that security warning is much older than a couple months ago. And the second security dialog is a bit more random about which file it pops up for. An alternate stream is not necessary for that one.

The annoying one I see, is this one.

"These files might be harmful to your computer"

But I have files that don't have an alternate stream, they don't have the tick box field at the bottom like this. The bottom tick box is how you remove an alternate stream.

Paul

You may have things the wrong way round then :)

I have (lots of) applications I can't run in MS Windows. :-)

I used to have a couple of things I couldn't run in Linux but now I hardly ever need them. I used to use Virtualbox to run them but now I just have a separate W10 system to run them.

It's horses for courses, but there's less and less that you can't do in Linux and its advantages begin to make working the other way around (i.e. use Linux most of the time, Windows if you really have to) much more sensible.

This.

I've had Linux systems since 1999 but my main home PC was always Windows. I reached the point of exasperation with Windows and decided that as the old Windows PC was not officially suitable for Win11 I'd finally switch. Having to use it Win11 for work confirmed that switching was the right move.

I bought a new shiny PC which could run Win11 but now I use Linux for

Life is simpler with Windows as an occasional visitor.

I was at that state around 2008, then I discovered the Windows machine could fit inside a virtual machine on the linux machine. Bye bye dedicated windows hardware...

People think you are being snobby or a smartarse when you say you've dropped Windows or dropped it as far as possible. But life is easier with no day to day Windows use. Updates take moments, there's no spyware and settings I've made don't get changed back by MS in their infinite wisdom. I don't get surprise apps installed on updates or have bloody adverts or plugs for products I "might want to use" from MS.

I have Anquet Maps (OS maps and hiking route management), Garmin Basecamp (European hiking maps) and PICkitMinus (PIC programmer controller) run on the VM. There is a command line PIC programmer app that is native Linux but PICkitminus is a nice pretty UI app. There are a few programs run under Wine but more for playing with Wine than essential.

I still have the old Win10 machine which is fired up for some legacy MS-SQL tools which are used to manage an online MS-SQL instance but that is being phased out to Postgres SQL. That's why it's easier to use the old WIn10 machine for the once/month maintenance jobs than move all the C# custom apps to the new VM.

All in all, it's more a matter of will power to realise you can dump Windows especially as huge amounts of what people do is email/browsing, photo apps all of which is trivial. My wife has Win11 on her laptop but she's been directed into using apps available for Windows and Linux and will be "upgraded" to Linux soon.

Not everything MS is bad. MS-SQL is extremely good because they bought in the company that wrote it and have managed not to f*ck it over with the usual MS crapware and buggy updates. Likewise Azure Data Studio and VS-Code work well on Linux. Azure Data Studio is now deprecated and VS-Code is fine once you disable all the built tracking s**te MS inflicts on unsuspecting users. When spyware neutered it's a fine tool.

Exactly., In fact I schedule my updates to take place automatically, usually overnight.

The only thinks that are badly affected are Mozilla, apps which fail to work unless restarted sometimes and are forever changing the look and feel

I run 3D CAD, Corel Draw, and a highly specialised app in an XP machine. I could do nearly all on Linux if I learnt new apps

MySQL is my goto.

And build the UI to it using php, html, C and Javascript. And a browser

Only today I discover Windows updated and rebooted in spite of my settings that it should not.

Luckily I learned a very long time ago not to trust Windows.

In my last job, as part of a power upgrade we had to restart all the linux servers that had been up since 2019 when the company moved in. This was 2022. When I left in 2024 they'd all been up over 700 days.

That's an enhancement over Windows 8.1 which let you choose :-(

I actually wrote a program that I left running called "NoReboot" which when asked by Windows to close down refused. Worked fine for a while but now Windows just ignores such messages and reboots anyway.

I think this is a major reason why people move away from Windows when they can, the constant fight to stop what should be a tool doing things you never asked it to and don't want it to do. You are frequently reminded that while your computer is running Windows, it belongs to Microsoft and its 'partners', and not to you.

Just a thought. Cloudflare has just taken half the Internet down, and I've noticed it's Patch Tuesday....

If cloudflare are running Windows servers (you know they aren't) then they deserver all they get.

However this will be a DNS issue. As ever. Because modern IT "experts" actually know f*ck all about IT.

Ah, yes., I did get a message from cloudflare...

One network I managed checked remote machines every time they tried to log on. If they were missing any critical updates it refused access.