Koldov Posted March 21, 2023 Posted March 21, 2023 Today I had a teacher telling me her laptop was 'broken' and could I fix it in the next 5 minutes because her next lesson was about to start... The killer opening line was... "So, this has been happening for the last few days"... OK, so why didn't you come and tell me a few days ago! Anyway, I did fix it in 5 minutes but the thing is she was double clicking random Word files from either her own desktop or the server share, some had been downloaded from a well known teacher resource site, some had apparently been on the server 'for years'. Nothing happened, no warning, no 'this file is blocked', nothing... just wouldn't open (strangely enough it would open from within Word)... Luckily last week I had a teacher ask why she couldn't open a Powerpoint file she had downloaded (same behaviour).... Right-clicking the file shows in the 'General' tab something like, 'This file was downloaded from another computer and may harm yours, etc'... With a check box to allow it to be opened. Now, I've always known about this feature (but if iirc it was 'this file was downloaded from the internet'?), but it's never been an issue for us as far as I know... and trust me I would have known about it by now if it had been with the amount of resources this lot downloads... I have told her for now to check this box per file as I may be unable (or unwilling ) to change this default 'security' behaviour globally. So, questions... It seems this has only recently (ish) started happening (but who knows with teachers), does anyone know if any extra security settings have been applied in an update lately? Is it a Windows Explorer 'security' function as it seems the file can be opened through Word with no problems? I can't work out the provenance of every file, so how can I tell if it is happening only with files downloaded from the internet or just from 'any other computer'...? It could be that she just happened to pick 3 files that were downloaded... It doesn't seem to happen on my PC, but I have a different Win10 version and a different Office version (plus I don't have a login for the resource website to download files from).
kevin_lane Posted March 21, 2023 Posted March 21, 2023 Sounds like some trusted security settings within office ?? You got a screen shot ?
Koldov Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 Got another one this morning! Seems like a file downloaded from the internet as I've checked the file properties and the 'Author' isn't one of our users...
DGardiner Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 this on windows 11 by any chance? Put my first one into the domain a few weeks ago and had the teacher come to me saying this was happening.
Koldov Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 No, Windows 10. Downloaded file warnings have been a thing for a while now so it's not a new feature as such... I'm pretty sure it's been around for along time since at least maybe XP... I'm just not sure why it's decided to kick-off now...? Maybe because I copied all the shares off from the server and back recently, I just don't know as it's not every file!
DGardiner Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 No, Windows 10. Downloaded file warnings have been a thing for a while now so it's not a new feature as such... I'm pretty sure it's been around for along time since at least maybe XP... I'm just not sure why it's decided to kick-off now...? Maybe because I copied all the shares off from the server and back recently, I just don't know as it's not every file! Weird, im only having the issue with this one computer and the only stand out different is 11
Koldov Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 (edited) OK, from a bit of research the following should be happening with a few different factors at play... A downloaded file has ADS (Alternative Data Stream) marking it as downloaded. Office should open this in 'Protected View'... ...but this is not happening for the Teacher's laptops (so this is the main issue). Workarounds I've found (but not tried) are: Turn off 'Protected View' in all Office applications (not something I'd be happy with). Enable “Do not preserve zone information in file attachments” in 'Attachment Manager' (again, not happy with that). Clear Data Stream Files - All the files that you download from the web are tagged with a stream. Your PC determines that the files are from an external source through these streams. If you clear certain data streams that are marked with a zone identifier, all the files on your PC will be unblocked. You can do this using a Microsoft tool called Streams. To clear Data Stream files, you can follow these steps. "Download Streams from Microsoft official website and run it. After opening Stream, go to “Browse and navigate to the affected folder or file directory” and select Scan. After scanning, you will see all the streams in your files. Find “:Zone.Identifier:$DATA” on the scanned result and right-click on it. Click on Delete Selected Streams. Close the file and Restart your PC" Seems pretty extreme and with possibly disastrous consequences... Or unblock whole directories with Powershell (if you're 100% sure all files are 'safe')... dir C:\Downloads -Recurse | Unblock-File It all seems a bit much, I just don't think I should need to do any of that... and still none of this explains why it isn't opening in 'Protected View' (and no error message) for the teachers and why it's just started happening. Edited March 22, 2023 by Koldov
Koldov Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 Not sure how I missed that post as I normally keep a close eye on the forum after patch Tuesday... Anyway, that explains it, many thanks!
Koldov Posted March 22, 2023 Author Posted March 22, 2023 "change Security Settings of Internet Zone in Internet Explorer properties" What?! :doh:
Michael Posted March 22, 2023 Posted March 22, 2023 "change Security Settings of Internet Zone in Internet Explorer properties" What?! :doh: More annoyingly Microsoft still haven't acknowledged there's a problem!
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now