{"id":3410,"date":"2016-07-05T13:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T08:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2024-06-30T21:51:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T16:21:44","slug":"bulk-unblock-files-downloaded-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/bulk-unblock-files-downloaded-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Bulk Unblock Files Downloaded from Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Files downloaded from the internet are marked with the Zone identifier (&#8220;Mark of the Web&#8221; stored as Alternate Data Streams) to trigger the application reputation check by Windows SmartScreen in Windows 8 and higher.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-0.png\" alt=\"bulk unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"650\" height=\"260\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This article explains how to bulk unblock multiple files downloaded from the internet.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/textslashplain.com\/2016\/04\/04\/downloads-and-the-mark-of-the-web\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zone Identification tagging<\/a> using Alternate Data Streams was first introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and continued in later Operating Systems, including Windows 10.<\/p>\n<p>In Windows 7 and earlier, when the user launches a file downloaded from the internet, the following dialog is presented:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-1.jpg\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"414\" height=\"310\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you enable &#8220;Always ask before opening this file&#8221; and click Run, Windows clears the Zone ID for that file and launches the program.<\/p>\n<p><b>SmartScreen &#8211; Application Reputation Check<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Windows 8+ improves this further by doing the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/b8\/2011\/09\/15\/protecting-you-from-malware\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Application Reputation Check<\/a> using Windows SmartScreen when running a program downloaded (not necessarily using Internet Explorer) from the internet. For example, if the file doesn&#8217;t pass the SmartScreen reputation checks, the user is shown the following screen.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3417\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-0.png\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"650\" height=\"260\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you trust the source and want to run the file regardless of the warning, click More Info and then <b>Run anyway<\/b>. This clears the existing zone identifier for the file, replacing it with <code>AppZoneId=4<\/code> entry.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3414\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-3.png\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"650\" height=\"260\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"toc\">\n<p><strong>Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#streams\">Unblock files using Streams.exe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#powershell\">Unblock files using PowerShell<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#whitelist\">Allow a site so that files downloaded from that site are not blocked<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>How to Bulk Unblock Files in a Folder and Sub-folders<\/h2>\n<p>To unblock a file, you can right-click on the file, click Properties, select &#8220;Unblock,&#8221; and click OK.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-2.png\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"360\" height=\"120\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To bulk unblock <strong>multiple<\/strong> files in a folder, use one of the methods listed below.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"streams\"><\/a>1) Using &#8220;Streams&#8221; from Windows Sysinternals:<\/h3>\n<p>Download <a href=\"https:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sysinternals\/streams.aspx?f=255&amp;MSPPError=-2147217396\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Streams<\/a> and extract the executable to a folder. Then open a Command Prompt window and run <code>Streams.exe<\/code>, as below:<\/p>\n<pre>streams.exe -d\u00a0 %userprofile%\\downloads\\*<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3412\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-4.png\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"650\" height=\"190\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This removes the NTFS alternate data streams for all files in the Downloads folder.<\/p>\n<p>To unblock a <strong>single<\/strong> file, use the file name:<\/p>\n<pre>streams -d \"C:\\Users\\ramesh\\Downloads\\BrowserAddonsView.exe\"<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5995\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/streams-delete-file.png\" alt=\"streams delete ntfs data stream for a file\" width=\"700\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To remove the zone information for files in every sub-directory (<b>recursively<\/b>), use this syntax:<\/p>\n<pre>streams -s -d %userprofile%\\downloads\\<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3413\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-5.png\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"650\" height=\"258\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><a id=\"powershell\"><\/a>2) Using Windows PowerShell:<\/h3>\n<p>PowerShell has a neat little cmdlet called <a href=\"https:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/hh849924.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Unblock-File<\/a>, which can unblock multiple files in a single command-line.<\/p>\n<p><b>Unblock a single file<\/b><\/p>\n<pre>Unblock-File -Path \"c:\\users\\ramesh\\downloads\\old versions\\tc_free.exe\"<\/pre>\n<p><b>Unblock all files in a folder<\/b><\/p>\n<pre>gci \"c:\\users\\ramesh\\downloads\" | Unblock-File<\/pre>\n<p><b>Unblock files in every sub-folder (recursion)<\/b><\/p>\n<p>To do this recursively, affecting files in every sub-folder, run:<\/p>\n<pre>gci -recurse \"c:\\users\\ramesh\\downloads\" | Unblock-File<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/unblockfile-6.png\" alt=\"unblock files downloaded from internet\" width=\"650\" height=\"90\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That clears the zone information for specified or all files.<\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4>Add &#8220;Unblock&#8221; to the context menu<\/h4>\n<p>You can add an Unblock command (that runs a PowerShell command) to the right-click menu for files.<\/p>\n<p>To do so, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>First, copy the following lines to Notepad.\n<pre>Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00\n\n[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\*\\shell\\unblock]\n\"MUIVerb\"=\"Unblock\"\n\"Extended\"=\"\"\n\n[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\*\\shell\\unblock\\command]\n@=\"powershell.exe Unblock-File -LiteralPath '%L'\"<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Save the file as &#8220;<code>unblock.reg<\/code>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>Double-click &#8220;<code>unblock.reg<\/code>&#8221; to apply the registry settings.<\/li>\n<li>Select a file (or multiple files &#8212; up to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/context-menu-missing-15-files-selected\/\">15 files<\/a>), press the <code>Shift<\/code> key and right-click on the selection.<\/li>\n<li>Click the <strong>Unblock<\/strong> option. This option executes the PowerShell command to unblock the selected file(s).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><a id=\"whitelist\"><\/a>Allow a website to prevent files from being blocked by SmartScreen<\/h2>\n<p>Certain situations require you to always allow downloads from a specific website\u2014for example, a company website that hosts many files. If the website is trustworthy, you can add it to Internet Explorer&#8217;s Trusted Sites list. This prevents the SmartScreen reputation check from being triggered when the user runs the downloaded file, regardless of which browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc.) was used to download the file.<\/p>\n<p>For example, I downloaded WebBrowserPassView from Nirsoft. The following command showed the Zone Identifier, &#8220;ZoneID&#8221;, set to 3, which means Internet Zone.<\/p>\n<pre>more &lt; WebBrowserPassView.zip:Zone.Identifier<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-75752\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/zoneid-hosturl-streams.png\" alt=\"zoneid and hosturl - ntfs alternate data streams\" width=\"750\" height=\"201\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(<em><strong>HostUrl<\/strong><\/em> shows the direct download URL from where the file was downloaded. <em><strong>ReferrerUrl<\/strong><\/em> is the referrer page from where you clicked the download link.)<\/p>\n<p>After adding *.nirsoft.net to the Trusted Sites list in Internet Explorer, I re-downloaded the file.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4587\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/nirsoft-unblock.png\" alt=\"whitelist files for smartscreen\" width=\"380\" height=\"342\" \/><\/p>\n<p>No zone identifier was added this time. Also, there is no &#8220;Unblock&#8221; button in Properties for the file downloaded from a site listed in IE&#8217;s Trusted Zone.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/nirsoft-unblock-4.png\" alt=\"whitelist files for smartscreen\" width=\"743\" height=\"523\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>Although the SmartScreen notifications can be annoying sometimes, it&#8217;s an excellent protection mechanism that shouldn&#8217;t be turned off or bypassed if you&#8217;re bothered about security.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Files downloaded from the internet are marked with the Zone identifier (&#8220;Mark of the Web&#8221; stored as Alternate Data Streams) to trigger the application reputation check by Windows SmartScreen in Windows 8 and higher. This article explains how to bulk unblock multiple files downloaded from the internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-utilities","category-windows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":75762,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/find-where-file-downloaded-from\/","url_meta":{"origin":3410,"position":0},"title":"How to Determine where a File was Downloaded from","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"You may have downloaded a file weeks ago and want to find out where it was downloaded from. You may determine that by reading the alternate data streams for that file. When you download a file and save the file in an NTFS volume, the zone information for the file\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"zone identifier open in notepad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/where-as-a-file-downloaded-from-notepad.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/where-as-a-file-downloaded-from-notepad.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/where-as-a-file-downloaded-from-notepad.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/where-as-a-file-downloaded-from-notepad.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":80511,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/copy-this-file-without-properties-prompt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3410,"position":1},"title":"&#8220;Are you sure you want to copy this file without its properties&#8221; Prompt when Copying Files","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"When you copy one or more files to a FAT32 partition on any disk (USB, HDD, or SSD), you're prompted to copy without preserving the properties. Here's the full message: Are you sure you want to copy this file without its properties? The file <filename> has properties that can't be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Are you sure you want to copy this file without its properties?\" when coping files to USB flash disk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ntfs-to-fat32-ads-lost.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":79925,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/file-explorer-previews-blocked-harm-your-computer\/","url_meta":{"origin":3410,"position":2},"title":"File Explorer: The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"After installing the October 15 (2025), cumulative update for Windows 11, File Explorer turns off the preview feature for files downloaded from the internet. After the October 2025 or a later Windows security update is installed, the File Explorer preview pane will display the following message: The file you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 11&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 11","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-11\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Internet Explorer options - Trusted sites zone","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ie-trusted-zone-sites.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10449,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/bypass-smartscreen-even-if-its-enabled-through-group-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3410,"position":3},"title":"Bypass SmartScreen even if its Enabled through Group Policy","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When you download a file you downloaded from the internet, Windows adds the zone identifier or Mark of the Web as NTFS stream to the file. So, when you run the file, Windows SmartScreen checks if there is a zone identifier alternate data stream attached to the file. If the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"bypass smartscreen even if policy enabled","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/bypass-smartscreen-5.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/bypass-smartscreen-5.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/bypass-smartscreen-5.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5576,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/onedrive-demand-block-automatic-file-downloads\/","url_meta":{"origin":3410,"position":4},"title":"OneDrive Files On-Demand Downloads &#8211; Block and Unblock Apps via Settings","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"OneDrive Files On-Demand, a new feature which is essentially like OneDrive placeholders, has been made available with the release of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. OneDrive Files On-Demand feature which is enabled by default, allows you to set a file or folder available \"online only\". These \"online\" files in your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"onedrive on-demand online file","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/onedrive-on-demand-cloud-only-file.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/onedrive-on-demand-cloud-only-file.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/onedrive-on-demand-cloud-only-file.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-cannot-view-chm-files-network-xp-2003-vista\/","url_meta":{"origin":3410,"position":5},"title":"Fix: Cannot View CHM Files from a Network Drive in Windows Vista","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When you open a .CHM file over a network drive in a Windows XP\/2003\/Vista computer, the right pane may show the following message instead of displaying the topic\/contents. Navigation to the webpage was canceled This is perfectly normal, as Microsoft Security Updates 896358 & 840315 block display of CHM file\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows Vista&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows Vista","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-vista\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}