Once you download files from the Internet, Windows 10 shows you a security warning every time you try to open it. Some file types are blocked from opening. SmartScreen, a security feature of Windows 10, causes such behavior. Let's see how to unblock those files.
When you try to open a file which was downloaded from the Internet, you can see a warning like this:
To get rid of it, you need to do the following:
- Right click the file in File Explorer.
- In the context menu, select the last item named "Properties".
- In the Properties dialog, on the General tab, tick the checkbox named "Unblock":
After that, the security warning will disappear.
This is very useful when you need to unblock just one file. In the situation when you need to unblock several files at once, it is impractical to right click on every file, and open its Properties to unblock it.
Using PowerShell, it is posssible unblock multiple files at once in any given folder. It can be done as follows:
- Press Win + R on the keyboard to open the Run dialog.
- In the Run box, type powershell:
- In the PowerShell console, type the following command:
get-childitem "C:\Users\winaero\Downloads" | unblock-file
In this example, C:\Users\winaero\Downloads is the path to the folder which contains all files you need to unblock all at once.
That's it!
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it’s very annoying message! thanks!
Don’t mention it.
Thank you for this! My problem is a little more complex. I have sub-folders and sub-sub-folders with files to get unblocked. Is there a way to unblock all files on a drive, or at least all files within folders & sub-folders. I have also been unsuccessful at getting downloads to not be blocked in the first place.
Open Powershell and run the command below.
This will work for you silently:
dir c:\users\winaero\downloads -Recurse | Unblock-FileThis one will report which files will be unblocked, but WILL NOT UNBLOCK them (the report only):
dir c:\users\winaero\downloads -Recurse | Unblock-File -WhatIfEnjoy.
It is a good idea to cover it tomorrow.
Thank you
THANK YOU!
I was really kicking myself for having forgotten to ‘Unblock’ a ZIP file containing a TON of files I had to take off Copy.com (because they’re shutting down) and this really saved me from having to sit and do this by hand, which would have taken, well, quite some time.
To prevent sites from having this error in the future, you need to add them to trusted sites. This is useful when you download often from a particular site.
This can be done (in IE8 onwards) by setting the following registry keys:
Create new Key under:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains\exampledomain.com]
Create a DWord Value for each protocol you need to trust; for example
“http”=dword:00000002
“https”=dword:00000002
Quality – how annoying is that and painful to do one by one – simple things and all that!!!
Thanks for this, although is there a way to make it do entire folders and subfolders?
Sure. Use
Get-ChildItem -recurseIs this the correct way it write out the command to unblock all files in folders and subfolders? ‘Get-ChildItem -recurse | unblock-file’ ? Thanks.
I use the following command
See this article
Another way to bulk unblock files is to ZIP them, delete the originals, then UNZIP them.
Thanks lot
-Recurse was the switch I was missing to take care of subfolders !!!
Thanks!
Steve
THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU SAVED ME HOURS OF TIME THANK THANK THANK U <3
Any advice on improving this to get past the 260 character limit?
IDK. Maybe this? How to enable NTFS Long Paths in Windows 10
i try do all tweaks but they block me even comand for powellshell show skiped so it doesnat work at all.who can do i donat know but probably from isp to microsoft they donat like we use tweaks.my window 10 admin is remote admin,i try all ur tweaks but they cancel it or block me even comand in powellshell doesnat work mean they use skip and comand nat work what i can do
Its blocked everything I do :( :(
I want on now
please please please please
It’s 100% worked
Hi, Im super new to this and I am trying to unblock files so I can mod a game on steam and I have no clue what script to use I have looked for hours trying to find a video to help can you help?
thanks a lot !! cheers !
Works! thanks
I have tried your method and it won’t work. I even change the name in path from winaero to my name and it says it never heard of me. I need to unblock several thousand scrapkits to work with.
I see
Could you please provide the path to your files and the command you have tried.
I would like to try to help you.
I tried this command in powershell
dir c:\users\winaero\downloads -Recurse | Unblock-File
does not work, I even tried changing the users to my name and nothing. I even tried unblocking each file manuely and it reverts back to being blocked.