Unable to open or download .exe files from internet

[Anita]

I am close to madness with Vista. I am trying to download files from the
internet which are .exe Vista takes me through the whole process of asking
whether I want to open or save the file and I have tried doing both. A
dialogue box opens and it appears to be opening/saving, but when it has
finished it neither opens or has saved. I have tried to amend the .exe to
..doc, but I don't have the option to do this.

PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP!!! I don't have the money, time or resources to
purchase and revert back to XP.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

I am close to madness with Vista. I am trying to download files from the
internet which are .exe Vista takes me through the whole process of
asking
whether I want to open or save the file and I have tried doing both. A
dialogue box opens and it appears to be opening/saving, but when it has
finished it neither opens or has saved. I have tried to amend the .exe to
.doc, but I don't have the option to do this.

PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP!!! I don't have the money, time or resources to
purchase and revert back to XP.

You save the file to a temporary folder, you use Explorer, go to the file,
right-click it, Properties, Unblock button. You can see if that does the
trick. You also may have to use Run As Administrator to get it to run.

http://itsvista.com/2007/01/itsvista-tip-22-stop-security-warning-from-apps-on-vista/

 

[AlexB]

You should always save your downloaded files into
C:\Users\YourName\Downloads. there is absolutely no way any Vista will
prohibit you to do it.

In Windows Explorer find your folder C:\Users\YourName\downloads, drag it
into the left pane where Documents and Music icons are shown. This is just
for convenience, since you seem to be doing a lot of downloads. Next time
you download you will click on this icon and see the whole folder.

Also there is a chance that you are able to download but your files are not
visible.

Control Panel>>Appearance and Personalization>>Folder Options>>Show Hidden
files and Folders>>Hidden Files and folders Node>>Check Show Hidden Files
And Folders.

 

[Anita]

Thank you AlexB and Mr. Arnold.

I have followed the instructions in both emails and I have read the article
Mr.Arnold supplied in his reply. When the dialogue box comes up, I do not
see a warning about security certificates. I have tried downloading three
different documents several times, each time using your instructions and
whilst I hear a "ping", I try then to search for the document and...nothing!
No sign of it in the folder, and I have tried right clicking, etc. I have
also accessed the control panel and changed it to show all hidden files too.

I had a problem a while ago with downlading iTunes and eventually (after
many high-priced calls to Microsoft and Apple) I had to download it onto an
XP machine, save it to disc and then transfer it from disc to Vista...don't
have that XP anymore to try it with this, but it was a similar issue.

Thanks for your help

 

[mayayana]

IE security has been getting more extreme. There are
a number of semi-secret Registry settings you can change
to make it behave better, but it makes more sense to just
switch to Firefox. You get a safer browser that doesn't try
to oversee what you can download.

 

[Mr. Arnold]

Thank you AlexB and Mr. Arnold.

I have followed the instructions in both emails and I have read the
article
Mr.Arnold supplied in his reply. When the dialogue box comes up, I do not
see a warning about security certificates. I have tried downloading three
different documents several times, each time using your instructions and
whilst I hear a "ping", I try then to search for the document
and...nothing!
No sign of it in the folder, and I have tried right clicking, etc. I have
also accessed the control panel and changed it to show all hidden files
too.

I had a problem a while ago with downlading iTunes and eventually (after
many high-priced calls to Microsoft and Apple) I had to download it onto
an
XP machine, save it to disc and then transfer it from disc to
Vista...don't
have that XP anymore to try it with this, but it was a similar issue.

I would make a folder called Anita and point the save there. If the file is
being saved to Anita, then there should be no way that you can miss it.

If you're doing a search, then you need to use the Adv Search with Include
non Indexed Files checked on to search for all files, not just indexed
files.

The security certificates is only going to show if the .exe file has
actually been downloaded to a folder on your HD, and then you tried to run
it. The message should pop then, because the exe was downloaded from
another computer, use the Unblock button.

 

[AlexB]

Anita, being desperate in my desire to help, I want to suggest something
different. You may try to enter the process from the back door so to speak.

Place Command Prompt icon on your desktop, right click on it, Run As
administrator, type in cd\ to get to C:> prompt, type in cd
C:\users\Anita\Downloads and do Carriage Return.

Here you type this:

dir *.* or dir *.exe if your files are execs. It should give you the
content of the download directory for this type of files. There is a remote
and idiotic chance that your files might be there. If not, what could it be?

Also, may I ask what kind of server are you using? Is it a reputable server?
Have you had successful downloads from this one? Perhaps you can quote a
small file you've tried to download and someone will try if it works?

I can relate a somewhat, shall I say remotely, similar experience when I
tried to download an iso image from MS it has a size of 2.3 Gbs. It showed
me 2.3 Gbs of size in the directory. It took some 20 mins to download over a
high speed connection. WinImage cannot read it. It appears to be empty! Only
a small readme file is located in it. When I use WinImage on MS iso DVDs it
read them OK, no problem.

 

[AlexB]

FireFox is MALWARE. Beware.

 

[mayayana]

FireFox is MALWARE. Beware.

Most people would consider that statement surprising
at best, and downright bizarre at worst. I don't doubt
that you know that, so why didn't you provide any
explanation or details?

I've been using Mozilla browsers
(Firefox and K-Meleon) for years. I find them fast,
dependable, and extremely configurable. From Firefox
version 2 onward, the influence of Google's financial support
is visible in some aspects, like the removal and deliberate
obfuscation of the option to block 3rd-part images* and
the ridiculous phishing filter that will report your browsing
to Google if you use it. But aside from that caveat I
can't think of any possible complaint about Firefox.

( * You can still use about:config or a user.js file to block
3rd-party images, but they jumbled it around to make it
more confusing. And anyone who has ever used those
settings knows they couldn't possibly have changed the
setting name and the value meaning in the interest of
clarity.

Internet Explorer, on the other hand, is an outdated,
buggy, vulnerable mess, with very poor support for
web standards. In recent versions Microsoft has begun
adding "security improvements" to make matters worse.
On top of all that, even experts have a challenge in
configuring the most basic of settings, like script and
cookies.
Do you really like IE? If so then try rereading
this thread objectively. It's a discussion of various
tricks and tweaks that can be used in an attempt to
merely get IE to download a file properly! How bad
does it have to get before people consider switching
browsers? (And there's not just Firefox. There's also
Opera, K-Meleon, and for XP SP2+ users I think Apple
now has a version of Safari.)

 

[Dave]

You've got to be kidding....
There's nothing wrong with Firefox.

 

[Will Sniffer]

Anita

I have exactly the same problem. Download fails include Adobe from its main
site and other sites, Nvidia update .exe files, messenger etc etc - basically
every .exe file I download will appear on my machine but not execute. If I
try to run it directly that also fails Commonest problem is for "program has
stopped working" to appear with APP CRASH when I ask for more details and
solution finder cannot help. I've tried turning protection off whether it be
IE7 security, UAC or anti virus etc but all to no avail and previous posting
hasn't offered solution. Like you if I make hard copy to CD then it will run!

Mine was a clean install to a new HDD so overwriting XP can't be to blame -
I'm currently dual booting to XP on another HD to save some frustration.

I was interested to read "mayayana's" comments about registry tweaks and I
can only think it is a local setting that needs a change so if you're out
there I'd be keen to try anything!!

Hope you find a fix to this headache.

Will

 

[uvbogden]

Take a look at these articles from Ramesh showing how to fix .exe file
association.

http://tinyurl.com/yrrf3s

http://tinyurl.com/2xsewp