Windows Security helps protect your PC by monitoring files, especially those downloaded from the internet. If it detects a file that could be potentially harmful, you'll see a warning message: "These files might be harmful to your computer." While this is a useful feature for preventing malware, frequent alerts can become annoying especially when you're transferring multiple files. Fortunately, you can easily disable these warnings.
How to Disable These Files Might Be Harmful to Your Computer in Windows
Why Does Windows Show the "These Files Might Be Harmful" Warning?
This warning typically appears when you transfer files from another computer on your home network or move files between drives on the same PC. While this may not be a problem if you're dealing with just a few files, it can become bothersome when transferring large amounts of data.
To fix this, the solution depends on whether you’re transferring files from a network drive or from a local drive. Here's how to handle each case.
Add Your IP Address to the Local Intranet Zone
If the warning appears when accessing files from local network PCs or Network Attached Storage (NAS), you can add the IP address or DNS names of these devices to your Local Intranet Zone. This will make Windows treat these devices as trusted and stop the warnings.
Steps to add your IP address to the Local Intranet Zone:
- Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
- Type control and click OK to open the Control Panel.
- Go to Network and Internet > Internet Options.
- In the Internet Properties dialog, select the Security tab.
- Choose Local Intranet and click the Sites button.
- In the new window, click Advanced.
- Under "Add this website to the zone," enter the IP address or DNS name of your network device, then click Add.
- Click Close and OK to save the changes.
By adding your network device to the Local Intranet Zone, Windows will stop showing the security warning when accessing these files.
Disable the Warning Using Group Policy Editor
For users with Windows Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions, you can disable the warning through the Group Policy Editor (GPEdit). This method provides a more direct way to adjust security settings.
Steps to disable the warning through Group Policy Editor:
- Press Win + R to open Run, type gpedit.msc, and click OK to open the Group Policy Editor.
- In GPEdit, navigate to:
- User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page.
- Double-click the Internet Zone Template policy, set it to Enabled, and choose Low from the drop-down menu under Options. Click OK and Apply to save.
- Next, double-click the Site to Zone Assignment List policy, set it to Enabled, and click the Show button.
- Add the server name, URL, or IP address of the trusted site to the list and set its value to 1 (this adds it to the allowlist).
- Click OK, then Apply and OK again to save the changes.
By doing this, you can bypass the warning for specific sites or IP addresses.
Additional Solutions To Disable These Files Might Be Harmful to Your Computer
If you're dealing with local drive transfers, you may need to try other solutions, such as temporarily disabling User Account Control (UAC) settings or, on older versions of Windows 11, removing Internet Explorer to resolve the issue.
By following these steps, you can effectively stop the annoying "These files might be harmful" warnings in Windows, making file transfers smoother and less interrupted.