The scenario: I downloaded a copy of the RealVNC viewer from the RealVNC web site.
The problem: when you download a file like this, IE tags it with an additional "NTFS Stream" of information — specifically with a Zone.Identifier record that tells Vista that the file came from the Internet.
If you look at the properties of the file, you see a message: "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer." and there’s an Unblock button you can push that is supposed to remove the Zone.Identifier, but in my experience it did not remove it. Clicking OK on the properties box, then bringing up the properties again shows that the button is still there.
The solution: download the Microsoft SysInternals utility: Streams.exe
Then run the command line: streams -d filename
If you have a whole folder of files you want to unblock, you can run the same command with the folder name and the -s switch to do all the files in that folder and subs.
For example: to remove streams from all files in this folder and all sub-folders, use this syntax:
streams –d –s *.*
Note: You have to be running the command prompt as administrator or you’ll get an Access is Denied error message.
| C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC4>streams -d vnc-E4_2_9-x86_win32_viewer.exe
Streams v1.53 – Enumerate alternate NTFS data streams C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC4\vnc-E4_2_9-x86_win32_viewer.exe: |
Darren Myher's Blog 
Complete ownage!!!! Thank you so much for this, I thought I was going to have to go through all these files 1 by 1. Thank you baby jesus! *huge applause*
Reblogged this on I love Sproutcore and commented:
streams est un utilitaire à intégrer directement dans %WINDIR%/System32
Le problème s’est présenté de manière aléatoire après une publication (ratée apparement) , une exception de type AspNetHostingPermission, s’est manifestée la zone de sécurité n’était pas en concordance avec le paramétrage de IIS.
Un (bon mais violent) streams -s -d ./inetpub m’a sauvé la mise !
did not work.said streams is not recognized as an internal or external command.i tried downloading it but i dont think it downloaded.that might be the problem.after i downloaded it nothing happened and nothing popped. up.
1. Extract streams from the zip to a folder like the desktop. 2. Right click and choose properties. 3. Click unblock. 4. Move to c:\windows. 5. From a COMMAND PROMPT cmd.exe run the streams command. It is a command line utility.
Well the SysTools Unblocker is freeware solution for this message. The tool easily unblock multiple file at once. try it once http://www.systoolsgroup.com/unblocker/
i found an easy way to fix this problem, just move the file to the desktop which will ask for admin rights because this happens usually when the file is in like program files and the reason the unblock doesn’t work there is because it isn’t asking for admin rights for whatever reason but on the desktop it doesn’t have to apparently then just move it back. going back in to the properties after moving it back will confirm that it persisted.
Wow, that was fast, easy, effective! I just did “streams -d -s E” and the command unblocked a whole mess of blocked files I’d been struggling to unblock one at a time. Thanks
Btw, does anyone know which windows versions have this block “feature” (well, bug actually, but I’m trying to be polite)? I had thought it was only in Vista, but now I’m seeing it on a Windows-XP-Home machine. Hopefully this “feature” isn’t also in Windows 10? If it is, is there some way to just turn it off?
Might be an old post, but for others searching –
It’s not a ‘Bug’, it’s your Policies that are putting it in a particular ‘zone’, likely in an NTFS Alternate Data Stream. You can adjust your policies so as not to tag the downloaded files in this manner. There are lots of pages on the net, but you can try this one for example, but on that link, please read the article, don’t blindly click on an ad for some magic snakeoil product that will magically fix everything on your PC!
https://windowsreport.com/file-came-another-computer-blocked/
“Sleepwalker3”: Re “It’s not a ‘Bug’ “: I disagree; any program behavior which causes harm, confusion, frustration, or time wastage for the USER is a “bug”; it has nothing to do with the opinions of the PROGRAMMER or of an ADMINISTRATOR; they’re not the ones spending time using the product.
Re “You can adjust your policies”: No, most Windows users can NOT adjust their policies. Policies can only be adjusted on “Professional” Windows versions; but most Windows installations are “Home” versions and have no “policy editor” so the “policies” are immutable, so users must either find work-arounds or just learn to tolerate policy-based bugs.
I found this after I deleted a libraries link to a pictures folder, and suddenly noticed little padlock icons on about half the thumbnails. And there seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to which ones had it. I ran Streams, and while the output says it took a LOT of stuff of, and none of them seem to have the blocked property, the padlock icons won’t go away.
@Robbie Hatley
Well I stand corrected then!
I was just trying to point out that it’s not a ‘bug’ in the sense that it is doing what the original designer intended. How it got that way may be a mystery to the end user,but the ‘programs’ (the operating system) is just doing what it was told by programmers who weren’t thinking much about end users (a situation that is all too common) and unfortunately the end user didn’t know how to get around the problem they were having.
The intent of this bug/feature/issue or whatever you want to call it, was (as I understand it) to stop people who are not overly computer savy, accidentally getting themselves into strife downloading something that might screw up their system. I agree that it’s frustrating, confusing, wastes time for the user, etc. but I guess M$ were trying to stop people having a go at them for not providing ‘protection’ (if you could call it that) for people who aren’t familiar. Yep they certainly could have done a lot better and told people in plain English what was happening. I really believe they should have, but they didn’t – I was not saying anything negative about the person, in fact I was just trying to point them in the right direction by providing them some further information that might assist (and even offering a warning to not click on ads that look like helpful stuff) – I think I would call that ‘Spending my time trying to help people’ and in this case it was to try to help other people who find themselves here after googling for a similar problem.
I don’t use the home editions, so sorry if that doesn’t work for you (or anybody else), but perhaps the link I pointed to may help – If not, well I tried 🙂
Btw, I’ve recently found one other way to “unblock” files that Windows “blocks”: use the following PowerShell script. Save it as file “unblock.ps1”, then run it from the PowerShell command line by first navigating to the folder where the files are, then typing “unblock”. (You’ll have to store the script in a folder, then append that folder to your path in your PowerShell profile file at “C:\Users\Username\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1”.)
Get-ChildItem -Force -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
Get-Item -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Stream * -Force
} |
ForEach-Object {
if ($_.Stream -ne ‘:$DATA’) {
if ($_.Stream -eq ‘Zone.Identifier’) {
Write-Host (“Unblocking ” + $_.FileName)
Remove-Item -LiteralPath $_.FileName -Stream $_.Stream
}
}
}