2008-07-10

How to disable download zone flagging in Firefox 3

You know that really annoying behavior that Windows Xp SP2 added where downloads warn when you try to open them? The one that brings up the dialog titled "Open File - Security Warning" with the message "Do you want to run this file"? For some reason the Mozilla guys thought it would be a good idea to add this "feature" it to Firefox 3.

Fortunately it's not too hard to disable the Attachment Execution Service behind this. According to the Microsoft article about the service, you can disable the service by:

1. Opening regedit.exe.
2. Navigating to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments.
3. Create (or set) the DWORD value SaveZoneInformation to 1.

This post is mostly for my future reference, but I hope you find it useful too.