Confirm open after download

After searching high and low for about 2 hours I found a fix for an annoying little problem with
Internet Exploder & XP. Not really a *fix* per say, more like *ahem*, a feature. Whenever I gotta
search this hard for a solution to such a simple problem and finally come up with something, I feel the
need to share with whomever might make use of it someday...

The Feature:
When clicking a file on the web (zip,rar,exe.. whatever), normally a dialogue box will pop up asking if
you want to save to file or open. IE even has a "[x] Always ask before opening this type of file."
feature. Yeah, OK.

The Problem:
But what if your wife/dog/baby un-checks the "[x] Always ask before opening this type of file." box,
and you just don't want your zip files to automatically open?!?!

The Question:
Where in the HELL do I go to re-check that dialogue box?

By now I am sure you are feeling my pain.

The solution:
Open My Computer, or any other form of Windows Explorer. Select Tools -> Folder Options ->
File Types tab & select your file type (in my case .zip). Click advanced, and There It Is! "[ ] Confirm
open after download."

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Comments

Laurie Prior

I just stumbled accross this posting as I was looking today May 2009 for a solution to web media files not offering the SAVE OPEN box when fetching them. The webpage goes straight to playing the file. Saving it ends up involving fishing it out of the Temporary Internet Files folder before I've shut the browser page where it was streamed.
But going to the solution path shown in this tip by a forum member doesn't actually work. The reason being that in File Types there is no ADVANCED button to click on when looking at the way any given selected file type is handled.
Does anyone know where the Confirm Open after Download is in Windows XP? Someone has stolen it from the design.
I use XP Home edition SP2 by the way.

282 days ago