My files are blocked!

June 24, 2009 5:24 PM

Windows 7 Beta Filter: Windows 7 makes any file transferred from another computer read-only. How can I disable this feature?

I transferred thousands of files from another computer to my Windows 7 computer and Windows Blocked them(ie, made them all read-only). This wouldn't bother me so much except I have to unblock them one-by-one, which is such a pain. I can't highlight all the files, right-click and then select Unblock because the Unblock button only appears when you're selecting an individual file. Checking or unchecking the "Read-Only" box doesn't do anything, and the Unblock button doesn't appear on folders, only on files. For the record, yes, I'm an administrative user.

How can I disable this feature? I couldn't find the option in the array of Windows 7 security options. Did I miss it? Can I disable it in the registry?

posted by nikkorizz to Technology (4 answers total)

How did you transfer them? I've had Windows 7 Beta for a while and have never experienced this.
posted by paralith at 5:45 PM on June 24, 2009

Response by poster: I transferred them from an external Lacie brand hard drive.
posted by nikkorizz at 5:54 PM on June 24, 2009

Haven't experienced this myself but this guy (whose name, ironically, is Block) says that this Microsoft utility called "Streams" will unblock files en masse with a command line like

Streams –d –s c:\foldername
posted by XMLicious at 6:40 PM on June 24, 2009

I found a Vista article pertaining to the same issue - method #3 on the page tells you how to turn the feature off.
posted by wongcorgi at 8:01 PM on June 24, 2009