Preview is too dangerous

Question

How is it possible that previewing a file I download is too dangerous but opening it is perfectly safe? Not being able to preview has completely disrupted my workflow efficiency. On my work PC, I uninstall the security update. I've tried to prevent the security update from downloading and installing, but haven't been successful. So every day I uninstall it so I can work. My home laptop will not let me uninstall the security update. It gives an error message. If anyone knows the persons responsible for this feature, please let me know so I can speak with them.

Answer 1

Hi,

Sorry to hear you’re running into trouble with the security update. The update disables file previews in File Explorer by default because the Preview Pane actually reads and renders parts of a file. What makes it dangerous is that malicious files can abuse this by embedding HTML tags that forces Explorer to reach out to external servers, potentially exposing NTLM authentication hashes or basically encoded Windows login credentials. To prevent this credential exposure, Microsoft now disables previews for files marked as downloaded from the internet. For more details about the update, you may visit this article.

As for the safest workaround to still preview the file easily, you may use this app called QuickLook which is much safer as it does not tigger NTLM credential leak.

If you insist on using the preview pane and you understand the risk, you may check the solutions given here to effectively restore the preview pane.

Disclaimer: This is a non-Microsoft site. The information seems reliable, but be careful with ads. Research any product before downloading.