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Question

Get rid of :Zone.Identifier files in Windows XP

by Apr 28, 2013 6:37PM PDT

I have the following problem, that I need to solve: When saving files from e-mail attachments to disk, it is always saved with another file named like this:

2CB4F016.tmp:Zone.Identifier:$DATA

These files contain something like this:

[ZoneTransfer] ZoneId=3

I need to turn off saving these Zone.Identifier files. I am running Office 2010 on Windows XP, wich is running under Virtual Box on Mac OS X. The files appear only in the discs, that are mapped from Mac OS X partition.

I have searched many forums but the solutions I have found didnt work for me. I tryied to enable the respective policy, and then even to manually set the registry value. But all with no luck.

Any help is really appreciated.

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
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Answer
Re: file
by Forum moderator Apr 28, 2013 8:13PM PDT

Three questions:
1. What e-mail program? I assume MS Outlook 2010, but it might be another one.
2. What solutions did you find (a few links would be fine)?
3. Why do you 'need' to turn off saving those files? What harm do they do? Or do you just 'want' it?

Kees

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Answers to questions
by M-Luke Apr 28, 2013 9:54PM PDT

ad 1. Yes, it is MS Outlook 2010.
ad 2. Here are the solutions I have found so far:
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4814&start=0&sid=4619e20fc3e88c9fcfc34fe225a91b49
http://superuser.com/questions/481883/zone-identifier-files-keep-on-appearing-in-windows-xp-virtual-machine
(I have found other links, too, but they offer similar solution to those listed above)
ad 3. My boss need to turn off saving those files on his notebook. I dont think its really necessary, but you know, the boss is boss. He keeps saying, that he dont want these files to appear in his Mac OS X folders, which he is sharing in Windows XP as virtual discs.

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Re: zone-identifier files
by Kees_B Forum moderator Apr 29, 2013 4:03AM PDT

Basically, it's an incompatibility between the Mac file system and Windows. So the obvious solutions are:
- use Outlook for Mac (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/outlook) or any other native Mac e-mail program
- put that data on an NTFS partition (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac)
- switch to a Windows PC

If, however, he insists on using Outlook for Windows in a virtual machine and storing the mail in a non-NTFS partition I'd set that registry value you mention to 2 (off), not 1 (on), as shown in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883260. It mentions other subkeys also.

If that doesn't work, ask for a budget to pay Microsoft support to do it. They'll be glad to help.

Kees

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Answer
Turn of creation of Zone.Identifier fork
by May 14, 2013 11:50PM PDT
Back to Windows Legacy OS forum

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