If you are unable to download any exe file in Windows 10 or even on Windows 7/8/8.1, there may be a problem in your Internet Options or Windows Registry needs to be configured correctly.
This error usually occurs when you have disabled downloading of executable files in Internet Options. This can be done manually by any user or it can also be altered automatically through some software. While there can be many other possibilities, these two are the most popular ones. We will talk about fixing unable to download any exe file in Windows 10 using both methods. Let’s start with fixing Internet Options.
You may also like to read about how our 3 must have tools to fix most Windows problems without getting help from a techie.
Table of Contents
Fixing unable to download any exe files using Internet Options
Your Internet Options are not set properly that’s why .exe file download is creating an issue. Apply below steps to set Internet Options orderly.
- Type Internet Options in the Start Menu and open the first result you get.
- Go to Security tab, in Internet Options window and select Custom Level.
- A new window will open. Here find Downloads, expand it further and enable File Download and Font Download.
- Scroll below to look for another option with name Launching applications and unsafe files and select the Prompt option for it.
- Press Apply and OK. Close all open windows.
Fixing exe files not opening using Windows Registry
- Open the Registry Editor window by typing regedit.exe in Run dialog/. And go to the following entry.
“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ploicies\Attachments”.
- Here you have to create a new 32-bit DWORD value with name ScanWithAntivirus and set its value to 1, this value will off or disable the scan.
So now any file you will download, antivirus software will not scan it, and your download will not suffer anymore.
Adding a Registry for EXE file extension
- Download the following Registry key:
Reset EXE Extensions (Windows Registry) (5.7 KiB, 3,003 hits) - Now go to the file where you save it, double-click on it to add this registry to the Windows Registry.
- A confirmatory window will open to ask you for changes you are going to made in Registry Editor. Press Yes, and here you are done.
After applying the fixes, hopefully your issue of being unable to download or save any exe file will be resolved. But be sure of what you are downloading, and always download from official websites to avoid viruses with downloads, as you may suffer any issue if the virus comes along with your download files.
7 comments
Rieyaz Ahamed
hi i cant find the attachments folder in “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ploicies\Attachments”. What can i do
Fred
Adding a Registry for EXE file extension
Download the following Registry key:
Reset Exe in Windows Registry
Now go to file where you save it, double-click on it to add this registry into Windows Registry.
this link doesn’t work
Usman Khurshid
Sorry for the confusion, I have fixed the download link. You may download it using the following link:
https://itechtics.com/?dl_id=81
ayush patel
it does not work . sometime before I deleted all H_KEY files by mistake . from then no exe files open and install . I want to install an exe apk please help me. make a video on thus topic and give me your channel link please bro. by this my regedit not opening and shows problem on opening regedit and all exe files is “windows cannot find .please check you named correctly and check spelling”
Frank
Doesnt work my trouble is different
S.O.S
Usman Khurshid
Can you tell us about your problem?
Linda Hill
I have done everything on this page, but the reset exe in windows reg and it says it can not run because it can not be found so it did not download and run so what do I do now I would like for this dang thing to work right and do my exe so I can get the shit on here that I need. It is no good to me as it is now and it was working ok until the last update so they need to fix it right This is crazy it will not even let me post the comment.