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I have a Windows 7 SP1 x86 machine with IE10, fully patched, which has strange issues with downloads in internet explorer. Specifically, any exe (as well as others) has the period/dot/full stop replaced with an underscore. As such, a download for foo.exe
becomes foo_exe
.
Attempting to download the file will initially fail with "This file couldn't be downloaded" and any attempt to cancel, open or exit the download prompt is ignored. Retrying the download will allow it to complete successfully.
Attempting to update to IE11 fails, with a log entry in C:\windows\IE11_main.log
reporting that an attempt to download required files was unsuccessful.
Diagnostic steps:
- "Do not save encrypted files to disk" option is cleared (per KB2549423, applies to IE9, but has same symptoms)
- Checked operation under both Protected Mode for Internet Sites and with Protected Mode disabled
- Reset all IE settings
- Checked HTTP headers,
Content-Length
andContent-Type
specifically - Checked for addins, malware, etc... using Task Manager, MalwareBytes and autoruns
- Checked for network proxies, installed firewalls / security suites
- Checked for adequate free disk space
- Ran IE with add-ins disabled
Is this an answer to your question? It doesn't seem to address it. – Paul – 2014-04-24T05:29:08.037
It is the IE itself that changes the file name right? for security? because a downloaded exe is treated special till the user give it an ok? – Psycogeek – 2014-04-24T06:34:58.210
@Paul, yes. Though it seems unrelated, it was the cause of the issue. I believe it is similar to the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2549423/en-us issue, but instead of HTTPS preventing the file from being saved, a sharing problem prevented it from being saved.
– Mitch – 2014-04-24T14:54:08.097@Psycogeek, IE is what is saving the file with the wrong name, yes. It appears to do it for any unsafe file (.exe, .msi, .vbs, et al.). Unless the user explicitly renamed the file, it would remain named with an underscore in lieu of the
.
. – Mitch – 2014-04-24T14:56:44.173