How to Disable the “These Files Might Be Harmful to Your Computer” Warning

Windows Security monitors files added to your PC, especially those from the Internet . If a file looks harmful, you'll see a warning that says "These files might be harmful to your computer." While you can ignore this warning, frequent prompts can get annoying. Luckily, you can easily turn them off.

Why does Windows display the warning "These files might be harmful to your computer"?

You might see this warning when transferring files from another computer on your home network or moving files between drives on the same PC.

This may not be an issue if you occasionally deal with a few files. However, if you are trying to move tons of files from one drive to another, accepting the warning for all of them can become annoying.

The fix depends on the situation. For network drives, adding your DNS address to the Intranet Zone may disable the warning. For local drive transfers, you will need to try different solutions to see which one works best.

Add IP address to Intranet Zone

If you encounter this security warning when accessing files from a local network PC or Network Attached Storage (NAS), you can add the IP address or DNS name associated with the device to the local Intranet Zone.

• Press Win + R to open Run .
• Type control and click OK to open Control Panel .
• In Control Panel, go to Network and Internet > Internet Options .

• In the Internet Properties dialog box , open the Security tab .
• Next, select the Local intranet option and then click the Sites button for Local intranet .

• In the new window, click the Advanced button .

• In the Add this website to the zone field , you need to add your mapped IP address and click Add .
• Click Close and OK to save the changes.

When you add a mapped IP address to the local Internet zone, Windows treats connections from this network as trusted and stops displaying security warnings.

Turn off warnings using Group Policy Editor

You can also disable this warning through Group Policy Editor (GPEdit), a straightforward way to manage security settings. However, GPEdit is only available by default on Windows Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

Press Win + R to open Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK to open Group Policy Editor. In the GPEdit application, navigate to the following location:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Internet Control Panel > Security Page 

Double-click the Internet Zone Template policy and set it to Enabled . Then, click the drop-down menu under Options and select Low . Click OK > Apply to save the changes.

Next, double-click to open the Site to Zone Assignment List policy . Set it to Enabled . Then, under Options , select the Show button . Add the hostname, URL, or IP address to add them to the allow list and set the value to 1. Click OK , then click Apply > OK to save the changes.

The solution to stop this security warning depends on whether you're moving files from a network drive or a local drive. You can temporarily disable UAC settings to bypass the warning or, on older versions of Windows 11, remove Internet Explorer to resolve the issue.