Unblock Files in Windows 8 using PowerShell and Registry

Introduction

In case you haven’t noticed the following “Unblock” button is missing from Windows 8 file properties.

This can be a tad annoying when downloading zip files from the internet and answering security prompt after prompt to get the file loaded. So what did I do? I fixed it by using PowerShell and a quick registry entry.

The Solution

Note: If you don’t want to dig into the registry yourself then you can just download the completed .REG file here.

Create a new registry entry in : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\ and call it powershell now set the Data to be “Unblock Files”.

Underneath the powershell key we just created add a new key called command and set the data to be C:\\Windows\\system32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe Unblock-File  -LiteralPath '%L'

Just copy and paste that entire line.

Now if you right click on a file or files then you will see the option to “Unblock Files”

Also as stated earlier you can download a .REG file from here to avoid performing any of this work. The contents of the registry file are as follows:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\powershell]  @="Unblock Files"    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\powershell\command]  @="C:\\\\Windows\\\\system32\\\\WindowsPowerShell\\\\v1.0\\\\powershell.exe Unblock-File  -LiteralPath '%L'"

Wrap-up

I hope this helped! Thanks for reading.

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