JSI Tip 9650. When you clear the 'Always ask before opening this type of file' setting in Internet Explorer on Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1, it is not retained?

When you download a file using Internet Explorer 6, and clear the Always ask before opening this type of file box, and then save the file to your disk, subsequent downloads of this file type should not present the File Download dialog. In your environment, the dialog may begin to appear.

When a user clears the Always ask before opening this type of file and saves a file to disk, Internet Explorer writes a Value Name to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellAttachmentExecute\{0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} key, with a REG_NONE data type and zero-length binary value.

NOTE: If Office XP is installed and you clear the Always ask before opening this type of file box when download a .DOC file, the Value Name is Word.Document.8.

This behavior will occur if an Administrator or Power User opens the Edit File Type dialog at My Computer / Tools / Folder Options / File Types / / Advanced,  as this action deletes the Value Name.

To resolve this issue, you can use any of the following techinques:

• Manually set the option the next time you download. - This option can be accidentantly unset an Administrator or Power User.

• Create a shortcut to a batch file that runs the following command:

REG ADD "HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellAttachmentExecute\{0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}" /V  /T REG_NONE /F /D ""

where might be Word.Document.8.

• An Administrator can clear the Confirm open after download check box at My Computer / Tools / Folder Options / File Types / / Advanced and then press OK.

• An Administrator can run:

ClearCOD .ext

Where .ext is the file type, like .DOC.

ClearCOD.bat contains:

@echo offif {%1}=={} @echo Syntax: ClearCOD .ext&goto :EOFsetlocalset ext=%1if "%ext:~0,1%" NEQ "." goto err1set key="NONE"call :getext>nul 2>&1if %key% EQU "NONE" goto errset OK=Ncall :get>nul 2>&1if "%OK%" EQU "N" set /a EditFlags=0set /a EditFlags=%EditFlags% ^& 4294901759call :upd>nul 2>&1endlocalgoto :EOF:getextfor /f "Tokens=3*" %%a in ('REG QUERY "HKCR%ext%" /VE^|find "REG_SZ"') do ( set key="HKCR%%b")goto :EOF:getfor /f "Tokens=1,3" %%a in ('REG QUERY %key% /V EditFlags^|FIND /I "EditFlags"') do ( set OK=Y set /a EditFlags=%%b)goto :EOF:updREG ADD %key% /V EditFlags /T REG_DWORD /F /D %EditFlags%goto :EOF:err@echo ClearCOD cannot find the HKCR%ext% key.endlocalgoto :EOF:err1@echo ClearCOD .ext - %ext% has no leading period.endlocal