The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?

Recently, my copy of Windows XP started giving me this error, when I tried to run an executable program, even after I'd checked its source, firefox had virus scanned it while downloading, and I'd tested it with my installed virus scanner:

"The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?"

Although I could disable this message for one program, there wasn't an obvious way to delete the feature. I went down a horrible rathole of trying to get the group policy console working on my XP home. Five megabytes of downloads and error messages later, I discovered that there's a registry entry that you can set, which prevents this nanny message. Here it is:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Associations]
"LowRiskFileTypes"=".exe"

You can either add this manually, or save that text as a text file, change its name to "something.reg" and double click it to add it to your registry. It may not take effect until you restart your computer.

Special post for Crazy Mamma

Crazy, please tell us on the forum if there's any reliable difference between these two links:

• http://www.ottawaforums.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=2854
• http://www.ottawaforums.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=2854

Thanks!!!

The great MARCIA mailstorm of 2002

This is an experiment in blogging... I intend to publish the story of the MARCIA virus mailstorm of 2002 here, some time in the future