Safe files not useful

Safe files is a really terrible feature as it was introduced now. It has taken me hours to find out why I could not save any files anymore. It appeared it was Bitdefender that *silently* forbade any file to be saved anywhere on my desktop or in the documents folder. This is like shooting with a cannon on a fly and happily accepting the collateral damage. I really need to be able to use my PC. At least there should be a strong warning against such "features" and it should never be enabled by default. This will cost many people a lot of time before they can use their PC again.

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dbrisendine

What programs were trying to save the files? My MS Office / Open Office programs can save files to those locations just fine. However, I do find it annoying that an installation will 'fail' just because it can not save a icon / link to the desktop.

paulvr

It seems that signed executables are able to save files. Most non-microsoft executables are not signed and are prohibited from saving files. This is very annoying, but the fact there is no indication that this is caused by Bitdefender is a disaster and I find it totally unacceptable.

Z80Assembler

First of all when a program attempts to access these files an authorization dialog with information about the file request (such as the application name & path, the type of access requested, and the target folder and file) should be presented to the user and then allowing the user to allow or deny such an operation. At very least this information should be available in the event log.

One of the biggest problems with the way it currently works it during program installations. Many installers will not work correctly when blocked and what you wind up with is a program that is not properly installed. You have to turn off safe files and then either repair the installation or uninstall and reinstall which is a pain in the neck. To make matters worse many installers use temporary executables and start other installers such as required prerequisites,

Even though you can turn off safe files before an installation this is not always desirable and could even pose a security risk. It would be much better to understand what the installer is attempting to do and then decide whether to allow it or not.

BTW, the same above can and does apply to threat protection as well. An argument could be made that this would not be good for a non-technical user but at least we should have an option, like we do with "paranoid mode" in the firewall module. Which by the way does not function correctly in the 2018 version ( as outlined in other posts).

BDAlexS

Hello

I didn't see "safe files" anywhere in any forum description, so I assume I post here.

So I have downloaded Win32DiskImager from here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/latest/download

and attempted to install it but I get this:

https://imgur.com/a/z24JX

And the app comes up with an error accordingly.

https://imgur.com/a/nNGg2

(NB tried to attach the file, but your web forums aren't accepting png files created through Snipping Tool ).

As you can see the information about what is going on is hardly volunteered in BitDefender or made easy, you have to hunt around for it in the logs.

The application win32diskimager-1.0.0-install.tmp attempted to change a file in a protected folder and was blocked.

Protected folder: c:\users\public\desktop

Keep blocking the application if you do not recognize it or did not want to edit one of your protected files right now. Allow the application only if you trust the source it came from.

Click the "Learn more" button below for an informative article on data protection and Safe Files.

Apparently then the default protected folders are documents, pictures, videos and desktop folders, that's quite a nice facility.

However! I assume then that ANY install application attempting to write a shortcut on the desktop gets blocked, that's a bit of a PITA is it not? Why can't I specifically turn off shortcut writing, without having to remove the desktop folder? Shouldn't that be default? Anyway...

So I allow the application to the application access list (browse to the setup executable and allow) and run it again. But it blocks again!! The blocking switch gets changed back! So I try it yet again, this time I run the setup, and wait until prompted to click next, then I hit the allow button, fine I think... but oh no... the switch moves again, blocking it again!!

So safe files are now turned off! Too much hassle!!

Nice idea - please implement it properly. Only situation it would work is if I never have to install software.

BDAlexS

I agree.

I created a new thread unaware of this one, check out my comments on this anyway:

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