Computer

You’ve seen it, and you didn’t choose well: Do this if you see this warning in Chrome

Almost 70% of people who connect to the Internet do so through Chrome. For this reason, Google bears the responsibility of providing the best possible protection against all threats that hide on the net. That is why the browser analyzes everything we do in it and takes care of blocking everything that could be a threat. But it doesn’t always do this by default, and when in doubt, it allows users to choose whether to go forward or back down. And, if we are not careful, we can choose the wrong option.

One of the main sources of infection from the browser is through downloaded files. Therefore, this is where the browser places a greater emphasis on protecting users. The browser has a blacklist of dangerous files that, when it detects hidden malware, automatically blocks the download. It also analyzes each one of the files that are downloaded with an antivirus before they are copied to the PC. If the file is reliable, the user does not see any problem. But what happens when there is doubt?

This file cannot be downloaded safely

When Google cannot be 100% sure that the file is safe, it can show us a message like the following.

Google Chrome - This file cannot be downloaded safely

This message is telling us that, although the file should apparently be clean (in this case, for example, it is a harmless PNG), it has encountered some problems that have prevented it from being sure of its security. It may be due, for example, to a problem establishing the HTTPS connectiona problem with the web certificate, or that the page performs some kind of strange redirection that you did not like.

As we can see, Chrome shows us two options. The first one, marked in blue, is the option to discard. And it is that, when in doubt, it is better to block the connection and keep our PC clean. The second one is the option of to download, which will ignore the message and allow us to copy the file to our PC. Of course, if we don’t want to take unnecessary risks, what we have to do is choose the first option.

Other error messages

In addition to this, Chrome can also show us other similar messages when downloading files. For example, we can find a message that tells us that the file is not downloaded usually. This means that, since it has not registered downloads from your browser, it has not been able to verify the security of the file in question. And, therefore, there is no risk that it could endanger our PC. Or, when we try to download certain types of files, we may see a similar message stating that “this type of file can harm the computer«.

Chrome Warning - This type of file can harm your computer

Either way, it is always best to bet on Discard download it. Above all, if we are not 100% sure that the website from which we are downloading the file is safe and trustworthy. If we choose to download and save the file on our PC, then it is essential scan it with an antivirus that indicates its reliability. And, if possible, open it for the first time in a test environment (Windows Sandbox, or a virtual machine) to make sure it doesn’t have any problems.

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