My Comment on ThioJoe's A Windows Checkbox You Shouldn't Ignore

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Feel free to to check out ThioJoe’s video through here.

Just created a simple Python script that unblocks all files in bulk from 8 different partitions. Thank you for yet another reminder, Joe! Like the 7-zip dev, I just hate those, along with UAC, Smart Screen, Windows Defender, and pretty much any tool that thinks it can protect me more than I can protect my own damn self.

For those who are interested, here’s the code for unblocking all files in bulk (USE IT ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING! ⚠️):

import os
import win32api
import win32con

def unblock_file(file_path):
# Remove the 'Mark of the Web' by clearing the alternate data stream
try:
win32api.SetFileAttributes(file_path, win32con.FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL)
print(f"Unblocked: {file_path}")
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error unblocking {file_path}: {e}")

def unblock_files_in_partition(partition):
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(partition):
for file in files:
unblock_file(os.path.join(root, file))
# You can add/remove partitions below
partitions = ['C:\\', 'D:\\', 'E:\\', 'F:\\', 'G:\\', 'H:\\', 'I:\\', 'J:\\']

for partition in partitions:
unblock_files_in_partition(partition)

Instead of scouring drives, trying to unblock every single file you come across individually, the script below can be used to unblock every single file that has the so-called mark of the web.