For many people who purchase a new Windows 10 PC, Microsoft's built-in Edge browser has one purpose: to download an alternate browser like Google Chrome. The most common way to do this for people who don't have the URL memorized? Type 'download Chrome' in the address bar and click the first result provided by Bing search. Unfortunately those unsuspecting users have a high chance of downloading malware and adware. That's because Bing has been serving up malicious but highly visible Google Chrome ads for months
Deceptive site ahead. Google and Firefox know this. Bing can't be bothered, apparently
Oct 02, 2014 Google Chrome for Windows 10 is a free software available for download from Google. This article explains where to download and how to install Chrome. To fix, add the firewall, anti-virus software or proxy to your security software's exceptions list. If you use Windows Firewall, follow these steps: On your Windows computer, click the Start menu:. Open the Windows Settings app. In the 'Find a setting' search box, type Firewall. Click Allow an app through Windows Firewall. Click Change.
Jason EvangelhoThis weekend, Twitter user Gabriel Landau enjoyed his first few hours with a Windows 10 laptop by doing this exact thing (video in Twitter link). The top result for his 'download chrome' search via Edge looked ordinary enough. Except that when he clicked it the resulting domain was 'GoogleOnline2018.com.' The fake site isn't an exact copy of Google's own Chrome landing page, but looks genuine enough to fool people. The download itself is called 'ChromeSetup.exe,' but examining the digital signature reveals 'Alpha Criteria Ltd.' That's definitely not Google.
Brand new Win10 laptop. Attempt to install Chrome. Almost get owned with my very first action. Why is this still happening in 2018, @bing? Please explain. pic.twitter.com/uYJhu7xa9H
— Gabriel Landau (@GabrielLandau) October 25, 2018
Deceptive Site Ahead
Fortunately Landau was observant enough to detect something fishy was happening, but the way these deceptive ads are hijacking Bing is clever enough to fool the average user.
The malicious URL that Bing is happy to promote can't fool Google or Firefox. When I simply type the above URL into my Firefox browser I'm faced with a bold red page declaring 'Deceptive Site Ahead' completely with details and an option to go back.
Unable To Download Chrome On Windows 10 S
Chris Hoffman, EIC of How-To Geek was able to reproduce this error, and several users on Twitter have also complained about it. In his article he points out that the ad comes into rotation every few page refreshes. Because I can't obtain that result on a fresh Windows 10 install, I suspect it may be targeting users geographically (I live in Europe).
I notified Bing Ads of this issue, and since Landau's tweet went viral overnight, I have confidence the malicious ad will be removed from Bing Search within the next 24 hours.
How To Run Chrome On Windows 10
But the real issue is that it keeps happening.
I searched the web for similar complaints and found an article from Bleeping Computer dated April 2018. The same type of hijack using Bing Ads from Edge, displayed as the top result, leading to a fake Chrome download that serves up some particularly nasty adware in its installer. The most noticeable difference was the domain name 'NewChromeDownload.com.'
And then again 21 days ago from this user on Reddit. You guessed it. Same procedure, same structure, different domain name.
And then again about 4 months ago.
If you have to use Windows 10, don't use Bing for search. Ever.
MicrosoftThere's a pattern here, and it's a disturbing one. How many people have been affected by these short-lived but recurring hijacks that Microsoft is letting through to millions of people? It's inexcusable that these types of ads aren't vetted properly, especially when the majority of browsers automatically know these sites are unsafe.
Isolated issues like this -- one search term in one browser with one search engine -- may not seem significant. But when looking at Windows 10 as a whole, things look considerably darker. Microsoft is letting devastating file-deleting bugs through its Windows 10 updates even after being warned by its team of Windows Insider testers. The update process is unreliable and cumbersome compared to operating systems like Ubuntu.
What You Can Do
If you must use Windows 10, go directly to Chrome.com to download Google's browser, or to Mozilla.org for Firefox. Commit those to memory or just open up Edge and browse directly to google.com. I also highly recommend installing a tracking blocker like DuckDuckGo. If you choose to use the Edge browser, remove Bing as your default search provider by following these steps.
At the very least, please do not use Bing to search for anything. Ever. You probably won't after reading this.
I'll update this article with any response from the Bing Ads team.
Cant Download Chrome On Windows 10
UPDATE: The Bing Ads Twitter account has removed the malicious ad and banned the account, saying 'Hi Gabriel, protecting customers from malicious content is a top priority and we have removed the ads from Bing and banned the associated account. We encourage users to continue to report this type of content at https://bit.ly/2PZWZ1u so we can take appropriate action.'
Is it a top priority? One can only hope Microsoft will be more vigilant going forward since this is a recurring problem with Bing.
If you are unable to download any exe file in Windows 10 or even on Windows 7/8/8.1, there may be a problem in your Internet Options or Windows Registry needs to be configured correctly.
This error usually occurs when you have disabled downloading of executable files in Internet Options. This can be done manually by any user or it can also be altered automatically through some software. While there can be many other possibilities, these two are the most popular ones. We will talk about fixing unable to download any exe file in Windows 10 using both methods one by one. Let’s start with fixing Internet Options.
You may also like to read about our 3 must have tools to fix most Windows problems without getting help from a techie.
Quick Summary
Fixing unable to download any exe file using Internet Options
May be your Internet Options are not set properly that’s why .exe file downloading is creating an issue. Apply below steps to set Internet Options orderly.
- Type Internet Options in the Start Menu and open the first result you get.
- Go to Security tab, in Internet Options window, and select Custom Level.
- A new window will open. Here find Downloads, expand it further and enable File Download and Font Download.
- Scroll below and look for another option with name Launching applications and unsafe files, select the Prompt option for it.
- Press Apply and OK. Close all open windows.
Fixing exe files not opening using Windows Registry
- Open Registry Editor window by typing regedit.exe in Run dialog/. And go to the following entry.
“HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPloiciesAttachments”. - Here you have to create a new 32-bit DWORD value with name ScanWithAntivirus and set its value to 1, this value will off or disable the scan.
So now any file you will download, antivirus software will not scan it, and your download will not suffer anymore.
Adding a Registry for EXE file extension
- Download the following Registry key:
Reset Exe in Windows Registry - Now go to file where you save it, double-click on it to add this registry into Windows Registry.
- A confirmatory window will open to ask you for changes you are going to made in Registry Editor. Press Yes, and here you are done.
After applying the fixes, hopefully your issue of unable to downloading or save any exe file will be resolved. But be sure of what you are downloading, and always download from official websites to avoid viruses with downloads, as you may suffer any issue if the virus comes along with your download files.