Windows problem message on Pandora load

I am running Win 11 and Pandora 5.0.
Now every time I load Pandora I get a Windows message that says " Do you want to allow this app from an unknown publisher to make changes to your device" The app listed is: mailboxCat.exe.
If I answer Yes everything seems to work in Pandora. And if I say NO... everything seems to work as well.

I know I can avoid this crazy message if I turn off the security in user acct control, that means I have no protection for any bad app.

I also renamed the file to xMailboxCat.exe to see what would happen. The message did not appear and everything in Pandora seemed to work ok. So... do I really need MailboxCat.exe? What does MailboxCat do in Pandora??
Thanks

[quote="Fliphmds"]I am running Win 11 and Pandora 5.0.
Now every time I load Pandora I get a Windows message that says " Do you want to allow this app from an unknown publisher to make changes to your device"  The app listed is: mailboxCat.exe.
If I answer Yes everything seems to work in Pandora. And if I say NO... everything seems to work as well.

I know I can avoid this crazy message if I turn off the security in user acct control, that means I have no protection for any bad app.

I also renamed the file to xMailboxCat.exe to see what would happen. The message did not appear and everything in Pandora seemed to work ok. So... do I really need MailboxCat.exe? What does MailboxCat do in Pandora??
Thanks[/quote]

When under Windows you download any executable file from anywhere, Windows labels that file as potentially dangerous.  If the file is digitally signed I think that label is not applied, or maybe it is but is then ignored.

If you right-click a file in File Explorer and choose Properties, you will see at the bottom of the pane an "Unblock" option.  If you click that, then "Apply", the label gets removed.

When you try to run a labelled program you always get the message you mention; if it's been "Unblock"ed, you don't.  At least in XP, Win 8 and 8.1, you don't...   It's nothing to do with UAC.

I "Unblock" every downloaded installer etc that I plan to run (though also scan it with anti-malware software, and if I'm at all worried also upload it to VirusTotal to see what multiple vendors of anti-virus/malware software make of it).  Also if the provider advertised the file's proper checksum/hash, I check that with a file-hashing utility.  I also look to see if the file is digitally signed.

Maybe executables that emerge from blocked/unblocked installers inherit the label that the installer itself had?


The "label" itself is stored inside what's called an "Alternate Data Stream".  Most people think that a file on a computer has a name, meta data (like dates things happened to it) and (perhaps, if it is not empty), some contents.  But actually files can have several different sets of contents all at the same time ... and what you think of as /the/ contents is in fact just the default contents .  Alternate Data Streams are the way that the other sets of contents are managed.  They're also used, for example, for the Dropbox application to store information alongside files, which moves with the files if they are copied around, to help make files able to be moved between different file systems (eg NTFS on Windows) and those found on Macs and Linuxes (so that file attributes that OSes/FSes don't support, that Dropbox needs, are still associated with files.  Anyway, when you "Unblock" an executable file the label, stored in a file's Alternate Data Stream, gets removed.  

See eg: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/askcore/alternate-data-streams-in-ntfs

A useful utility for finding and seeing what's in ADSes in files (not just the MS label on executables): https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/alternate_data_streams.html


Mailboxcat.exe is the program that "catalogues" ie indexes the contents of your mailboxes, so that search is faster.

Does anyone know why my previous reply has those quote start & stop markers in it, rather than them being invisible and the text between them showing as a quote?

I didn't put them in the message as I wrote it; they were there when I started to write my reply, placed there by the forum software. I just left them in place.

Thanks for the response. I am running Win 11 and looked at all the property elements of the file and could not find a Lock or Unlock item anywhere. Any other ideas???

[quote="Fliphmds"]Thanks for the response. I am running Win 11 and looked at all the property elements of the file and could not find a Lock or Unlock item anywhere. Any other ideas???
[/quote]

It's "Unblock" not "Unlock" ... but if that flag has ever been removed from that file, you won't see the Unblock option any more for it.

Just in case you don't know what this looks like, I found a screenshot - see the second picture (of the Properties -> General tab) at: https://winaero.com/how-to-unblock-files-downloaded-from-the-internet-in-windows-11/

I've never used Win 11 so don't know if other options, eg "Smartscreen" - whatever that is - may have changed how this works. The rest of that webpage might also be relevant.

Well I went to the winaero site and tried the 'terminal' command and also downloaded the Explorer property expansion. Ran the commands (both key in the command and ran the app). No error message came so supposedly the file is unblocked. But when I tried to load Pandora the error message about Mailbox.exe still comes up. Guess I'll just have to live with it. Thanks for your help.