How to Enable or Disable Insecure Download Warning in Chrome

If you want to enable or disable warning message for insecure downloads in Google Chrome web browser, this article will help you.

Many times when we visit a website, it might contain insecure download links i.e. non-HTTPS URLs. There are chances that the file might be suspicious and might contain malware. Google is rolling out a new feature in Chrome web browser which will block and warn the users from downloading suspicious files over insecure HTTP connection.

Following screenshot shows a warning message “This site isn’t using a secure connection and the file may have been tempered with” displayed by Chrome while trying to download an executable (.exe) file on HTTP connection:

The user can still download the file by clicking on “Download insecure file” button.

Similarly, following screenshot shows insecure download automatically blocked by Chrome and a “Keep” button is available to save the file on hard disk:

Now there might be two types of Chrome users:

• One who have received the new insecure download warning and blocking feature in Chrome but they found it annoying and want to disable it.
• Second who haven’t received the new feature yet and want to activate and enable it right now in Chrome to improve security.

Google Chrome team has provided a hidden secret preference/flag which can be used to enable or disable the new insecure download warning functionality in Chrome browser.

If you also want to enable or disable these warning messages and insecure file download automatic blocking in Chrome web browser, following steps will help you:

1. Open Google Chrome web browser and type chrome://flags/ in address bar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.

2. Now type downloads in the “Search flags” box.

Look for following option in the results:

3. To activate and enable the new insecure download warning and blocking feature in Chrome, select Enabled from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option.

To disable the new insecure download warning and blocking feature in Chrome, select Disabled from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option.

4. Google Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Google Chrome.

That’s it. You have successfully enabled/disabled the downloads warning feature in Chrome based upon the preference value.

PS: In future, if you decide to restore default setting in Chrome, select “Default” option from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option and restart the browser.

NOTE: Advanced users can also modify following extra preference/flag to enable advanced and improved warning messages for file downloads:

Also Check:

[Tip] Disable or Remove Download Button from Chrome Toolbar

[Tip] How to Enable or Disable New UI in Google Chrome

How to Change Title Bar Color from Blue to Grey in Chrome