Strange Windows 10 Pro File Explorer Behavior

I open the File Explorer and navigate to a folder. When I select a file in that folder (it happens to be an App.js file), I can view it in the preview pane. Now, I go up one level to the folder in which that file is located. There, I right click and select Open in new window from the menu. In that new File Explorer window I can't view any file in the Preview pane. Instead, I see a message in the pane that reads: "The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer. If you trust the file source you received it from, open it to view its contents."

I have viewed that file many times. I regularly have opened its containing folder in vscode and registered it as from a trusted source. I have also copied its containing folder's contents (it's an src folder) into another location (a template with node_modules installed), and viewed it in the File Explorer's Preview pane often before. I don't understand this behavior. Of course, I can just ignore it. I do have other indirect ways of viewing it. But this is just another annoying, baffling Windows inexplicable behavior. Does anyone know what causes that and why? What is Microsoft trying to do there?

Sorry, my Windows Version is 10.0.18363. Yes, it's not up to date. My updates have been failing for some time. I really have to re-install. Maybe it has something to do with that? I did get some helpful instructions from you guys on this forum to do the update fix, but I haven't done it yet.

Thank you so much. I'm following the Macrium tutorial procedures but I ran into a little problem. I have a drive that contains data that was recovered by a company. For the recovery, I purchased a recovery drive from them. For whatever reason, the drive was write protected. I finally got around to copying the files I wanted to keep and now want to use that drive for my backups. I can't remove the write protection. I can't reformat it. I get a message that I don't have sufficient permissions to do that. Can you tell me how I should go about making that drive read/writable?

Thank you so much. I'm following the Macrium tutorial procedures but I ran into a little problem. I have a drive that contains data that was recovered by a company. For the recovery, I purchased a recovery drive from them. For whatever reason, the drive was write protected. I finally got around to copying the files I wanted to keep and now want to use that drive for my backups. I can't remove the write protection. I can't reformat it. I get a message that I don't have sufficient permissions to do that. Can you tell me how I should go about making that drive read/writable? I tried using diskpart and clearing the readonly attribute on the disk, but the process failed to clear the attribute.

if the drive contains some code that marks it as read-only and assuming you don't care about its current contents, you can use Diskpart to wipe the drive. To avoid any mistakes search for Computer Management and open it. Go to Disk Manager and note the disk number of your target disk (eg disk 1). Now search for cmd to find command prompt, right-click on it and select to Run as Administrator. Type this code to wipe the disk:

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk x
clean
exit
exit

Substitute x with the appropriate disk number. Last command wipes all partitions and data on disk and returns it at factory state (unpartitioned, blank). Now you should be able to use it however you want. Go to Disk Manager, initialize it and create a new partition before using.

steve108 said:

What kind of drive is it?

Please be careful and don't format the wrong drive:
How to Remove Write Protection from a USB

It wasn't a USB flash drive. It's an external hard disk I've got connected on USB 3.0 port.

It is a Seagage BUP Slim Media I bought from the service that recovered data on a drive that stopped spinning. I actually got two of them over a few years of recovering data from old dying drives. I should have had backups. I didn't. I ran diskpart and when I listed the disks it was there. I could tell from its size and I knew the other drives as well. I had copied the files I wanted to keep. I couldn't format it. I got the "insufficient permissions" message. Then I selected the disk and tried to remove the readonly attribute on it. I didn't think to clean it. I just tried the clear readonly attribute command. That failed.

To make things worse, Windows stopped recognizing the drive at all. It disappeared from the disk manager. I could not see it on the file explorer. My bios went goofy and also didn't recognize it. Thankfully it was formatted so I could also connect it to my Mac. I did and can see the drive again. I'll try to find how to reformat it there for use on either the Mac or Windows without write protection.