Setup file is deleted immediately after download

Question

From the download page, I start download of yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe. I am saving the file to MyUserName\Downloads (i e, C:\Users\MyUserName\Downloads). The browser shows the progress of the 53 MB download, and during the donwload, 2 files appear in the download directory: yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe and yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe.PART. The latter increases in size, matching the browser's download progress in size.

The instant the download completes, and without any further action on my part, both files vanish from the download directory. They are nowhere on the C:\ drive, nor in the recycle bin.

How do I get the installation to work? Prior to this installation attempt, I sucessfully ran yEd using the web interface. JRE was already installed on my machine.

Windows 7, 64-bit. Firefox 19.0.2. Java Standard Edition v7 update 15.

Answer 1

Well, the yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe.PART disappearing is normal for Firefox. When the download is complete, Firefox renames yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe.PART to yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe. This is how Firefox works (for all downloads) and has nothing to do with yEd.

The fact that the final file (i.e. yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe) disappears is not normal - actually this is the first time someone has reported this problem. My best guess is that you have antivirus software installed that is much too aggressive and deletes the file right after the download has finished. Since you seem to have Java already installed, try downloading the 64 bit Windows installer that does not include the Jave Runtime Environment. Maybe your antivirus software will accept that file.

Another possibility would be downloading the installer on another machine that has different, less aggressive antivirus software and transferring the installer via USB stick, CD, etc. to your machine.

Comments

There is no anti-virus sw installed except Microsoft Security Essentials, (its real-time monitoring is turned off).

IE9 gives a message "The file yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe contained a virus and has been deleted".

I downloaded the install file on a different machine (32-bit XP) using Chrome.

Download of the 64-bit installer without JRE fails in the same way, in both Firefox and IE.

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"The file yEd-3.10.2_with_JRE_setup.exe contained a virus and has been deleted".

This means it is indeed an antivirus software issue (Microsoft Security Essentials *is* antivirus software).

However, I am glad you could download the installer on another machine.

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I agree that MSE is AV sw. However, it has the latest "definitions" downloaded from MS, so if it were responsible for deleting the file, you have a problem. Almost all Windows machines run MSE.

However, I don't think MSE is responsible in this case, because it is set to warn but not take action when it finds a problem. Also, your file isn't in its history of actions taken.

Also, I used MSE to scan the setup file which I had downloaded using Chrome on another machine. It found no threats; i e, MSE doesn't think it contains a virus.

You might want to try a download yourself on a machine with MSE running.

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FYI, I have discovered what the difficulty is. There is a MS API, used by browsers, IAttachmentExecute::Save. The browser calls this function to determine whether the file is safe to store. IE9 tells you when this fails, but Firefox does not. Both delete the file.

Firefox allows you to override this check, and doing so allowed me to download.

No indication why the file fails check, but it looks like all files do.

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Thank you very much for the detailed analysis.

We did test downloading the yEd installers on Windows 7 and 8 with Firefox 19.0.2 and IE 10 (with the browsers' default security settings). No problems. All test machines had antivirus software installed, though not Microsoft Security Essentials.

That said, I find it strange that IAttachmentExecute::Save deletes files that are declared fine by MSE. According to IAttachmentExecute::Save documentation I would have thought IAttachmentExecute::Save simply runs MSE to scan the file. Seems like an IAttachmentExecute::Save/MSE bug to me.

Finally, I would like to ask what you did exactly to override the IAttachmentExecute::Save in Firefox? Did you set "browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone" or "services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone" to "false" in Firefox's about:config?