Publisher could not be verified on virtual drive

[ron040401]

I have Windows XP Home. I mapped a network drive to a C:\Games folder having a collection of old DOS games. I use the mapped drive so that a folder containing shortcuts can be used from another computer in the house without rewriting the shortcut for each computer. All has worked well for years. Now, every time I access the shortcut, I get the "Publisher could not be verified" message. I click the RUN option and it works fine. If I run the program directly from c:\Games, I do not get the Publsiher message.
What has changed? I have the same Zone Alarm firewall I have always had. The only difference I know of is that I now have Internet Explorer 7.

Gamingly puzzled,
Ron

 

[bcastner]

In IE, Tools, Internet Options, Advanced
Scroll down to the subhead "Security" and put a checkmark in the first three boxes.

Save your changes.

 

[ron040401]

I had that checked earlier and just verified it. IE is set as you stated. I finally disconnected my virtual network drive and returned to using the C drive menu. Unfortunately, that forces me to copy all the contents of the previously shared folder onto the other computer.
Seems all these new security measures are working great against my own in-home computing. If only someone could convince these developers that I am not the bad guy.
Thanks for your help. Time permitting, I plan to investigate this problem later on.

 

[bcastner]

It depends..

If the shortcut utilizes an UNC path, it is running in the security context of the "Local Intranet". If the shortcut utilizes a direct reference to a file path, it is running in the security context of the "My Computer" zone (which is not visible by default).

So, Open Internet Options, Security, Local Intranet, Custom Settings, and set it to "Low". You need to exit all IE sessions and restart IE to see any effect.

Report back your results.