Understanding Zone.Identifier Files: What They Are and How to Handle Them

find . -name "*Zone.Identifier" -type f -delete

Zone.Identifier files are these peculiar little metadata files that might be cluttering up your directories if you work between Windows and Linux systems (particularly WSL). I’ve encountered them frequently when transferring files, and they can be quite the nuisance. Let’s dive into what these mysterious files are and how you can deal with them effectively.

What Are Zone.Identifier Files?

Zone.Identifier files are basically Windows’ way of keeping track of where your files came from. They’re part of a security feature called “Mark of the Web” (MOTW) that Windows uses to identify potentially unsafe content downloaded from the internet.

When you download a file in Windows, the system attaches this metadata as a security measure. Windows then uses this information to determine things like SmartScreen filtering and whether to show those warning messages when you try to open the file.

Where Do Zone.Identifier Files Come From?

You’ll typically see these files pop up when:

You copy files from Windows to WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
You download something in Windows and then access it through WSL
You move files from external media that were previously downloaded in Windows

The funny thing about WSL is that these metadata bits show up as actual separate files with .Zone.Identifier appended to the original filename, rather than staying hidden like they do in the Windows environment.

How to Remove Zone.Identifier Files

If you’re tired of seeing these files all over your WSL environment (I know I was!), there’s a simple command to clean them up. The most effective approach I’ve found is using the find command with the delete option:

find . -name "*Zone.Identifier" -type f -delete

This handy command:

Searches from your current directory (.) and goes through all subdirectories
Looks for any file (-type f) with a name ending in “Zone.Identifier”
Deletes them all in one go (-delete)

Just run this from the folder containing your transferred files, and it’ll clean up all those metadata files while leaving your actual content untouched. I usually run this right after copying a bunch of files into my WSL environment.

How to Prevent Zone.Identifier Files

If you’d prefer to avoid creating these files in the first place (and who wouldn’t?), you have a few options:

1. Disable creation in WSL

This is probably the most complete solution if you use WSL regularly. Here’s the step-by-step process:

Open a terminal in Windows (either Command Prompt or PowerShell)
Launch your WSL distribution by typing wsl and pressing Enter
Check if the config file already exists with ls -la /etc/wsl.conf
Create or edit the WSL configuration file:

If the file doesn’t exist: sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf
If it does exist: sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf

Add the configuration:

If it’s a new file, simply paste these lines:

[automount]
options = "metadata=off"

If the file already exists and has an [automount] section, add the options = "metadata=off" line under that section If the file exists but doesn’t have an [automount] section, add both lines to the end of the file

Save the file:

Press Ctrl+O to write the file
Press Enter to confirm
Press Ctrl+X to exit nano

Restart WSL completely for changes to take effect:

Exit your WSL session by typing exit
In your Windows terminal, run: wsl --shutdown
Wait a few seconds, then start WSL again by typing wsl

These settings will apply to all mounted Windows drives, preventing the creation of Zone.Identifier files system-wide in your WSL environment.

2. Use a tar archive for file transfers

This is an excellent method that completely bypasses the Zone.Identifier issue! Here’s how to do it:

In Windows, collect all the files you want to transfer into a single folder
Create a tar archive using WSL from the Windows side:

   # Navigate to your Windows folder (from WSL)
   cd /mnt/c/path/to/your/folder

   # Create a tar archive of the contents
   tar -cvf my_files.tar *

Move the tar file to your WSL filesystem:

   # Move to your WSL home directory or desired location
   mv my_files.tar ~/destination_folder/

Extract the tar archive in WSL:

   # Navigate to where you moved the tar file
   cd ~/destination_folder

   # Extract the contents
   tar -xvf my_files.tar

The beauty of this approach is that the tar archive maintains the original files without any Zone.Identifier metadata, and when you extract them in WSL, you get clean files without any Zone.Identifier companions! This works because tar is a Linux-native archiving format that doesn’t preserve the Windows-specific metadata.

3. Use WSL-native file transfer methods

Instead of copying and pasting files through the Windows File Explorer, use these more direct methods:

Use SCP to transfer files:

  # From WSL to another Linux machine
  scp /path/to/local/file username@remote-server:/path/to/destination

  # From another machine to WSL
  scp username@remote-server:/path/to/file /path/to/local/destination

Use rsync for more complex transfers:

  # Sync directories while preserving permissions
  rsync -avz /path/to/local/directory username@remote-server:/path/to/destination

Clone Git repositories directly in WSL:

  # Instead of downloading a ZIP from GitHub in Windows
  git clone https://github.com/username/repository.git

Download files directly in WSL:

  # Using wget
  wget https://example.com/file.zip

  # Using curl
  curl -O https://example.com/file.zip

4. Remove the MOTW from Windows files before transfer

If you’ve already downloaded files in Windows and need to transfer them:

In Windows File Explorer, locate the file(s) you want to transfer
Right-click on the file and select “Properties”
Look at the bottom of the General tab for a security warning that says “This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer”
Check the “Unblock” box next to this message
Click “Apply” and then “OK”
Now when you copy this file to WSL, no Zone.Identifier file will be created

For multiple files, you can select them all, right-click, select Properties, and unblock them as a batch.

When Zone.Identifier Files Are Actually Useful

While these files might seem like a pain, they do serve an important security purpose in Windows. They warn users about potentially unsafe content and help prevent malicious code from running. Before you go and delete them all, consider whether their security benefits outweigh the inconvenience for your specific use case.

Conclusion

Zone.Identifier files are just Windows trying to keep you safe by tracking file origins. When working in WSL, they can create quite a bit of clutter, but thankfully they’re easy to remove with that simple command I mentioned. For a cleaner workflow, you might want to configure your system to prevent them from being created in the first place.

The next time you see these files appearing after transferring content between Windows and WSL, you’ll know exactly what they are and how to handle them!

References:

I hope this helps you manage those pesky Zone.Identifier files! If you have any other WSL file management issues, feel free to ask.