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Internet Explorer is preventing one of my sites from downloading a file. I'm not expecting the site to attempt anything like this, so I'm convinced I have some malicious code on the site. It would help if I knew what the file was, where it was coming from, etc. Is there any way to get more information about what was attempted from the unhelpful Security bar in IE?

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You might try visiting the site with a different browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera,...) and see if the problem only occurs in IE.

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It only occurs in IE, but that doesn't really help me. I need to know what IE is attempting to download specifically since I have many visitors who may be using IE. – Jonathan Sampson Aug 26 '10 at 15:36
I understand that it's your own website, but still I gotta suggest this: Look at the "view source" in the browser and check if there is content that the browser doesn't know how to display. I've seen browsers choke on embedded content when that content was some exotic format. Is there some JS being included? Check those scripts. Are there any iframes or other external inline data? – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Aug 26 '10 at 15:48
... and looking at this source from another browser may reveal things that IE is blocking. – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Aug 26 '10 at 15:49
I'm confirmed that the issue is the result of a facebook fan box widget trying to download login_status.php from facebook.com. This is only happening in IE, and won't actually go through with the download if the user attempts to follow-through. But I still can't seem to tell what the file is before agreeing to download blindly from the security bar. – Jonathan Sampson Aug 26 '10 at 15:54
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@Jonathan Sampson: maybe you should add that to your question. If it's trying to save a .php.. could you check your file extensions (in folder options) if .php is listed? That might have something to do with it. – Default Aug 26 '10 at 16:42
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Just click the yellow bar and allow the download.

That bar pops up when a page tries to download a file not triggered by a user action. It's not necessarily an "evil" file, and you don't have to execute the file once you download it. In fact, unless you've changed the defaults, when you allow the download, the page will refresh and you will get the "Download file" dialog box with all the normal information about the file before you actually save it anywhere.

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