Not sure if everybody knows this but most of the modern browsers start downloading a file as soon as you hit the download link even if you have set to ask for permission for the download.
I confirmed this in two ways :
- Once I was downloading a software executable from a website and Microsoft Security Essential gave me a warning of potential malware. I was surprised as I did not click on Yes for download.
- To test it further, I started a download of a large file and I was prompted to confirm. I did not and waited for about 10 minutes and then hit yes, the file was downloaded instantly. It was an 8 MB file and with speed that I have at office it cannot get downloaded in a second for sure.
Probably this is done to speed up the browsing experience but on the other should this be avoided ? Is there a security concern here ? Does it wastes bandwidth ?
I think it’s a good feature as it won’t waste time even if you forgot to choose a download location.
It’s a good feature, however, I am concerned a bit that security compromises will arise. Definitely good to know, though.
Its nothing new for us to know in it. I always new that browsers like Chrome and Firefox are doing this in the background. This speeds up my download activity. Obviously what you should not do is download those files which you are not aware of which is a virus. My suggestion is stop visiting spam sites and other pirated websites then you wont find this feature useless. lol