This post may look familiar because it was active for a while, then somehow got deleted (along with its responses) before I got my complete answer. Afzal Taher was trying to help me. I hope he’s still out there, but I will gladly take help from anyone. I am using Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit with Internet Explorer 8 (32-bit) on two new machines. They both exhibit this same problem, but I don’t see it on my XP machine. This problem occurs with only one website that I have visited and it is repeatable on both Win7 machines. It is unlikely to be my setup because one of those machines is a new installation with only Windows and antivirus software. I need this problem solved on my Win7 machines because my XP machine is on its last legs. I am taking an online course, and the site seems OK except when I try to download documents. So far, I have only tried to download Word documents. When I try to download a document, I get a Windows Security dialog that says: Connecting to cohosting.blackboard.com Enter your credentials Shows my computer name (MachineB) Asks for a UserName Asks for a Password Then it allows me to select another account (which I have no reason to try). I know very little about Credentials. As best I can interpret what I have read and been told, a credential is like an authentication cookie, but designed for private networks and VPNs. If not, please enlighten me. Not knowing what else to do, I tried entering the username and password for my course – the ones I had used to logon to the website. That didn't work. I got another dialog box very similar to the first, but wherein the box for username had disappeared and the username I entered was tacked on to my computer name. Apparently, it just rejected my password. I don’t use a password to logon to my machine, so I can’t enter my machine logon info. When I go through this exercise, it creates a bogus credential, which I can easily delete with the credentials manager. This shouldn’t be happening. It looks like I am getting roped into some handshake the website designers put in that applies only to them (possibly over a VPN); but only Windows 7 burps at it. WinXP doesn’t see it for some reason. Neither I nor my instructor has helpdesk access to either the school (budget cuts) or the webmasters (They refer people to the “institution helpdesk”, which doesn’t exist.) My instructor says that none of my classmates are having this specific problem. Since Win7 is new, I may be the only one with this O/S configuration. My connection is over the internet at my home computer. I am not logged on to a college computer. My remaining questions boil down to this: · Why am I being asked for credentials when I try to download a Word document from the college website? When should a website ask for credentials? o So far, I have only seen this problem in downloading Word (.doc) documents. I can log on to the site, take tests, and do anything else I need to. · Why don’t I have this problem with WinXP? · Since I don’t have an appropriate response when I get the credentials prompt and since my WinXP machine is dying, is there some way I can avoid getting the prompts on my Win7 machines?

First of all, please let us know if the website is a SharePoint website that is hosted by your college or it is an Internet website and can be accessed by anyone. If it is an Internet website please let us know the address. The issue should be caused by the design of the websites. May be you are trying to open the document directly from the webpage? If so you may try to just download the document and then open it. If the website is controlled by your college, you may contact the developers to correct this issue. Arthur Xie TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

I am uneducated in SharePoint. I have looked at some definitions on the internet, but they dwell on details without giving the big picture. I don’t know how to tell if my problem website is a SharePoint website or not. Maybe you can tell based on the description below: From my home computer, I begin by going to this site: http://cehosting.blackboard.com/webct/RelativeResourceManager/102055011/institutions.html. Then I select my college (Napa Valley College) from many possible choices and it takes me to http://cehosting.blackboard.com/webct/entryPage.dowebct. From there, I click the Log In button and put in my password. Then there is a page for me that lists all the courses I am taking. I click on one of those and there is no problem until I try to download a Word document. Does that describe a SharePoint system? Maybe this added description will help: When I first try to open the Word document, I get a yellow bar at the top of the browser saying that “Internet Explorer has blocked it… Click for options”. I click and select “Download File”. This is the first indication of a problem. Instead of downloading the file, it vectors me back to my opening page from which I need to select the course all over again. This happens with no error message or explanation. So I open up the course again, find the document link again, and click on it again. Now something different happens. On this second attempt, I don’t get the yellow bar at the top and I do get a file download box where I can select “Save” or “Open”. If I select “Save”, I get the save dialog box and that works as you suggested. If I select “Open”, however, I get the Windows Security box asking for my credentials. If I cancel this box, it pops up again. If I cancel it a second time, my document opens. I have a work-around, but I am trying to understand what is going on because next time this happens, I may not have a work-around. As I said in my initial post, there is absolutely no possibility of talking to the website developers. Even my instructor can’t talk to them. They blame it on budget cuts. I agree with you that this looks like a website design problem, but it also seems intertwined with the new features in Win7, 64-bit. If you can (with this additional information), please address the questions in my original post. In addition to that, please tell me if I am correct that a credential is similar to an authentication cookie, but applies to private networks or VPNs. Why are they handled differently?

This is definitely an issue with how Blackboard developed the product, at my University I have been dealing with it for more than four years... :( You may want to enable automatic prompting for file downloads in your IE security settings, this may help reduce the need for a workaround. I have also noticed that Firefox works as expected and you can usually download files without any additional hoops... -- Mike Burr

Hi, It seems that it is not a SharePoint website. However I can be assure that the issue is caused by the design of the website. We have encounter similar issues on certain external or internal website. Usually if you do not open the file, directly right-click it and choose download, the credential prompt window will not pops up. Otherwise you can downgrade the security levels to the lowest in the Security and Privacy tabs in Tools->Internet Options. However we do not recommend you to do that since it will reduce the virus protection. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Yes, it works! Firefox to the Rescue!!! Thanks!

Mike Burr's suggestion of using Firefox works best for me, but thank you for your inputs.