Something prevented downloading and saving a files as .exe

[windy10]

Windows 10, KIS and MalwareBytes.

My default Browser is Google Chrome and is fully up to-date. As i believed I had a issue.with Chrome, I uninstalled it.

Still having IExplorer and MS Edge, one has Google as a browser and the other the default MS browser.

I browsed and downloaded from Google UK and Com the installer file in order to re-load Google Chrome. In both cases for whatever reason, the file would only be saved as a text file and not a .exe file. If I opened the file in notepad, it would all be gibberish as you would expect opening a application file.

To solve this in re-installing Chrome, I downloaded the same file on my Windows tablet, then saved on a flash drive. Using the flash drive on my laptop, I then re-installed Chrome with no issues of any kind.

So why would this same file not download to be saved as a .exe (application), even when all protections were turned off including Defender still in the background.

 

[windy10]

The file was ChromeSetup.exe, even saving it from the flash drive to my documents has the same effect, saved as a text doc, not as a .exe file.

 

[windy10]

thanks,

For whatever reason, now that Google Chrome is installed as my default browser. I can now download ChromeSetup.exe and save it as an .exe file.

So it looks if MS has a built in defence of stopping other browsers being installed/saved, other than its IE or Edge.