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abareplace's avatar
abareplace
Copper Contributor
Feb 26, 2026

SmartScreen false positives

Hello,

I'm a developer of https://www.abareplace.com/   Unfortunately, Microsoft SmartScreen blocks https://www.abareplace.com/download/ of my application and multiple attempts to contact Microsoft about this case were in vain. The app is clean on VirusTоtаl, has a valid digital signature, and is published to MS Store. However, users see the SmartScreen warning when trying to run the installer downloaded from my website:

Windows protected your PC

Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.

Other developers report exactly the same problem and it https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1pz8qww/windows_code_signing_is_broken_for_indie/ It has no sense from the security point of view to block something that is already published on Microsoft Store.

 

I submitted a ticket to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/filesubmission?persona=SoftwareDeveloper one month ago. The ticket was "In progress" for many weeks, then was silently closed. I opened a new ticket one week ago and it's still "in progress". I also submitted the file via Report this file as safe > I am the owner or representative of this website and I want to report an incorrect warning about it button in Microsoft Edge several times, but received no confirmation email that you should receive after submitting the form.

I know that the times when Steve Ballmer shouted: "Developers! Developers! Developers!" are long gone, but can Microsoft make live at least a bit easier to independent software vendors? Thank you.

3 Replies

  • John Gruber's avatar
    John Gruber
    Iron Contributor

    The only warning I'm getting is "This file isn't commonly downloaded" You just need more people to try your app to get rid of that message. You can probably hire 100+ microworkers to download the app and try it out. Tell them the instructions to report as safe.

    • abareplace's avatar
      abareplace
      Copper Contributor

      Thank you. The warning is "This file isn't commonly downloaded" in Microsoft Edge and "Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting" is all other browsers (90% of users).