Forum Discussion
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.
4 Replies
I have the same problem. My download worked fine until a week ago. My installer is signed with the same certificate for the past year. I can't get anyone else to download it. I had a potential customer yesterday who said "The download is broken". It's too complicated for them to click through the download. My existing customers need to get an update, but they are failing. For a company with few customers, < 100, this is devastating.
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.
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).
Formatting with links is broken on this forum.
