Microsoft Defender SmartScreen helps to protect you in these key ways: In Internet Explorer 8 and later, SmartScreen also helps protect you from downloading malicious software. It is designed to help protect you from websites Microsoft believes are fraudulent that try to steal your personal information. They want to be able to copy the zip file, unzip the contents and run the app.Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is a feature of Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. And, as I said, this is a very SIMPLE application/utility. (To be clear, I'm not using an 'installer'. If I could at least reproduce what he is seeing, I would at least know if/when the code-signing works. Still, the application always starts with NO errors or warnings. What I am wondering is, why don't I get this same warning when I run the application on my PC? (We are both running Windows 10.) I have cranked my UAC all the way up to 'Always Notify' and I have tried setting 'Check apps and files' and 'SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge' to 'Warn' and even 'Block'. I am going to check that tomorrow and hopefully it just needs to be 'Unblocked'.)

( IMPORTANT NOTE: I haven't asked him to look at the properties of the file to see if Security indicates 'This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer.'. I know about the code-signing certs, so there is no need to go there. The app runs fine when the user clicks on 'Run anyway', but understandably he would like to get rid of this warning (and at the very least show the actual Publisher). Running this app might put your PC at risk.Īlong with the 'Run anyway' and 'Don't run' buttons. When this client runs the application, he gets the 'Windows protected your PC' window/warning with 'Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. I zipped up the application and sent it to my client. I have developed a very simple electron app, which I then packaged using 'electron-packager'.

Windows defender smartscreen