How long to get rid of smartscreen warning after signing code?

Question

I'm planning on signing one of my software with a code signing certificate, because when a user downloads it a tries to run it, Windows 10 will show a full screen warning that it might be dangerous.

The certificate is quite expensive, and the EV certificates promise that they get rid of the warning immediately, but not in a straightforward way, I cannot really trust them.

So my question is how long does it take for windows to stop showing the warning after I buy a standard cert and sign my code, and what do I exactly need to do to make the process faster?

Thanks.

Answer 1

It's difficult to give accurate numbers here, since there is a whole bunch of information that SmartScreen might use to decide upon trustworthiness. So, keep in mind that your mileage may vary greatly.

Nevertheless, I'll try to summarize some inofficial numbers given by various people here:

• 42 days and about 1.400 app installs. Source: my own certificate (Feb 2021)
• 16 days and about 2.000 app installs. Source: my own certificate (May 2020)
• One month and more than 10.000 downloads. Source: here (Jan 2020)
• Between a few weeks and a month. Source: here (Dec 2019)
• About 2-3 weeks. Source: here (Dec 2019)
• About 3.000 downloads. Source: here (Dec 2013)

Also see my other answer here to get the whole picture about these Microsoft SmartScreen warnings and what you can do and should know about it.