Windows 10 SmartScreen with Code Signing .exe file

Question

I've created a setup.exe file and loaded it onto my web site for downloading. The .exe file has been code signed with a certificate from godaddy. When downloading the .exe file from my website using win7 it detects the certificate and displays it to be a safe download. On win10 the .exe file downloads fine but when opening the .exe the smartscreen blocks it from opening. I have many users using win10 and don't want to explain to them to turn off smartscreen. What are my options to get this .exe past win10 smarscreen?

Answer 1

The Windows SmartScreen alert will go away after enough people download and run it. If your software is not that popular then the warning will never go away and there is not much you can do about it. You can try to get yourself whitelisted but I would not hold my breath while waiting for that. Microsoft does not document what enough downloads is.

SmartScreen checks files that you download from the web against a list of reported malicious software sites and programs known to be unsafe. If it finds a match, SmartScreen will warn you that the download has been blocked for your safety. SmartScreen also checks the files that you download against a list of files that are well known and downloaded by many people who use Internet Explorer. If the file that you're downloading isn't on that list, SmartScreen will warn you.

Signing will help you bypass smartscreen on updates you release in the future but it will not let you bypass the initial warning:

Downloads are assigned a reputation rating based on many criteria, such as download traffic, download history, past antivirus results and URL reputation. Reputation is generated and assigned to digital certificates as well as specific files.

According to this answer, passing and uploading the results from the Windows App Certification Kit tests will build reputation faster (requires a SysDev account).

See also:

• SmartScreen® Application Reputation in IE9
• SmartScreen® Application Reputation – Building Reputation
• Introducing SmartScreen® Application Reputation