There is a lot of great software on the internet, but among the tens of thousands of good programs are a few bad ones. Windows SmartScreen blocks app bad downloads, but what if it’s wrong?
A search using Google or Bing for software results in many pages of results and there is no end to the number of programs that can be found on the internet. There are some great free and open source programs and some top quality paid applications too.
The chances of coming across a bad app are small, but just in case, Windows has a technology called SmartScreen that is designed to protect you from bad software.
What is SmartScreen?
If you download a program from the internet and then try to run it, Windows SmartScreen looks it up in an online database of known good and bad programs. If it is a known good one, the app runs as normal and you will not notice anything on the screen. If it is a known bad app, it is blocked.
SmartScreen is a bit overprotective and in addition to stopping bad software from running on the PC, it can also stop good software too, simply because it does not recognise it.
Unknown software may be safe or unsafe, so to err on the side of caution, Windows SmartScreen blocks it. However, if you are sure that a program is safe, you can ignore the warning, get around the block, and run it anyway.
Blocked by SmartScreen
Here is an example of running a program that SmartScreen does not recognise. It is MusicBee, an alternative to Windows Media Player for playing music on your PC and it is actually pretty good, but SmartScreen does not know it.
When this program is run on a Windows computer, it triggers a SmartScreen warning and you will see a message on the screen that looks like this.
Windows has prevented this program from running because it is unrecognised and is therefore could be a virus, adware, spyware or other type of malware. Sometimes SmartScreen is right and it really is malware, and so if you see a message like this, it is a good idea to click the Don’t Run button and scan the file with antivirus software or at least investigate.
Clicking the Don’t Run button removes the message, but does not run the program.
Unblock programs blocked by SmartScreen
If you are absolutely sure that the program is OK and it has been scanned for viruses, click the More info link.
This displays some information about the program, but it may be little more than the filename and ‘Unknown Publisher’. In the bottom right corner are two buttons. You have a choice and you can either run the program anyway, despite the SmartScreen warning, or don’t run it.
In this case the program is OK, and clicking Run anyway runs the program as normal, and the installer for MusicBee starts.
You have to be very careful about ignoring SmartScreen warnings and you do so at your own risk. When you are 100% sure a program is OK though, go ahead and run it.
Always make sure that you have security software running (RAWinfopages has dozens of security articles). Thousands of programs work perfectly, but just one bad one can cause a lot of damage, so be safe.
Configure Windows SmartScreen
In old versions of Windows, SmartScreen was in the Control Panel, but in Windows 10 is it part of Windows Security, which used to be called Windows Defender. It’s hard to keep track with all this moving and renaming. The easiest way to find it is to open Settings and search for it.
Click App & browser control and it opens the right section in Windows Security.
Here you can turn SmartScreen off, set it to warn you if there is a problem or completely block a program. If you really want to lock down a computer, choose the Block option. It will help to keep you safe, but it will also prevent you from running good software because it is simply unknown.
MusicBee in the Store
MusicBee is unrecognised and is therefore blocked by SmartScreen, but it really is a good app. There is even a version in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10. Check it out, it has a great rating.
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