Like that was not enough, they recently introduced a new type of EV certificates that even cost tens of thousands of dollars yearly. Those certificates cost thousands of dollars yearly. Microsoft and the so-called “antivirus” vendors are working in partnership with companies that issue code signing certificates. Why Windows Smartscreen Displays Red Warning Messages? We will clarify that in detail as there is a very good reason for Microsoft to do that. So it turns out that such a message is there just to scare users. So if we release a new version, Microsoft will display that warning until ALL our users download that version as most likely even fewer than 4% of them are using IE or EDGE.

(Source of this quote: )Īs you can understand this makes absolutely NO SENSE as people who use EDGE and Internet Explorer are just 4% so it can not be “downloaded by many people who use Internet Explorer” – see the usage shares of all browsers as of as listed on Wikipedia: If the file that you’re downloading isn’t on that list, SmartScreen will warn you.

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 it finds a match, SmartScreen will warn you that the download has been blocked for your safety. SmartScreen checks files that you download from the web against a list of reported malicious software sites and programs known to be unsafe. That is confirmed by a quote from Microsoft’s web site:

This message is based on absolutely no meaningful data. How Does Windows Smartscreen Detect Malicious Files? If you are using Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge you have already seen this “Windows Defender Smartscreen” nonsense warning message many times. Windows Smartscreen Incorrect Detection Algorithm

Microsoft smartscreen defender