4 ms·
In theory that's what Windows SmartScreen is there to prevent.
by ianlevesque 10y ago
In theory that's what Windows SmartScreen is there to prevent.
- Someone1234 10y agoUnfortunately every single one of those terrible "stop Windows 10 spying on you!!!" guides tells people to turn off SmartScreen along with UAC/Windows Firewall/Windows Defender. Or worse tells them to download an unknown program which turns off a bunch of security features at a single click without an explanation of the cost. But at least the user feels less spied upon or something...
- Karunamon 10y agoSmartScreen is functionally useless, though. All it provides is a UAC warning for unsigned code, the likes of which through a legitimate user has clicked an untold number of times for perfectly legitimate reasons. Here's a video where the malicious file is executed. Nothing immediately seems amiss: https://youtu.be/DD9CvHVU7B4?t=1m43s https://youtu.be/DD9CvHVU7B4?t=1m43s
- Someone1234 10y agoWhat you see in that video isn't SmartScreen, SmartScreen is disabled in that video. Here is what SmartScreen actually looks like and actually does[0] on Windows 10 when attempting to download an unsigned installer. If Microsoft is aware that the file you're attempting to download is malware, they will block the download entirely (in IE/Edge). [0] http://imgur.com/a/l5JzM http://imgur.com/a/l5JzM
- Karunamon 10y agoAh, yup. Good catch!
- kuschku 10y agoThe issue is that due to the high costs of getting a certificate, a lot of legitimate software for Windows is still unsigned. I know several large FLOSS projects, with hundredthousands and millions of users, that ship only unsigned binaries, telling their users to turn off SmartScreen. If Microsoft would have used a GPG-like mechanism, or provided certs for free, it would look very different.