Windows Smart Screen

Windows Smart Screen is a security feature of recent releases of Windows. It attempts to alert you to potentially dangerous downloaded software by... well, mostly by creative guessing.

According to Microsoft's web page that explains Smart Screen, the Smart Screen logic determines if a downloaded application is dangerous by "checking downloaded files against a list of files that are well known and downloaded frequently. If the file isn't on that list, Microsoft Defender Smart Screen shows a warning, advising caution."

If you download software that hasn't been downloaded by a lot of previous users, Smart Screen will display a warning that it's unrecognized. This doesn't mean it's malicious — just being reasonably new will set off Smart Screen's blue warning window.

If you're downloading software from the Alchemy Mindworks web page — and especially if you've arrived to download the latest updates to your installed Alchemy Mindworks products — it's extremely likely that the installers you'll be downloading won't have been downloaded by a sufficient number of previous users to have satisfied Smart Screen's criteria.

Should you encounter the large blue Smart Screen window, click on the More Info item and you'll be able to install your new software.

Smart Screen seems like a good idea, but you might come to the conclusion — as we did — that it's of little real-world value. Visit our blog posting about Smart Screen for assistance with disabling this aspect of it.