What do you do when your program is incorrectly matched to a malicious signature in Microsoft SmartScreen? What recourse do developers have to get their programs allow-listed? What should you do as a user when something is blocked by SmartScreen?Ĭompletely unrelated (not) to the newly released update to my free EdgeDeflector utility, I needed to find out how to report a false-positive in Microsoft SmartScreen.

It’s used to block phishing and fraudulent websites from loading, and to block malicious apps from running.

If you post external or third-party hosted content, make sure that the content is secure and from a known and trusted source.SmartScreen is a Windows Defender component found in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer as well as in all universal apps from the Windows Store. If you don't know what this means, you probably aren't doing it. (This means a URL should look like '' and not '207.46.19.30.')ĭon't encode or tunnel your URLs unnecessarily. Use the fully-qualified domain name rather than an IP-literal address. Protect your site by using anti-cross-site scripting functions such as those provided by the Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting library. Make sure that your webpage doesn't expose any cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. If you ask users for personal information, use HTTPS with a valid, unexpired server certificate issued by a trusted certification authority. Think of these as best practices or optimal website design ethics. There are several things you can do that can help minimize the chance of your site being flagged as suspicious. If I am a website owner, what can I do to help minimize the chance of my website being flagged by Windows Defender SmartScreen?

Smartscreen edge