[Karellen]

How to override Windows Defender Smartscreen

It is possible that many of you may not be aware how to override the Windows Defender Smartscreen. At first glance it certainly does not look like there is an option to override it.

For this example I have downloaded one of the Kodi v18 nightlies, just released a few hours ago, so I was sure to receive the dreaded Smartscreen. THIS IS NORMAL. The file is too new for Defender to update its signature.

When confronted with the following dialogue box, click on the words More Info


The text will then expand to show the following. Simply click Run anyway


Kodi will then commence the Install process

If this does not work, it means that you have your Windows Defender Settings set to Block instead of Warn

To change this in Windows 10, go to settings -> security -> defender -> open defender security settings and change the first setting to Warn as shown in the next image



I hope this helps.

[nickr]

At first I thought it said "Run Away" -

(There is a Python quote for every situation in life, even in court)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FPELc1wEvk

[Martijn]

Please try to download and install again from our download page! I have re-uploaded a fresh compiled version which doesn't seem to trigger Defender complaining. New version also uploaded to Windows Store which might take some time before it's available.

[Tantrum]

Well, now it can be downloaded. With a Smartscreen warning which can be by-passed.
Thanx. You made a lot of people happy.

T.

[FXB78]

Good to see you took the trojan out of there this time Martijn  

[VladSnow]

Inform your virus scanner vendor so they can fix it.

When my "virus scanner vendor" is Microsoft, and their anti-virus, Windows Defender, is installed by default on Windows and, because of that, is the most popular and most used anti-virus, that doesn't make any sense.

Why should all the millions of Windows users that also use Kodi have to contact Microsoft, when somebody from the Kodi team could do that, one time, then everyone affected would benefit?

Is this some kind of anti-Microsoft hate that goes as far as wanting to punish people that use Microsoft software and have them jump through hoops?

No one is being ridiculed. I am just not sure how Team Kodi is expected to fix a Microsoft issue. We may be about to achieve world domination, but we still don't own or control Microsoft.

And I'm not sure how anyone from Team Kodi expects Microsoft to fix the issue if they are not aware of it because the Team Kodi didn't notify them. If this was some obscure anti-virus vendor, that is only used by less than 1% of Windows users I might have agreed.

But when the default and most popular Windows anti-virus is affected, I think you should take a few minutes to notify them, instead of wasting time antagonizing users that complain about the issue.

Please try to download and install again from our download page! I have re-uploaded a fresh compiled version which doesn't seem to trigger Defender complaining. New version also uploaded to Windows Store which might take some time before it's available.

Thanks, that seems to have fixed the problem. Windows Defender doesn't report a Trojan anymore.

On the other hand, I just scanned the old installer that was recognized as a Trojan on Friday, and that one seems to be fixed as well. Maybe after my report to Microsoft they updated their definitions.

[Martijn]

Well I certainly can't be arsed to notify MS if they screw their definitions. I have better things to do. Also who and where should we even report their mistakes?

[DarrenHill]

And who would they listen to more, a representative from Team Kodi or millions of their users and paying customers?

[VladSnow]

Well I certainly can't be arsed to notify MS if they screw their definitions. I have better things to do. Also who and where should we even report their mistakes?

Maybe I'm reading too much into these replies, but that also sounds like Microsoft hate.

All anti-virus products give false positives from time to time, because they are based on signatures and heuristics, and more recently machine learning, not just on simple hashes.

As such, there is a non-zero probability that a signature will match some unrelated code, even if nobody "screws their definitions" and makes no "mistakes".

That's why anti-virus vendors usually test their signatures on existing popular software, to make sure the signatures don't give false positives that will affect a lot of users.

But they can't travel in time, so they can't do the same thing for future software, released after their definitions were tested. That's why they need to be notified as soon as posibile when a false positive occurs in a new version of your software.

This is where you can report false positives to Microsoft as a developer:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/fil...eDeveloper
It's a simple form with less than 10 fields, out of which you need to fill in less than 5, one of which is the file.

Regular users can only upload sample files up to 50MB in size, so users can't report it, since your installer is 78 MB.

Even so, I tried to send them a link to your installer instead on Friday, but they asked me today to contact Microsoft Support to give them the actual file. By since you already released a new build that doesn't have the issue and the old file already doesn't trigger the false positive anymore, I won't contact them further about the issue.

But developers can upload files up to 200MB, so you should have had no issue whatsoever to report it.

[narvatu]

Well, THIS forum is for users of a soft reporting mistakes to programmers.
If I were programmer and my program is blocked in the biggest OS, i move my ass (I think)

In the other hand, Martijn, you solve the problem, and without bad words. It´s refreshing :-)
 do not take it badly, but I have a doubt.
If the problem were real, If your servers were hacked and infected with a trojan...would you tell us?
 I think so, but I read news: Uber, yahoo,...
I think that Kodi is a desirable company to introduce a Trojan and have maximum diffusion

[Karellen]

how anyone from Team Kodi expects Microsoft to fix the issue if they are not aware of it

Your argument makes a lot of assumptions which you are trying to pass off as absolute fact.

How do you know Microsoft is not aware of it. Can you possibly conceive of the scenario where Microsoft is aware of this forum and we work quite well with our MS representative?

[VladSnow]

how anyone from Team Kodi expects Microsoft to fix the issue if they are not aware of it

Your argument makes a lot of assumptions which you are trying to pass off as absolute fact.

How do you know Microsoft is not aware of it. Can you possibly conceive of the scenario where Microsoft is aware of this forum and we work quite well with our MS representative? 

Of course I can, but when users asked if the issue has been reported to Microsoft the answer was either silence, or "please report it to your anti-virus vendor", which made your scenario highly unlikely.

[Karellen]

Sorry, I am not engaging in anymore petty and ridiculous guesswork.

Thread closed.

---Edit---
VladSnow - If you continue to abuse the Report function of the forum, you will be banned. Just give it a break and move on with your life.