About Microsoft Smartscreen

I encountered a warning...

After downloading HiFile for Windows, you may or may not encounter a Microsoft Defender Smartscreen (or Smartscreen for short) message warning you that you should not open the downloaded HiFile installer. This warning can take two forms, either a pop-up message in MS Edge browser or a blue window after downloading and opening the file.

It looks scary, right? What does it mean and is it safe to run the installer? Short answer is: Yes, despite this scary warning, HiFile is safe and you do not need to worry installing it. But read further to learn more details to be absolutely sure about this claim.

What is Microsoft Defender Smartscreen?

Microsoft Defender Smartscreen is a tool from Microsoft intergrated into Windows operating system which is designed to prevent unknown or suspicious applications from running on your computer. It is a very important service protecting you and your data because internet nowadays is a rather dangerous place. However useful it is, Smartscreen has also some unwanted effects, such as preventing you from running a completely safe application just because it is not yet widely used worldwide or was created by a small individual developer. As a negative side effect of the increased security, there are simply some false positives. Note that in this case, Smartscreen does not tell you which application is actually malicious and which is safe. It only tells you "We in Microsoft do not know this source well enough, so you should be very, very careful. You probably should not run it."

So, is HiFile safe?

Yes, it is. SmartScreen is not an actual antivirus or antimalware software. It does not really scan the file to check whether it is safe or harmful. If you want to check for yourself that HiFile is really safe, check it with your antivirus such as Windows Defender or any other which you have installed on your computer. Moreover, you can scan it with any online antivirus scanning website such as VirusTotal or similar which use antivirus and antimalvare software by all major and also not so major vendors. Upload the HiFile installer there and see for yourself that no security software vendor marks it as unsafe. Note that the results may appear immediately without scanning, that is because the site remembers the exact content of the file and it has been scanned by others already (and was definitely scanned by the developer himself because he also wants to be 100% sure that he is distributing a completely safe software). Of course, you can re-run the scanning on the website again if you wish to.

But why is HiFile marked as potentially harmful?

HiFile is just a small, not very widespread application, currently used by only a few thousand users. This fact unfortunately makes it untrustworthy from the point of view of the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. You can see that the HiFile application is digitally signed by the developer with a digital certificate with name Vladimír Kraus (sorry for the Czech diacritics in that one letter of my name, as it may be displayed incorrectly on your system). However, this digital signature is not sufficient to make the Smartscreen warning disappear. The application needs to be downloaded and installed frequently to gain reputation, and only then will the Smartscreen warning go away. Or, if the developer is a real company and not a mere individual, they can purchase a much more expensive EV (extended validation) certification. This would also make the Smartscreen warning go away, but this was not an option (the HiFile developer is just an individual, not a company). When HiFile becomes more widely used in the future than it is now, the smartscreen warning will eventually go away. Hopefully soon. Meanwhile, unfortunately, it may turn away many potential users. Sigh... life is not easy for small independent developers. :(

OK, I want to install HiFile...

Overriding the Smartscreen warning and recommendation is very simple. Smartscreen does not really want to stop you from doing it, it just wants to make sure that you know what you are doing. So in Microsoft Edge, just click on "Keep" in the context menu of the warning, then in the next pop-up dialog click drop-down "Show more" and than "Keep anyway". In the blue window, click on "More info" and then "Run anyway". The installer will then start. If it does not start immediately, it is probably because your antivirus program wants to look at the file and check it to make sure it is safe. In this case, let the antivirus do its job and give it some time. Note that some antivirus programs, such as Avast, will first display a pop-up warning that the file is suspicious (this should be read as "unknown") and then start the actual scanning, which can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Do not panic, this is normal. At the end they will display a message that the file has been scanned and is safe.