

Note that it's still strongly recommended to buy a standard code signing certificate with a long validity term in order to avoid the hassle with transferring your existing certificate reputation for as long as possible.Īs a final note, always make sure that you're timestamping your signed apps. You'd ideally even start this dual-signing phase well before your old certificate expires, so that your new certificate will become trusted before your old certificate expires. The original signature will continue to bypass SmartScreen and the new signature will help the new certificate to build up trust. What you can do in this case, however, is to re-sign a previously released product already signed with an already trusted certificate with your new/renewed certificate (resulting in two signatures). Note that there is another catch with standard code signing certificates: When your old certificate has expired, the certificate reputation will not automatically carry over to the new certificate. One month and more than 10.000 downloads.However, keep in mind that this will also depend on how many downloads and / or installs your app has. According to inofficial numbers reported by various sources (see below), it usually takes between 2 and 8 weeks until the warning will permanently go away. And since there is a whole bunch of information that Microsoft SmartScreen might use to decide upon trustworthiness, your mileage may vary greatly. So, how long will it take until the Microsoft SmartScreen warning will disappear when using a standard code signing certificate? Unfortunately, this is difficult to answer, since Microsoft itself refuses to publish any details about this.

However, once your certificate has built enough reputation, all applications signed with that certificate will be permanently trusted by Microsoft SmartScreen and won't trigger the warning anymore. Instead, some time will be needed for your certificate to build reputation before the warning will go away. The problem with standard code signing certificates is that they do not instantly silence Microsoft SmartScreen. Some CA's also offer discounts for open source projects.

Standard code signing certificates will cost you between 100 and 500 USD per year, and can also be issued to private developers without an active business license. non-EV) code signing certificates can also be used to permanently, but not instantly, get rid of the Microsoft SmartScreen warnings. Option 3: Buy a standard code signing certificate You can read more about the formal requirements for EV code signing certificates in the EV Code Signing Certificate Guidelines.Īn EV certificate will typically be shipped to you by physical delivery on a hardware token. If you're a single developer, you must be a sole proprietor and have an active business license. Such an EV certificate will cost you somewhere between 250 and 700 USD per year, and will only be issued to registered businesses. Option 2: Buy an "Extended Validation" code signing certificateĪ guaranteed way to immediately and permanently get rid of the Microsoft SmartScreen warnings is to buy an "Extended Validation" (EV) code signing certificate from one of the Microsoft-approved certificate authorities (CA's), and to sign your app with that EV certificate. To overcome this problem, you'll either have to use an "Extended Validation" or a standard code signing certificate (see below). However, note that if you release an updated version of your app, then you'll also have to request a new review again. You need to have a Microsoft account to submit your app for review. If the review was successful, the Microsoft SmartScreen warnings will go away faster, or sometimes even instantly (it worked instantly for one of my own apps). According to Microsoft, this will help developers to "validate detection of their products".
#Runemate virus software#
Microsoft allows software developers to submit a file for malware analysis. Option 1: Submit your app for malware analysis to Microsoft Read on for the details about these different options.
