I haven’t found any way to get the parameters for this form if you use another browser than Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer.

You could theoretically construct this URL manually, but it’s much easier from Microsoft Edge. The special reporting link contains the file hash, as well as other information about the file such as the name and where it was downloaded from. You’ll end up on an online form, but you can’t get to this form without using the links provided by Microsoft. Right-click on the downloaded file, and choose Report that this download is safe.Click the View Downloads button on the notification.Wait for a notification telling you that “Windows Defender SmartScreen reported as unsafe.”.Download the program through a publicly accessible link using Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer.In any case, the actual process is as follows: I even asked the Windows digital assistant, Cortana, and it responded by telling me about the local weather. It was surprisingly hard to find any documentation for reporting false-positives in Windows Defender to Microsoft. So, what recourse does a developer have when their software is being blocked by Microsoft? What do you do when a verified-good download from a known and trusted source is incorrectly flagged as malware? Users of Internet Explorer and Edge were being blocked from downloading the update because the installer for the update was falsely identified as malicious by SmartScreen (“Windows Defender”.) Users of other browsers were told the executable couldn’t be run when they tried to execute it. 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. SmartScreen is a Windows Defender component found in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer as well as in all universal apps from the Windows Store.

Edge smartscreen