
Once the evaluation is complete, or if you manually switch Smart App Control on or off, you won't be able to return to evaluation mode unless you reinstall or reset Windows.Cord Cutting Guide Best Smart TVs for Streaming: Which Apps, Features & Brands To Know Smart App Control won't block anything while it's in evaluation mode. If you are a good candidate for Smart App Control, then it will automatically be turned on. This is a period during which Windows tries to determine if you're a good candidate for Smart App Control. Select the Smart App Control system settings from the results.

Type Smart App Control in the search box. The fastest way to access these settings is: You can find the settings for Smart App Control in the App & browser control panel of the Windows Security app. Where are the Smart App Control settings? If the app is unsigned, or the signature is invalid, Smart App Control will consider it untrusted and block it for your protection. If the app has a valid signature, Smart App Control will let it run. If the security service is unable to make a confident prediction about the app, then Smart App Control checks to see if the app has a valid signature. If the app is believed to be malicious or potentially unwanted, then Smart App Control will block it. If the service believes the app to be safe, Smart App Control will let it run. When you try to run an app on Windows, Smart App Control will check to see if our intelligent cloud-powered security service can make a confident prediction about its safety. If the security service can't make a confident prediction about the app, and the app doesn't have a valid signature, it's considered untrusted.

However, in some cases, the service is unable to make a confident prediction either way. Our intelligent cloud-powered security service sees a huge number of apps every day and uses that knowledge to predict if an app is safe or not safe - even apps we've never seen before. Signing is one part of what can make an app trusted or untrusted. You can think of it a bit like a painter signing a piece of art, except harder to fake. When a developer creates an app, they are encouraged to "sign" the app using a digital certificate that verifies their identity, that the app is really published by them, and that the app hasn't been tampered with by somebody else after the developer published it.
