Windows SmartScreen / antivirus warnings block installs — the build is unsigned

[umarabdullah23]

Reported by 7frkn in #🗨️│general on 2026-08-10 (14:41 UTC).

Verbatim — this is the entire message:

"virus virus"

Be honest about the evidence: that is two words with no screenshot, no reply, no follow-up and no reference to another message. Nobody answered it. On its own it does not establish what was flagged, or by what. It is filed here because the underlying product problem is independently real and is currently tracked nowhere public.

The real, verifiable problem

The shipped app is not code-signed. Because of that:

• Windows SmartScreen shows the "Windows protected your PC — unknown publisher" screen on first run, and the user has to click More info → Run anyway to get past it.
• Third-party antivirus and Defender heuristics are considerably more likely to flag an unsigned executable that requests administrator rights and then stops processes and services — which is exactly what this app legitimately does.

Both of those look identical to "this is a virus" from a normal user's point of view, and both of them stop an install dead. This is a distribution problem rather than a code bug, but it costs real users.

What is already in place

The download page has an FAQ entry explaining the SmartScreen warning and publishes a SHA-256 for the build so it can be verified. That helps the users who read it.

What is missing

• The app is unsigned, so the warning appears for everyone, every time a new build ships.
• The warning is explained on the website but not anywhere in the Discord flow, where most users actually arrive.
• There is no record of which antivirus products, if any, flag the build — nobody has checked.

Honest status

• "Unsigned build triggers SmartScreen" — confirmed, and already documented on the website.
• "Antivirus products flag the build as malware" — unconfirmed. Plausible for an unsigned admin-level tool, but this report contains no evidence and no one has tested it.
• "7frkn was talking about our app" — unknown. Two words, no context.

Suggested direction

1. Check the current build against the common scanners and record the result, so we know whether this is a real detection problem or only a SmartScreen-reputation problem.
2. Code-sign the build. That removes the SmartScreen warning outright and materially reduces heuristic detections. This is an owner decision (a certificate has an annual cost) and it is the only real fix.
3. Until then, put the "you will see a Windows warning, here is why, here is the checksum" explanation in front of users at the point where they download — not only in a website FAQ.

[umarabdullah23]

Confirmed and correct: the build genuinely is unsigned right now, which is why Windows SmartScreen / antivirus flags it. Code-signing is a real cost (a certificate + ongoing signing infrastructure) that we haven't set up yet, so there's no code fix to point to here — this is a roadmap item, not a bug. Keeping this open as a tracking issue; in the meantime, "More info" → "Run anyway" on the SmartScreen prompt is the standard way past it for a known-unsigned tool.