SmartScreen is a built-in reputation-based security feature that helps protect your computer from phishing and malware threats. It checks the apps and files you run and websites for safety and warns you against unrecognized, lesser-known, or malicious files and content. While this built-in protection is useful, if it is causing problems by blocking known good applications, files, or websites, you can disable SmartScreen. In this tutorial, we’ll show you three methods to disable SmartScreen on Windows 11. Let’s get started.
Disable SmartScreen Using Windows Defender
Open the Start, search Windows Security, and click on the top result to open Windows Defender.
Click on App & Browser Control.
Click the Reputation-based Protection Settings option.
On this page, turn off the following toggles.
- Check apps and files
- SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge
- Phishing protection
- Potentially unwanted app blocking
- SmartScreen for Microsoft Store apps
The above action disabled the SmartScreen filter on Windows 11.
Disable SmartScreen Using Group Policy
When managing multiple users, Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise users can use the Group Policy to disable SmartScreen. Here’s how.
Press Windows key + R.
Enter gpedit.msc and click OK.
Go to the Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer folder.
On the right panel, double-click on the Configure Windows Defender SmartScreen policy.
Select the Disabled option and click OK.
Restart your computer and the SmartScreen feature is disabled.
Disable SmartScreen Using Registry Editor
Alternatively, you can also deactivate SmartScreen via the Registry Editor. This method is helpful for those using Windows 11 Home. Before proceeding, back up the Registry.
Open Start, search for Registry Editor and click on the top result to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to the Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System folder in the Registry Editor.
Right-click on the System folder and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value option.
Enter EnableSmartScreen as the value name.
Right-click on the EnableSmartScreen value and select Modify.
Replace the value in Value Data with 0 and click OK.
Close the Registry Editor window and restart your computer. Once the system has been rebooted, the SmartScreen filter is deactivated on Windows 11.
And there you have it. It’s that simple to disable SmartScreen on Windows 11. If you are using Windows 10, I’ve already written a detailed guide on how to do the same in that version, check out the link.