- Microsoft has changed a security feature in Windows 11 preview builds
- Smart App Control can now be turned on or off as desired (in test)
- Currently, disabling this feature – to install an app it blocks if you know the software is safe – means it can’t be turned back on
Microsoft has finally changed a useful security feature in Windows 11 so that it can be turned on and off if needed, at least in testing – while currently it can never be re-enabled if you turn off Smart App Control.
Windows Latest noticed the change that happened last month in Windows 11 preview builds for the Dev and Beta channels, but flew under the radar at the time.
Smart App Control (SAC) is a feature that interrogates any app you install on your Windows 11 PC and checks it against Microsoft’s threat intelligence (in the cloud) to see if there’s anything risky about it.
If SAC finds a possible problem that means an app might have malware or be a ‘potentially unwanted program’ (PUP), it blocks installation and keeps you safe from theoretical harm.
It’s a neat feature, but the problem with it is that SAC can sometimes be overly cautious and block legitimate software. And if you know the app you’re trying to install is fine, so you want to turn SAC off to allow the software to install, you can’t turn SAC back on.
As Microsoft explains in an FAQ about the feature: “To ensure a more secure experience, we only enable Smart App Control on clean installations of Microsoft Windows 11. We want to make sure that no untrusted apps are already running on the device when we turn on Smart App Control.”
This literally means that SAC can only be turned on with a clean install of Windows 11, and if you turn it off, there’s no going back—just in case untrusted apps have crept in in the meantime. Frankly, this doesn’t make much sense, and it removes the ability to quickly disable and then re-enable SAC as a workaround for installing a legitimate app.
As it says, if it’s ever turned off, the only way you can get SAC back is to reinstall or reset the Windows 11 PC (not reboot – this means a full OS reset), which is a big hassle.
Fortunately, Microsoft has now seen sense and introduced the ability to turn SAC on or off whenever you want, which is present in Windows Security > App and Browser Control > Smart App Control Settings – in preview builds as mentioned.
Analysis: SAC change has been a long time coming
Presumably this change will make the cut from testing, because as mentioned, the way SAC works right now is seriously frustrating. If you encounter problems with legitimate software, discard the feature entirely or turn it off and then run a full PC reset process to turn it back on.
How this design implementation was ever allowed to fly, I’m not sure. SAC is a useful extra line of defense against possible malware or adware, especially for less tech-savvy folks who may be in the greatest need for extra protection. But these are exactly the users who don’t want to completely reset their PC to turn it back on (or even understand that it’s permanently off), so it never made much sense.
Anyway, Microsoft has now made it so you can get any app you know is safe on your PC, even if SAC blocks it, by temporarily turning off the feature. A permission list of some kind would probably be a better approach, allowing you to specify trusted apps, but that’s nitpicking (and this functionality could still be introduced in testing).
It’s also worth noting that in its current implementation, SAC will always be turned off if you upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 (since it’s not a clean install). And with a clean Windows 11 install, it has an ‘evaluation mode’ where SAC determines whether it’s suitable for your PC (depending on the type of software you typically install and whether it gets in the way a lot). Hopefully that evaluation can now also be dispensed with if there is a simple way to turn SAC off and on again at will without having to mess around with completely resetting your operating system.
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