On launch (Windows 10), "This content is blocked."

[infolific]

When I launch the portable edition on Windows 10, Windows Security blocks the program from starting. The message I get is:

This content is blocked
For your protection, your administrator is not allowing you to access content from [path to exe].

When I click OK to the above notification, a pop-up appears with this message:

Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

Note that this is my personal machine and I'm logged in with admin rights.

[dheijl]

You may have to right click in explorer on the .exe file, and tick the "unblock" flag in the advanced properties.

[infolific]

Yes, I'm sure I can unblock it. I guess I should've been more obvious in my post that ART is doing something that Windows considers to be unsafe. Something that, for example, Darktable and Rawtherapee don't do and yet function just fine.

[dheijl]

If you download an unsigned .exe file (the portable version) this is standard Windows defender behaviour. Has nothing to do with ART itself.

If you run the installer instead of using the portable version it shouldn't happen.

[infolific]

Hmmm... I'm not sure I'd call it standard. I have 134 other portable apps and none of them are blocked. Many are from what appear to be individual developers and I'm guessing not every exe is signed.

The only other app that triggers this message is Steam which I'm guessing actually is signed. However, after the message is triggered, the program runs fine so whatever is being blocked must not be critical to execution unlike with ART.

[agriggio]

Hi @infolific, does the installer work?
I am not a windows user, I don't really know how to get around its security checks, but at the same time I am by no means suggesting that you ignore them.
FWIW, the portable version is exactly the same as the installer version, just without the installer. Both are built from this github action. I am attaching the raw build logs here.
Deciding whether you trust them or not is up to you of course. But if you spot something wrong and/or which should be changed to make the warning go away, please let me know.

HTH

logs_45678201760.zip

[dheijl]

I just downloaded the portable 7z, unblocked the 7z file, extracted it using explorer, and ART starts without any problem here (Windows 11).

[infolific]

@agriggio I haven't tried the installer yet. The logs are beyond me as a diagnostic tool, but thanks for making them available. I wish Windows did a better job explaining why it's blocking the exe.

Out of curiosity, I looked for additional portable versions. Under the nightly heading in the releases, I found 2 portable versions. The one labelled as e13622e (3 weeks old) runs without the warning. The other one labelled 6f5ee3c (2 weeks old), triggers the alert as I previously described.

[agriggio]

Thanks for the additional info. The build recipe is unchanged, but the build environment might be different..I use whatever GitHub provides, and they might have upgraded some component in the meantime -- I don't know...

[infolific]

@agriggio Just to answer the question you posed, no the installer doesn't work i.e. the ART.exe gets blocked by Windows Security once unpacked.

Anyway, I know this isn't considered a "real" issue so I'm not expecting a resolution, but I appreciate that you weighed in as much as you did.

If, in the future, a new build happens to work I'll post here just for reference.