"Not commonly downloaded" notification in IE9

Hi

I just tried to install the latest version of SceenHunter Pro from Wisdom Software website. When the download completed, I got a message in the notification bar at the bottom of IE9 that it is not commonly downloaded and could harm my computer. I deleted the download but it's from a reputable company and I didn't get that notification when I downloaded an earlier version a few weeks ago.

Your advice would be much appreciated.

richc46:

Thanks for your reply.

The program is for taking still image screenshots and the company's website is wisdom-soft.com.

Perhaps someone uses the program here.

jamtomorrow said:

I just tried to install the latest version of SceenHunter Pro from Wisdom Software website. When the download completed, I got a message in the notification bar at the bottom of IE9 that it is not commonly downloaded and could harm my computer. I deleted the download but it's from a reputable company and I didn't get that notification when I downloaded an earlier version a few weeks ago.

As rich has stated there is no right or wrong answer, it's just something IE does.... sort of saying we haven't seen too many of these downloaded. If you know what the program is and know the source is clean you can just ignore IE.

I've gotten some of these myself and I usually just scan the item with my AV and ignore IE. It's just one of those things IE does somethimes. When that happens, you have to make the choice to trust or not.

My two cents.

I've seen that message.. I was downloading Firefox and just figured that was MS's joke :)

I wonder how the beta testers treated that warning because to me the warning is a bad move by MS. That warning will likely come up on lots of genuine software and scare people off from using it. The only way round it I have found is to disable smartscreen filter globally on the browser.

The option in advanced options to disable checking signature on downloaded programs has no affect on it.

chrysalis said:

I wonder how the beta testers treated that warning because to me the warning is a bad move by MS. That warning will likely come up on lots of genuine software and scare people off from using it. The only way round it I have found is to disable smartscreen filter globally on the browser.

I think its just a system design for IE to scan and compare downloads to a download database on what's deemed a safe download file. That as the system gets more info those warnings will decrease.

Now we can argue on the merits of monitoring info, but this happens every time you go on the net, so there's no need, and no need to debate that here.

Point is I think IE is analyzing downloads against a download database, that’s why you get those "never seen this file before" warnings.

My two cents, and of course I could be totally off base.

I am not going to argue the merits of monitoring info that doesnt bother me, although I will say how does it marked as safe given that users cannot report it safe. I know why the warnings are appearing, I just think its silly to give the impression to users that any file not in the database is dangerous.

Again this is a guess, but I think once the file is downloaded a few times IE will stop the warnings for that particular file/download.

That's my guess.

I tested numerous times with the same file. The only practical way to stop the warnings is to turn off smartscreen filter. Incidently I think IE8 does show warnings but they less scary and it doesnt change the available options of what to do with the downloaded file so its nowhere near as bad of an issue.