How to enable Smart App Control in Windows 11

Windows 11 offers us an interesting security feature called Smart Application Control, designed to protect the system by blocking unwanted or potentially dangerous applications. This tool is especially useful for Prevent the installation of malicious software or applications that may affect the performance of the equipment.

So, if you are concerned about the security of your computer and want to activate this feature, you should continue reading this article. In it we explain how it works, the necessary requirements that must be met and the steps to follow to Enable and Disable Smart App Control in Windows 11It's a matter of safety!

What is Smart App Control in Windows 11?

Learning how to use this Windows 11 feature is essential to be able to use our PC safely. Smart Application Control helps us prevent untrusted apps from running. How does it do this? It's all thanks to a cloud-based system, through which Windows analyzes applications before allowing them to run.

To perform this analysis, Microsoft uses a system digital signatures on applications that allows you to classify them as trusted or untrusted. If an application lacks a digital signature or Windows cannot fully determine its safety, it will automatically block it.

Requirements to enable Smart Application Control

To activate the Smart Application Control In Windows 11, it is important to pay attention to the following:

• The team must execute Windows 11 version 22H2 or higher.
• This feature is only available on operating systems recently installed factory or formatted.
• If your device has been upgraded from Windows 10, this option may appear disabled.

How to enable Smart App Control in Windows 11

To enable this security feature on your computer, we must follow these steps:

1. First we click on Home and we open Configuration (you can use the shortcut Windows + I).
2. Then we select "Privacy & Security".
3. Then we click on "Windows Security".
4. In the new window that opens, we access «Application and browser control».
5. We look for the option «Smart Application Control» and we select "Settings".
6. At this point, you need to choose the operating mode you prefer:
   • Assessment mode: Scans apps without blocking them while deciding whether to activate them.
   • Activated: Block untrusted applications.
7. Finally, we save the changes and close the window.

How to disable Smart App Control

If we decide that this feature is no longer necessary or it is blocking apps that are safe, we always have the option to disable it. Here's what to do:

• We open the menu of "Windows Settings" (again using the shortcut Windows + I).
• We are going to "Privacy & Security".
• Then we select "Windows Security".
• We click on «Application and browser control. "
• Finally, in the option of «Smart Application Control Configuration», Select Disabled.

Important Note: Once disabled, we will not be able to enable this feature again without first have reinstalled Windows 11.

Enable Smart Application Control from Registry Editor

If the option does not appear in Windows Settings, we can enable it manually using the Registry Editor. To do this, we do the following:

1. 1. We push Windows + R, we wrote regedit and press Enter.
   2. Then we navigate to the following route: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CI\Policy
   3. Then we look for the value VerifiedAndReputablePolicyState and we double click on it.
   4. We modified the field Valuable Information, assigning the number in 1 to activate it
   5. To finish, we click on Accept and we restart the computer.

Advantages and disadvantages of Smart Application Control

This security system has big benefits for system protection, but also some limitations that you should be aware of:

• Advantages:
  • protects against malicious software and unwanted.
  • Reduces the risk of installing dangerous programs.
  • It helps to optimise the performance of the System.
• Disadvantages:
  • It can generate false positives, blocking secure applications.
  • Once disabled, it can only be reactivated by reinstalling Windows 11.

In summary, the Smart Application Control is an excellent tool to strengthen the security of Windows 11, especially if you frequently install programs from external sources. Although it can be restrictive, it offers an additional layer of protection against malicious software and potential threats.