Windows SmartScreen and Overlayed

July 24 2024

🤔 TL;DR

Is it safe? Yes, Overlayed is safe to download and use. Overlayed has to build trust with Microsoft so this banner will not go away until that point is reached.

SmartScreen is the blue popup that you may see when trying to install Overlayed on Windows.

✅ Overlayed v0.5.0 .msi on VirusTotal ✅ Overlayed v0.5.0 .exe on VirusTotal

First smart screen prompt Second smart screen prompt

🤓 Technical mumbo jumbo

Windows Defender SmartScreen protects against phishing or malware websites and applications, and the downloading of potentially malicious files.

Overlayed signs its windows executables (.msi and .exe) with a code signing certificate from ssl.com in order to build trust with Microsoft. However, since Overlayed uses an OV Code Signing certificate it again means trust has to be built over time.

You can read this stackoverflow post to get a better understanding of how it all works.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerts please do leave them down below in the comment section 👇.