“Windows protected your PC”
This is the new message which greets you when you try to install a lot of programs on Windows 10 and, so I’m told, on Windows 8.x.
It would be nice if they’d actually protected your PC but, unfortunately, they haven’t. They haven’t even run a virus check or any other malware check. This is pure scaremongering, nothing less!
So why is this message being displayed?
The only way we’ll find out is if we click on the words “More info“. It would have been much better if this option had been made more obvious and prominent or the reason made clear in the first place. Instead, Microsoft thought it better to try and scare the “bejesus” out of all of us instead.
The FALSE Windows 10 warning message – Click “More info”
The full details are now revealed:
The reason for the scaremongering is: “Unknown Publisher”!! Click “Run anyway” to install
The reason for the scaremongering is as you can now clearly see: “Unknown Publisher“!
Microsoft gave you the very distinct impression that your computer was being infected by malware when, the truth of the matter is, it wasn’t. Isn’t that what used to be called lying?
The good thing is that by clicking “More info” another button is also displayed: “Run anyway“. Clicking this button allows you to install the program and, more importantly, have your antivirus software check it during the installation process. Something Microsoft should have done prior to displaying the message?
This message is being displayed not only when you try to install Visual Accounts but also when you try to install a lot of other software. It’s even displayed when installing software from very large companies like Oracle, which is one of the largest software companies in the world.
Having found this warning we thought we look for others. And, guess what? We found one in the Chrome browser.
Chrome Browser
When downloading some of the ancillary files from Visual Accounts you may receive a warning like this:
You need to click on the tiny little down arrow next to the “Discard” button and select “Keep” from the menu that is displayed.
Chrome has put the little Padlock 
and the “https://” in the address bar. Chrome knows the file has come from a secure site!
Although the files like the demo files for Visual Accounts might not be commonly downloaded that doesn’t automatically mean they’re dangerous.
These files aren’t dangerous! They’ve come from a secure site. They’ve been checked with Sophos Antivirus, Enterprise level antivirus software, and with HitmanPro Alert, which checks for unethical behaviour in software. Chome has even checked that the site is secure.
Once the files have been uploaded to the Visual Accounts website, we also regularly check them with VirusTotal which runs the files through over 60 different antivirus products.
So for Visual Accounts, you can safely ignore these warnings.
Crying Wolf!
This is all rather like the fairy tale* of the boy who cried wolf all the time. It got to the stage that no one believed him. Is it now getting to the stage that we can no longer believe the messages which Microsoft, Google Chrome and others are displaying? Only time will tell.
*Aesop’s Fable – The Boy who cried wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop’s Fables. The English idiom “to cry wolf”, defined as “to give a false alarm” is derived from it. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: “to make false claims, with the result that subsequent true claims are disbelieved”.
If you have any questions or comments about these erroneous error messages, please leave them below.