[2.0.55] Windows suddenly blocks executable

[str0mback]

Hi, I've recently gotten into Factorio and I've had a blast playing it.
However, this morning when I attempted to launch the game through steam, the executable was blocked by Windows Smart App Control:
Failed to start process for this game : "An Application Control policy has blocked this file." (0x11C7)

Which is weird, since I've had no issues with it until today.
I also tried running the Factorio Demo, which worked without any issues.

I tried to download the game as a standalone, but I was unable to run the .msi since it wasn't signed.
I also removed the x64 folder containing the executable and verified the file integrity to force a fresh download, but to no avail.
Any ideas?

[Tertius]

As far as I read about Smart App Control, it heavily relies on the executables being digitally signed by the developer. If Factorio is blocked, it might be the signature isn't valid.

Factorio.exe IS signed by its developers.
And since it's the first time I ever read this about Factorio after all these years, it's not common that factorio.exe is sometimes reported as invalid. Instead, it's pointing to some issue on your PC only.

If validation fails, I see 2 possible different reasons:
Windows isn't able to verify the signature integrity because it doesn't have the current list of root certificates used for code signing. So make sure your Windows is up to date.

Or Windows isn't able to verify the signature integrity, because the factorio.exe file has been tampered with. Has been changed or patched, so the signature automatically became invalid. This can happen if it is infected by some malware on your PC or if it was patched by you for whatever reason. In this case, check for malware and make sure you're trying to run the unchanged original factorio.exe as it comes from Steam or from the standalone package.

[Sanqui]

The Factorio Windows binaries are not currently signed. We are working on getting this changed to resolve this kind of compatibility issue. At this time, I don't have information on how to bypass this Smart App Control block...

[NineNine]

The Factorio Windows binaries are not currently signed. We are working on getting this changed to resolve this kind of compatibility issue. At this time, I don't have information on how to bypass this Smart App Control block...

You can just turn it off.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 98afdb7003

I don't have a Windows 11 computer, so I can't verify if this is accurate:

https://www.guidingtech.com/enable-or-d ... indows-11/