Starting with Build 26220.7070, released to the Dev and Beta channels in early November, Smart App Control can now be turned on or off at any time, without requiring a clean install of Windows. The toggle sits under Windows Security > App & Browser Control > Smart App Control settings, and when enabled, it continues to block untrusted or potentially harmful apps.
Until now, if you disabled Smart App Control even once, Windows permanently locked it off, unless you wiped your system and started over with a clean install. For users who had Smart App Control block legitimate software, they had to either live with broken apps or give up the feature forever.
Smart App Control is designed to act as a gatekeeper for Windows 11. Instead of scanning after something runs, it tries to stop risky apps before they launch by checking Microsoft’s app intelligence services and code integrity rules. It outright blocks any unknown, unsigned, or suspicious apps. In theory, this makes Windows safer against malware, PUAs, and zero-day exploits.
However, in practice, Smart App Control got in the way for many users, and Microsoft seems to have finally acknowledged that. This update does not change how Smart App Control decides what to block, but users are no longer punished permanently for turning it off once.
Why Smart App Control was impossible to re-enable before
Until this Insider build, Smart App Control followed a very rigid lifecycle that left almost no room for error. Microsoft designed it to work only on a clean Windows 11 install or after a full system reset. If you upgraded from an older Windows version, Smart App Control stayed off by default. And if you did a clean install, Windows treated that install as Smart App Control’s one and only chance to decide your fate.
After setup, Smart App Control entered what Microsoft calls Evaluation mode. For roughly a week, it would sit quietly in the background and observe how you used your PC. What apps you ran, what kind of binaries you launched, and whether your usage patterns matched what Microsoft considers a “good candidate” for strict execution control. Nothing would be blocked during this phase.
If Windows decided you were a good fit, Smart App Control automatically switched itself to On, also known as enforcement mode. That is when it starts to block unknown apps and unsigned binaries. There was no “Run anyway” button, no per-app exceptions, and no whitelist. Either an app passed Microsoft’s app intelligence checks, or it did not run at all.
Also, if you manually turned Smart App Control off at any point, even once, Windows permanently disabled it for that installation. There was no toggle to turn it back on. The OS doesn’t even give a warning sign that the decision was irreversible. The only way back was a full reinstall or reset of Windows 11.
Developers, gamers, streamers, and power users were hit the hardest, because their tools are usually unsigned or get frequent updates. Users have been reporting on Reddit about many legitimate apps being blocked by SAC.
Smart App Controlled can now be switched on or off
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7070 now allows Smart App Control to be switched on or off without requiring a clean install. The change is rolling out gradually to the Dev and Beta Channels.
Smart App Control’s original design was all-or-nothing
According to Microsoft, “Smart App Control is designed to protect a device for its entire lifetime”. That design decision is exactly why it was so rigid.
On a clean install of Windows 11, Smart App Control starts in Evaluation mode. If Windows decides you are a “good candidate”, meaning you mostly use signed, well-known software, it flips itself into Enforcement mode.
Once in enforcement mode, Smart App Control becomes extremely strict. Apps can only run if Microsoft’s app intelligence service recognizes them as safe, or if they are properly signed with a trusted certificate.
Smart App Control itself isn’t new. Microsoft introduced it back in 2022 with early Windows 11 builds as a more aggressive, Gatekeeper-style protection layer, separate from SmartScreen and Defender.
However, over the past three years, Windows 11 users have repeatedly complained that Smart App Control blocks perfectly legitimate software, sometimes days or weeks after it was installed.
In a recent case, a user reported on Reddit that Smart App Control suddenly blocked Streamer.bot, a popular streaming automation tool used by tens of thousands of creators, even though the executable was signed and had been working fine earlier.
Funnily enough, Microsoft’s support response asked the user to turn Smart App Control off. The user later wrote that they were disappointed that disabling the feature entirely was the only solution.
To be clear, Smart App Control is not the same as SmartScreen or the basic Windows Defender file scanner.
Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the traditional AV engine. Meanwhile, Microsoft Defender SmartScreen focuses on web-sourced threats, warning you about risky sites, downloads, and files based on reputation checks and phishing databases.
Smart App Control is a newer, more proactive layer introduced with Windows 11 22H2 that uses Microsoft’s app intelligence with Windows’ code integrity system to block apps from ever running if they are unknown, unsigned, or predicted to be unsafe before they launch.
In practice, that meant if Smart App Control flagged something as untrusted, neither SmartScreen nor Defender would let it run, and because there was no whitelist or per-app exception, users had to turn the whole feature off to get their work done, until now, that is.
How to use the new Smart App Control?
With the latest builds for Dev and Beta channels, Smart App Control behaves like a normal security feature. If an app you trust gets blocked, you can now open Windows Security > App & Browser Control > Smart App Control, switch it off, run or install the app, and then turn it back on.
For example, if a setup script or installer is flagged as untrusted, you can disable Smart App Control, complete the install, and re-enable it immediately after. Defender, SmartScreen, and other protections continue to run in the background the entire time.
Microsoft has not added a whitelist or per-app override yet, but this update removes the fear that experimenting with Smart App Control will permanently lock you out of it. For users who previously disabled it out of frustration, this finally makes the feature usable again.
It is not flashy. But for anyone who has ever had Smart App Control block a critical tool at the worst possible time, this is the fix.
To be honest, this is the kind of change Smart App Control should have launched with in the first place. The idea behind SAC was always solid, but the execution pushed too many users into an all-or-nothing state, which is exactly why gamers, streamers, and power users either disabled it permanently or stuck with Windows 10 altogether.
Either way, letting users switch Smart App Control off and back on without nuking their OS finally brings some sanity to the feature.
