Windows 11 is preventuing upgrade of renderer. The Smartscreen is not offering the option to 'run anyway'. I use Zone Alarm so I am assuming Windows Defender should not be doing this.

I also find it surprising the Windows Defender Smartscreen was not disabled by ZoneAlarm but that is beyond the scope of this forum. Actually, the question is a Windows Defender and/or ZA question. That said, you can check to see if you can "Unblock" the IER installer file by right-clicking on the IERendererSetup.exe file, selecting the Properties option, then looking for an Unblock tickbox at the bottom of that screen. If it exists, tick it, Apply the change, try to run it.

Thank you for the replies. I have now discovered that smart screen can be disabled in Settings (Reputation Based Protection Settings) and that has worked. I was following advice that Window Defender if not disabled could block the app and expected to see 'run anyway' on the smart screen. Zone Alarm does partly disable Defender but not apparently the smartscreen function. There was nothing in the setup properties box to help.

Yes, I saw both screens. Neither had buttons.

As I understand it, the right-click> Properties > Unlock should create an exception rather than globally disabiing the Reputation Based Protection Setting so I just want to make certain that when this was attempted, it was done on the extracted IERenderSetup.exe file.

Brian, I really have problems with understanding this since I'm not seeing such a restriction on the setup executable but only on the ZIP archive. Maybe it's because I already disabled it sometime in the past which I don't remember?

Plus with regard to the "reputation based blocking" I'm seeing various different options including one disabling either download or execution or both of potentially unwanted applications but none of these appears to have an impact on downloading IER even with Edge for me. All the remaining options are enabled as well, but maybe then I'm not getting warned since I've imported my signing selfsigned certificate into the proper issuer certstore on Windows 10.

So if I add some addtional info to the download page what about mentioning Defender's download blocker? If it would be doing what it claims to do you would never get to the file itself for unblocking ...

I don't fully understand it either, especially with Windows 11.

What I think happens is when an executable is triggered, a check is made of a "known good" list of programs. If the programs is not one it that the execution is blocked. The part I don't understand is why the "Run anyway" option is sometimes not shown. When that happens, the workaround is supposed to be the Properties > Unblock trick. This issue is separate from any download blocking.

I also recall in Win10 that executables would not run from certain directories. I know that system temp is one of them. I don't know the others. We really need someone to encounter this problem and then provide us the details of what and where as they work through it.

BTW, I am on a motorcycle trip, and will be for 5 more days. I hope to be able to check in each evening.

So having a good time should be your main concern, of course!