Plex Service Tray blocked by Smart App Control on Windows 11 25H2 build 26200.8117

[dattguy]

Issue

Latest update for Windows 11 25H2, build 26200.8117 sees Smart App Control blocking Plex Service Tray with the reason of:

"Smart App Control blocked an app that may be unsafe

C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex Service\PlexServiceTray.exe was blocked because we can''t confirm who wrote it and it's not an app we're familiar with.

If you think we made a mistake, in blocking this app, select Send feedback to send us a copy of the app along with your comments to review."

Result

Plex Service Tray cannot run on Windows 11 25H2, build 26200.8117

Troubleshooting

I tried to unblock PlexServiceTray by following the instructions found here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5765803/unblock-a-file-smart-app-blocked in the post from Q&A Assist, using the PowerShell Unblock-File cmdlet included with Windows, without success.

Workaround

Disable Smart App Control from Windows Settings

1. Right-click on the Start button, then select Settings
2. Select 'Privacy & Security', then 'Windows Security', and then, 'App & browser control'. The 'App & browser control' Settings window will open.
3. From 'App & browser control', select 'Smart App Control settings'.
4. From 'Smart App Control' select the Off radio button to disable Smart App Control and confirm

Launch PlexServiceTray and Start Plex Media Server

1. From Search, type "Plex Service Tray" (without the quotation marks) and select to Open Plex Service Tray.
2. Right-click on Plex Service Tray in the task tray and click 'Start Plex'.

Enable Smart App Control from Registry Editor

1. From Search, type Regedit and select to Open Registry Editor.
2. From Registry Editor, navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CI\Policy by selecting the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive, then SYSTEM, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, Then CI, then Policy.
3. Double-click on the VerifiedAndReputablePolicyState name.
4. Change the value from 0 to 1 and click OK.
5. Exit the Registry Editor.
6. Follow Steps 1 - 3 in "Disable Smart App Control from Windows Settings" and confirm that Smart App Control is enabled, by verifying that the On radio button is selected.

More information

The workaround above does not restore the full functionality of Plex Service Tray as it will likely still be blocked upon restart of the system, so the workaround will still be followed after each reboot until Microsoft unblocks PlexServiceTray. Automatically restarting Plex Media Server with the system as a service is the jewel of Plex Service Tray making it essential to Plex Media Server administrators.

I sent feedback, explaining that PlexServiceTray is essential to any folks administering a Plex Media Server. I also sent them a link to this site on Github https://github.com/cjmurph/PmsService. Unfortunately, in hindsight I did not state that PlexServiceTray was running successfully prior to this build of Windows.

[kameljoe21]

This is only a problem if you run smart app contro. I wonder how many other programs it would disable? Though this does not seem like an issue for the majority of people who run this program.
Though I will double check when I get home if I even have this thing enabled which I'm pretty sure I do not.