Windows: Disable “Publisher Could Not Be Verified” Messages

Disable the warning message that says “The Publisher Could Not Be Verified” when you run certain files in Microsoft Windows.

Note: This tutorial is only valid for version of Windows that contain the Group Policy Editor such as Windows 10 Professional.

Option 1 – Group Policy Editor

1. Hold the Windows Key, then press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type “gpedit.msc“, then select “OK“.
3. Go to “User Configuration” > “Administrative Templates” > “Windows Components” > “Attachment Manager“.
4. Open the “Inclusion list for moderate risk file types” setting.
5. Set the policy to “Enabled“, then add “*.exe;” or whatever the file extension you are using to the “Specify high risk extensions” box.
   

Option 2 – Registry Tweak

1. Hold the Windows Key, then press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type “regedit“, then select “OK“.
3. Navigate to the following:
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   • Software
   • Microsoft
   • Windows
   • CurrentVersion
   • Policies
   • Associations
4. Look for an entry on the right side for “LowRiskFileTypes“. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on “FileSystem” and select “New” > “String Value“. Give the value a name of “LowRiskFileTypes“. Press the “Enter” key when you are done.
5. Right-click the “LowRiskFileTypes” entry and click “Modify“.
6. Modify the value by including file extensions, with periods, separated by semi-colons .bat;.exe would add batch and executable files.

This should disable the “Publisher Could Not Be Verified” messages from appearing for that file type in the future.