Windows 10: Many of my utilities are not signed by Microsoft e.g. WinStore.App.exe, calculater.exe,...

Many of my utilities are not signed by Microsoft e.g. WinStore.App.exe, calculater.exe, Time.exe. I am very concerned about the integrity of my system. I am using Process Explorer V 16.30.

:)

 

Access Microsoft Game exe

The path to the folder containing the file is \WindowsApps\... and shows that the .exe you are looking at is a Store App (aka UWP app). The WindowsApps folder is owned by TrustedInstaller and heavily protected. Even as an administrator you do not have access to it. But even if you gain access, you cannot start a UWP app just by clicking on its .exe, UWP apps don't work that way.


In the Reshade Compatability List I do not see anything I recognise as a UWP app. They are all older conventional Win32 executables. It appears Reshade is not designed to work with UWP apps, only Win32 desktop apps.

 

When does the Operating system verify the Authenticode Signatures for signed EXEs and signed DLLs?

When PE Files (exes, dlls etc.) are code signed using signtool, they can be verified to check if they have been authored by trusted publishers. In which scenarios does the Operating system actually verify signed EXEs and DLLs?

1. Are signatures of EXEs verified every time they are run?
2. If an EXE has a dynamically linked DLL, is the DLL's signature verified when the EXE is run?
   
3. If the EXE dynamically loads a DLL using LoadLibrary, is the DLL's signature verified when the EXE is run?
4. When an EXE requires elevated privilege (UAC), is the signature of the EXE and the DLL dependencies verified as well? (1-3)

If this questions belongs in a different category or community, please let me know. Thanks.

 

.exe files

Hello, I have an .exe file of a game I copied over from another computer via e-mail and I cannot open it.

Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.