FREEHOLD
Installing on Windows

Windows will show you a blue warning

It is expected. Here is what it means and which buttons to press.

What you will see

Windows protected your PC
Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognised app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.
More infoDon't run

Getting past it

1
Click More info. It is the small underlined text, not a button — easy to miss, and it is the only way forward.
2
Two extra lines appear: App and Publisher. A Run anyway button appears at the bottom.
3
Click Run anyway. The installer opens normally from there.

You will see this once, for the installer. Freehold POS itself does not trigger it again after installation.

What the warning actually means

SmartScreen is a reputation check, not a virus scan. Windows asks one question: have enough people downloaded this exact file for Microsoft to have formed an opinion about it?

Freehold POS is new, and it is sold to independent retailers rather than downloaded a hundred thousand times a week. So the answer is no, and Windows says so in the strongest language it has. The same warning appears for the first release of essentially every small software company.

What it does not mean

Prove the file is the one we published

You do not have to take our word for it. Every installer we publish has a SHA-256 fingerprint listed on our verification page. Open Command Prompt and run:

certutil -hashfile "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\FreeholdPOS-Setup.exe" SHA256

Compare what it prints to the fingerprint on that page. If they match, the file is byte-for-byte what we built. If they do not match, stop and email us — do not run it.

Why not just remove the warning? It goes away with a code-signing certificate carrying an extended-validation identity check, which takes weeks of business verification. That process is under way. Until it finishes we would rather explain the warning honestly than pretend it is not there.

On a Mac

macOS shows its own version of this. If you see "Freehold POS cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer":

  1. Right-click (or Control-click) the app in your Applications folder.
  2. Choose Open from the menu.
  3. Click Open in the dialog that appears.

Using right-click → Open rather than double-clicking is what gives you the option to proceed. You only need to do it the first time. On newer versions of macOS you may instead need System Settings → Privacy & Security, then Open Anyway next to the message about Freehold POS.

Still stuck?

Reply to the email containing your licence key, or write to [email protected]. Tell us what the screen says and we will walk you through it.