Earlier quoted context omitted.
This pattern has precedent. I scan releases with a bunch of Anti-Virus software. Not to find any virus, of course, but if one of the scanning softwares "detects" a virus, some customer is also going to "detect" the virus, and we have a problem.
Microsoft Defender "detects" a "virus" on any .exe or .dll of unknown provenance. The solution is code signing. Pay whatever you need to pay for a certificate and sign all your releases.
That's the "smartscreen" function, and it also depends on where the file is marked as having come from (and yes, it largely seems to be a racket to get you to buy cide signing). If defender actively thinks there is a virus through a signature match or heuristics then the behaviour is different, and more difficult to bypas (and yes, this can also have false positives, irritatingly).