Windows Smart App Control blocking RStudio & Positron

Error Information:

An Application Control policy error message has blocked this file (RStudio & Positron)

Description of issue -
RStudio and Positron will not start, displaying this error message

Attempted steps taken to fix -
Had to disable Smart App Control and reinstall RStudio

System Information:

  • RStudio Edition: Desktop
  • RStudio Version: 2026.01.0+392
  • OS Version: Windows
  • R Version: 4.5.2
  • Output your diagnostics report (if possible):
  • A JavaScript error occurred in the main process

Uncaught Exception:

Error: An Application Control policy has blocked this file.

11?1C:\Program Files\RStudio\resources\app.webpack\main\native_modules\desktop.node

at process. func [as dlopen] (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:2617) at Module._extensions.node (node internal/modules/js/loader:1874:18)

at Object.func [as node] (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:2617) at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1448:32) at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1270:12)

at c. load (node:electron/js2c/node init:2:17993)

at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:328:14) at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:244:24) at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1470:12)

at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:147:16)


From RStudio Desktop Will Not Start on support.rstudio.com