How to Fish Troubleshooting & Fixes

How To Fish Error 0x11C7

Updated August 30, 2026 · 4 min read · For How to Fish by Dazed Games

Quick answer: error 0x11C7 is Windows Smart App Control blocking the How to Fish executable at launch. The safe fix order is: verify the game's files through Steam first, and only if that does not clear the block, turn Smart App Control off in Windows Security — knowing that turning it off is effectively one-way on most Windows 11 installs. Do not start by flipping system security settings.

What error 0x11C7 actually is

Smart App Control (SAC) is Windows 11's newer application-reputation layer: it blocks executables that lack a reputation signature it trusts, which hits brand-new indie games especially hard — a game released in August 2026 has less accumulated trust history than a decade-old title, and How to Fish launches through an executable that some SAC configurations flag. The error text presents as a generic application-control block at launch, and players encountering it see the game refuse to start before the menu ever appears.

The developer has acknowledged launch-blocking reports, and the community thread dedicated to 0x11C7 confirms the same pattern across machines: the game installs fine, Steam is happy, and Windows blocks the executable at double-click. That pattern — everything normal except the launch — is the signature that distinguishes 0x11C7 from black screen at startup (which gets past the launch into a broken display) and from Steam's own "disk write error" family.

Step 1: verify the game files first

Before touching Windows Security, rule out the boring cause: a mismatched or partially updated executable can itself trigger the block. In Steam: Library, right-click How to Fish, Properties, Installed Files, Verify integrity of game files. Let Steam replace anything it flags, then launch again. A meaningful share of launch-block reports clear here, because a file replaced mid-update can look exactly like the unsigned file SAC distrusts.

This step costs two minutes and has no downside. The guides that skip it go straight to the security setting, which is the wrong default: SAC exists to protect your machine, and the fix below genuinely weakens it.

Step 2: the Smart App Control setting — read this first

If verification does not clear it, the block itself must go. The path is Windows Security, App & browser control, Smart App Control settings, and the setting offers On or Off. Here is the warning most quick-fix guides omit: SAC is evaluation-mode by design, and once it is switched Off it cannot be switched back On without reinstalling Windows. This is not a toggle you flip to test.

So before turning it off, be sure 0x11C7 is what you have: the block names the application control layer, it appears at launch (not mid-game), and file verification did not clear it. On a Windows install where SAC was already off, this error cannot be your problem — which is itself a useful diagnostic: if SAC is already Off on your machine and the game still will not launch, your issue is a different one entirely (start with the black screen and launch-crash guides instead).

0x11C7 versus the other launch failures

How to Fish has several distinct ways to fail before the menu, and mixing them up sends you down the wrong guide. The launch black screen gets past the executable — something opens, then you stare at black; that is a display or session problem, not a security block. The Unity launch crash (the community tracked one family of these around a specific Unity engine version, marked by a red exclamation crash report) kills the process with a crash dialog, not a Windows security message. Error 0x11C7 is the one that names an application-control block from Windows itself. The quick triage: crash dialog means the engine guide, black screen means the display and session guide, and a Windows security block naming the app means this page. Keeping the three separate is half the battle, because the fixes do not overlap — security settings do not cure crashes, and file verification does not cure blocks.

What not to do with the security change

Do not replace the SAC fix with exclusions in third-party antivirus you happen to run — the error is Windows' own layer, and adding Defender or third-party exclusions does not touch it. Do not re-download the game from anywhere other than Steam as a "fix": a non-Steam executable is exactly the kind of file SAC exists to block, and you would be solving a trust problem by creating a real one. And do not leave the game folder unzipped through archive tools that strip signatures; install through Steam's own mechanism and let Steam manage the files.

After the block is cleared

The game launches into the current patch (1.0.10 at the time of writing), and 0x11C7 does not return unless Windows re-evaluates the executable — which can happen after major game updates replace the exe. If the block reappears after a patch, the same order applies: verify files first, and only then revisit the setting. Players on shares of Windows 11 SE or managed machines (school, work) may find SAC controlled by policy rather than by them — in that case the fix belongs to the machine's administrator, and there is no local override.

What not to do

• Do not turn SAC off before verifying game files — two minutes of Steam verification clears a share of cases.
• Do not expect to re-enable SAC after turning it off — treat the switch as permanent.
• Do not download the game outside Steam to dodge the block — that manufactures the exact risk SAC exists to stop.
• Do not confuse 0x11C7 with launch black screens — different layer, different guide.

### Does 0x11C7 affect updates?

The block targets the executable at launch, so updates through Steam itself are unaffected — Steam writes game files without invoking SAC. The practical consequence is one-directional: a patch that replaces the executable can re-trigger the block on a machine where SAC is still On, and the fix is the same verify-first sequence every time. Players who turned SAC off entirely stop seeing the error in all cases, at the security cost described above.