How to make a code signed certificate for an exe program?

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I am in a very tricky situation and I will attempt to explain it as well as I can. I will write my problem in concise numbered steps and at the end, I will boil this down to one or a few clear questions.

  1. I wrote a program in python. (no other languages used)

  2. I then used pyinstaller to convert this into a .exe so I could share it with my friends without them having to install python or any other external libraries.

  3. When my friends attempted to download this exe, their Windows Defender and other AntiViruses showed up and it wouldn't let them run the program.

  4. I did some research and learnt that my exe did not have a publisher added and therefore, Windows Defender prevented users from opening the file.

  5. To add a publisher I learnt that I needed to digitally sign this and make a certificate, so I installed a program called DigiCert, which could add a certificate to the exe.

This is the problem, I do not know how to make a code signed certificate for my program for free.

So to condense all of this down, my question/questions are:

A) Is the issue actually about the fact that my exe does not have a publisher?

B) If so, how do I create a code signed certificate to add one?

I hope you understand the problem, and I would appreciate any comments or responses.

Many thanks

windows-defender digicert pyinstaller exe python
1 Answers

By default, the applications you are creating haven't a signed certificate. If you want to sign it you need to have a valid signature and sign your apps with it. You can use official tools like signtool to sign your files.

Another way is to create a self-signed certificate and ask the user to install it and thus your executables would be valid for that user. Also, you can automate the certificate installation in the installation wizard of your application.

P.S. The warning with Windows Defender can be bypassed sometimes. The main reason is that when creating an application with PyInstaller it would use the default prebuilt bootloader which may cause the warning. So try to rebuild the bootloader and recreate your application.

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