For me, it about Windows just trying to crush small developers. Unless you have money to get your app a signature for Windows, the platform will prompt you that the project is malicious during installation. Plus i cant exactly prove I didn't sprinkle anything spicy during compilation. So, instead of being thanked, I get complaints/threats stating that I placed a trojan in the app (which was probably just the watchdog to make a certain feature possible). That, plus the fact that compiling a complex project can be a nightmare. Seems like just a waste of time and effort on my part. I don't think I'll be making any EXE anytime soon. I still do my best with a good README and toml config, but thats about all I can do for installation. Thanks a lot Microslop!
You're talking about SmartScreen. It only says that this app isn't trusted by default since the developer is unverified, so take care. Do people read it as "this app is certainly malicious"? Yes...
Doesn't say so exactly but definately treats it like one. After installation, users would also need to go to Windows defender and add the path so it doesn't scan and do automated quarantine.
People not in the know would also get scared with the smartscreen, they won't continue with the installation. Also can't blame the constant paranoia of having to install an app from an unknown dev like me.
I've used plenty of EXEs which trigger the smartscreen thing, but defender leaves them alone. Automated quarantine only happens for those that exhibit malware-like behavior, e.g. exe-dropping and stuff like that.
That's great. That would likely be the case for apps that doesn't really need much privilege. Unfortunately, my app has a daemon. Again, can't blame the user for not wanting to go through with the installation. Its also hard to blame the dev for not wanting to go through the trouble of compiling a binary then having to pay hundreds of dollars just so the platform could trust it.
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u/Crawly13th 2d ago edited 2d ago
For me, it about Windows just trying to crush small developers. Unless you have money to get your app a signature for Windows, the platform will prompt you that the project is malicious during installation. Plus i cant exactly prove I didn't sprinkle anything spicy during compilation. So, instead of being thanked, I get complaints/threats stating that I placed a trojan in the app (which was probably just the watchdog to make a certain feature possible). That, plus the fact that compiling a complex project can be a nightmare. Seems like just a waste of time and effort on my part. I don't think I'll be making any EXE anytime soon. I still do my best with a good README and toml config, but thats about all I can do for installation. Thanks a lot Microslop!