Re: Vista and digital signatures

Hi Rod,

> My concern is that potential purchasers of this application aren't going 
> to be too impressed with the 'Unidentified program' message appearing each

> time they try to open it. I believe that it's possible to avoid this by 
> disabling Vista's UAC, but I can't ask customers to do this!
> It appears that the only way of avoiding this message is to have a 
> 'digital signature' either with Plusrun.exe or the application exe or 
> both. Perhaps dBI are shortly going to provide a digitally-signed version 
> of Plusrun.exe but, if I need one also for my application exe file, I 
> wonder how to get it and how expensive it may be.


We are working on getting executables distributed with dBASE Plus (including 
plusrun.exe) digitally signed.
However, .exe's built with dBASE Plus currently do not work after being 
digitally signed.
We are working on upgrading them for an upcoming release - either 2.61.4 or 
a follow-on release to resolve this issue.

- Marty -

Martin Kay
dataBased Intelligence, Inc.

Rod Jones wrote:
> I recently purchased a computer with Vista Home Premium pre-installed and
have been using it to test a commercial application that I'd previously written
with dBASE PLUS 2.6.1.3. Installation is with the original Installshield Express
for Visual dBASE and my only concession to Vista is that Plusrun.exe.manifest
(administrator version) is included with the program files. 
> On starting the installation, the message 'An unidentified program wants
access to your computer' appeared, so I selected 'Allow' and the installation
proceeded without problem. The same message appears each time I start the
application, which then runs OK. I've found that including a manifest file for
the actual application exe file doesn't help; however if I remove the Plusrun
manifest file, the application doesn't work correctly, as it can't change the
data tables.
> I don't have any problems with my application's Help system, as this is all
done with dBASE tables.
> My concern is that potential purchasers of this application aren't going to
be too impressed with the 'Unidentified program' message appearing each time
they try to open it. I believe that it's possible to avoid this by disabling
Vista's UAC, but I can't ask customers to do this!
> It appears that the only way of avoiding this message is to have a 'digital
signature' either with Plusrun.exe or the application exe or both. Perhaps dBI
are shortly going to provide a digitally-signed version of Plusrun.exe but, if I
need one also for my application exe file, I wonder how to get it and how
expensive it may be.
> Any advice would be appreciated.

dBI knows about the permissions/digital signature issue. I am not sure 
what needs to be done, though.

One solution is to turn off the CUA ...

Ken

-- 
/(Opinions expressed are purely my own, not those of dataBased
Intelligence, Inc.)/

*Ken Mayer* [dBVIPS]
/Golden Stag Productions/
dBASE at goldenstag dot net
http://www.goldenstag.net/GSP
http://www.goldenstag.net/dbase/dBASEBooks.htm

I recently purchased a computer with Vista Home Premium pre-installed and have
been using it to test a commercial application that I'd previously written with
dBASE PLUS 2.6.1.3. Installation is with the original Installshield Express for
Visual dBASE and my only concession to Vista is that Plusrun.exe.manifest
(administrator version) is included with the program files. 
On starting the installation, the message 'An unidentified program wants access
to your computer' appeared, so I selected 'Allow' and the installation proceeded
without problem. The same message appears each time I start the application,
which then runs OK. I've found that including a manifest file for the actual
application exe file doesn't help; however if I remove the Plusrun manifest
file, the application doesn't work correctly, as it can't change the data
tables.
I don't have any problems with my application's Help system, as this is all done
with dBASE tables.
My concern is that potential purchasers of this application aren't going to be
too impressed with the 'Unidentified program' message appearing each time they
try to open it. I believe that it's possible to avoid this by disabling Vista's
UAC, but I can't ask customers to do this!
It appears that the only way of avoiding this message is to have a 'digital
signature' either with Plusrun.exe or the application exe or both. Perhaps dBI
are shortly going to provide a digitally-signed version of Plusrun.exe but, if I
need one also for my application exe file, I wonder how to get it and how
expensive it may be.

Marty Kay Wrote:

> Hi Rod,
> 
> We are working on getting executables distributed with dBASE Plus
(including 
> plusrun.exe) digitally signed.
> However, .exe's built with dBASE Plus currently do not work after being 
> digitally signed.
> We are working on upgrading them for an upcoming release - either 2.61.4 or

> a follow-on release to resolve this issue.
> 
> - Marty -
> 
> Martin Kay
> dataBased Intelligence, Inc.

Marty,

Thanks for your reply, which is very encouraging. I hope that you can include
this with your next release!

Ken Mayer [dBVIPS] Wrote:

> dBI knows about the permissions/digital signature issue. I am not sure 
> what needs to be done, though.
> 
> One solution is to turn off the CUA ...
> 
> Ken
> 
Thanks Ken. I think that, in most cases, it wouldn't be acceptable to ask
purchasers of one's software to turn off their CUA (or UAC). I'm going to
eagerly wait for dBI's promised action (see Marty's reply).