A second plea to include a self-signed certificate in the fully packaged Windows version

[cbalantic]

Apologies for repeating an issue, but this was one was closed without a solve, so I am back to advocate again: #160

Many corporate and government settings have restrictions on using unsigned executables, but the fully packaged Windows version is imperative for increasing easy access to BirdNET. Our security software's current behavior is to block unsigned executables. As far as I'm aware, after many, many hours working with our IT department, we do not have any admin means to unblock or circumvent the behavior. I'm curious as to whether your team would consider including digital signatures with the executables in the fully packaged Windows version.

In signed software, if a user navigates to the software on a Windows machine and right-click + Properties, they would see a tab with a digital signature. If you right-click + Properties for the BirdNET analyzer Windows installers, they do not come with a digital signature, which is why they are being blocked. For now, we are doggedly pursuing workarounds, but ultimately the lack of digital signature may prevent straightforward access/use of this groundbreaking tool by most federal land management agencies in the U.S. As such, I'm trying to advocate for access wherever I can -- the .exe fully packaged versions are the most easily accessible way to use BirdNET for non-computer science folks. Thank you so much for your work. I'm very nervous about our teams losing access to this technology over an IT/security issue. Thank you for considering.

[kahst]

Hi Cathleen, you're right, we need to figure out how to sign the builds. We do have a workflow for Raven using a Cornell certificate, that we could potentially also use for BirdNET.

Here's a signed version of the current installer (using the Raven signing pipeline): https://cornell.box.com/s/8momtrdiq6rkqcdk5j1ar4m8nlgyjbd2

Can you please give it a try?

[cbalantic]

Hi Stefan, thank you and your team for the quick reply, I'm aware this is not a trivial task! I've passed this to our IT team for testing and will update you as soon as I learn more. Thank you so much.

[cbalantic]

Hooray, this works! 🙌 Will future signed versions be updated on the main ReadMe Windows download link too?
Thank you so much for your quick attention to this!

[kahst]

That's great news, thanks for investigating. Yes, if the signed version can run on government-owned PCs, then that's what we'll provide with new releases.