Pyinstaller .exe throws Windows Defender [no publisher]

Question

I developed a Python code and I converted it to an .exe with pyinstaller but the problem is that there is no publisher so each time a computer runs my program, Windows Defender throws an alert that says that there is no publisher so the program is not sure...

Does anyone know how to change the publisher of an .exe from none to something or how to implement Publisher in pyinstaller?

Answer 1

The short answer is that this has nothing to do with PyInstaller. It's a general issue with any exe in recent versions of Windows. You need to "code sign" your exe's now. It's really a money making scheme masked as a security enhancement.

As an example, you can purchase a cert from DigiCert. They're one of the big authorizing agents which MS will recognize automatically. https://www.digicert.com/code-signing

Or Google "code signing" for other options.

You can also self-sign for free. Check out this SO post: Signing a Windows EXE file

The problem with self-signing is that the user has to install your custom key first to recognize your signed exes. But... there are some tricks to silently install that first, if you want to go through the hassle to save a few bucks.