MSI produces question for installers

Question

Hi there, I have created a windows installer for a windows forms app as an MSI. I have published this and put it in a zip file and sent it to the client. When they try to run the installer they get the message 'The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?’

Is there a setting or something i need to do to stop this message appearing when the client clicks on the installer?

Cheers

Answer 1

Is this a certificate issue? I haven't had to do this with msi (I usually use ClickOnce, which makes this very easy), but a quick search shows things like this or on MSDN here.

Note that your certificate would have to be in the clients trust chain - i.e. indirectly from someone "pucka".

Answer 2

You need to digitally sign your msi. You can do it with the signtool, of course you need to have a certificate for that.

Answer 3

I have spoken to some of the guys here and someone has used Orca to edit some of the msi content. Apparently before this happened the installer was fine.

Answer 4

1) Digitally sign MSI before shipping as others have suggested (we use a Verisign Code Signing Cert here)

2) If customer was editing, advise them to use Orca to create a transform rather than editing the MSI directly. This way the original signature will still be valid

3) If your guys were editing, slap them on the wrist and resign the MSI.

4) Use MSIEXEC from the command line rather than double clicking, AFAIK the verification prompt is triggered by Windows Explorer so this bypasses the issue.