Boring but important - selling a download product for Windows

[Graham Samuel]

Richmond, yes I can see that this is a good method if you are going to have very few customers. I would be surprised though if on a PC with Norton (and maybe other so-called virus checkers, I don’t know) if the user didn’t get some kind of squawk somewhere along the line, if not from Norton then from Windows as you would be reported as an ‘unknown publisher’ (code for ’not code-signed’). 

In my case the method recommended by Jacque is better as we hope for a somewhat  higher sales volume.

A variation on your method would perhaps to send the appropriate file automatically (after payment) but as an attachment to an email. I might explore this.

Cheers

Graham

> On 22 Jan 2017, at 09:53, Richmond Mathewson via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> Here's Richmond, the retro, reactionary pain in the b., and the way he sells software:
> 
> First caveat: I do not sell my software in large quantities (anyone for Sanskrit?).
> 
> Having "played" with the demo a potential customer has to contact me, and then
> put the fee into my PayPal account.
> 
> The demo is downloadable from my website.
> 
> Once I see the fee I run off a standalone (for whatever platform they request) with a
> clear label on the front card with their name, title and so on, upload it to my Dropbox
> account and send them the link.
> 
> This normally involves 15-30 minutes of my time.
> 
> So: no code-signing, no "nuffin". Crude, but it works.
> 
> Richmond.
> 
> On 1/21/17 9:43 pm, Graham Samuel via use-livecode wrote:
>> Sorry to witter on after I’ve asked this list a lot about code signing etc so often. The excellent help I’ve had has enabled me to sign both the app I want to distribute and its installer - in fact I’ve done this twice, once for the Mac version of this app and once for the Windows version.
>> 
>> The intention is to sell the product by offering a download from a web site, using FastSpring for the payments, and incorporating Jacque Gay’s Zygodact to provide unique activation keys.
>> 
>> All this works fine, except for the Windows download, where Norton, Chrome and even Windows 7 all attempt to prevent either the download or the execution of the installer. Again with advice from this list, I know where some of the problems lie (though not the one with Windows, which reports the installer as having an ‘unknown publisher’ but later displays the publisher provided during the code signing!).
>> 
>> My question is, what do other people do about this? If you generate a new desktop program for Windows and try to sell it as a download, how can you strip away all this nonsense for the average purchaser? So far all I can think of doing is to issue a warning on the web site that explains what do do if Norton ‘quarantines’ the program. Even this does not cover all the obstacles in the poor purchaser’s way.
>> 
>> Doesn’t this affect everyone trying to offer a new executable download?
>> 
>> [noise of grinding teeth…]
>> 
>> TIA for any further views.
>> 
>> Graham
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