Digital Signatures

"Digital Signatures" are pretty much what you might think: a unique tag that tells you who that signature belongs to and how to contact them. When you run a program, Windows or Android would normally find that digital signature and validate that the signature is correct so you know who created it. But if it can't find that signature, both will tell you about it. For Windows, it will give the "It's unknown; don't run it" screen. That doesn't stop you from running the program; you just have to click on "More Info."

Once you click, you'll have what information available, and a new button "Run Anyway."
What is the take away from this? Know where you downloads came from! Do you trust where this program came from or that program came from? My father once downloaded a well known software recommended to him by AARP. However, when he searched for it, he downloaded it from a site that repackaged the program, and installed spyware on his computer.

I'm really not trying to scare anyone; I want to be informative. The free software on my sites do no have digital signatures, and I really do want people to try them out.

The real point is that digital signatures cost money to buy and you are required to pay updates every year. It is a yearly maintenance paid to have the signature registered and a web site to tell every computer that asks that it's genuine. That means, if you're not making any money, you can't really pay for a signature.

Thank you for understanding.