Consider All Commercial Software Publishers Trustworthy

A commercial software publisher is a bona fide company in the business of producing or selling computer software. In addition, commercial software publishers have met certain minimum financial criteria that attest to their ability to support their software on a continuing basis.

Checking this box means that software that is correctly signed by any commercial software publisher can be installed on your system without first asking for your approval.


List of Trusted Publishers and Credentials Agencies

This list controls whose software can be installed on your system without asking you first.

The list can contain both individual software publishers and commercial software publishers. Software that has been published by a publisher in this list can be installed without your explicit approval.

The list can also contain one or more credentials agencies. Similar to a notary, a credentials agency is an organization in the business of attesting to the identity of software publishers. If a credentials agency is in this list, then any publisher certified by that agency is considered trusted, allowing software they publish to be installed on your system without asking you first.


Remove

To remove an item from the list, first click on the name and then on Remove


Credentials

Credentials mean that the software publisher has added a digital signature to the program you want to install. It also means that the signature has a certificate attached to it. When a program has credentials, you know the program's publisher and you also know that the program downloaded successfully.

Digital Signatures

Digital signatures are similar to handwritten signatures. When you sign a document, you are taking responsibility for it. Digital signatures do the same thing. The most trustworthy signatures carry a legally binding certificate verifying that the signer is who he or she claims to be.

Digital signatures are relatively new and not everyone uses them. Many pieces of software do not yet carry a signature.

Certificates

A certificate is a guarantee that a digital signature is valid. Certificates are issued by various organizations. These organizations are similar to notaries and certificates are similar to the seals notaries place on documents, certifying that the signers are who they say they are.


Digital Signatures

Digital signatures are similar to handwritten signatures. When you sign a document, you are taking responsibility for it. Digital signatures do the same thing. The most trustworthy signatures carry a legally binding certificate verifying that the signer is who he or she claims to be.

Digital signatures are relatively new and not everyone uses them. Many pieces of software do not yet carry a signature.


Trust This Publisher

If you check this box and click ‘Yes’, then in the future you will not be asked for your approval when software published by this publisher is about to be installed on your system.


Trust This Agency

If you check this box and click ‘Yes’, then in the future you will not be asked for your approval when software published by any publisher that is certified by this agency is about to be installed on your system.


Advanced…

Click on this button to edit the list of publishers and agencies that you trust.