Creating stand alone distributable applications

[Pete]

I understand BBC Basic well, I do not understand much of the PC programming environment at all so if you can provide me help with this I have been trying to find out how to do this for a long time now!

I wish to create stand alone BBC applications, including ones which could be sold commercially. For example, I will be working on a program which responds to natural language heard on a telephone line which is sent by external Automatic Speech Recognition software to the program as text strings. My program then responds after working out what's been said and sending text-to-speech an appropriate response.

For this and other programs, I need to stop the compiled exe files generated by BBC Basic for Windows asking "Are you sure you wish to continue? This looks like a very unusual file and may contain viruses", when put onto other machines.

Better still if someone has an installer program which would run the exe files when the application is clicked on.

The BBC Basic text to speech demo says "you will be able to complete your own Windows applications". I think the language is definitely good enough to create applications from. I have purchased a Comodo certificate for $89 but not used it yet, more budget is available.

I have a website from which programs could be downloadable from, I need to get to the stage where I can offer downloads without the end user getting that very unusual file message! Any help massively appreciated.

[Hated Moron]

I need to stop the compiled exe files generated by BBC Basic for Windows asking "Are you sure you wish to continue? This looks like a very unusual file and may contain viruses", when put onto other machines.

There is relatively little you can do to prevent that message, at least until your program has been downloaded enough times for it to have gained a reputation for safety. This is the price you pay for the prevalence of so much malware, so that any program that is 'unusual' is bound to cause suspicion. You can't avoid a program created in BBC BASIC for WIndows looking unusual, of course it does!

The couple of things you can do are as follows, one easy, the other not so much:

• Make sure that your executable has a VERSION INFO resource which is fully populated. If you've not already done this, select Version Info from the Utilities menu (slot 7 usually). Enter all the information required, save your program (so that the REM!Resource statement is preserved) and re-build the executable.
  
  
• Digitally sign your executable. This is the most effective way of making your program more secure, but it means purchasing a Code Signing Certificate (not cheap, although a 3-year certificate works out cheaper in the long run). Once you have the certificate and it's properly installed you will be able to select the Signed checkbox in the Compile dialogue.

But even with these measures there is no guarantee that the warning won't still be produced, until your program has been downloaded enough times. This is the world we live in.

[Pete]

Thanks very much for your answer, the question was posed in another thread, but it is clearer here what I need to do now. I will be working on this next week. I will get the exe files digitally signed and put in VERSIONINFO, let you know if I encounter any problems next week.