Hence the want to install Chromium extensions manually. So, in general, this may very well not be an issue to everyone, but it is still a viable issue for some. Let's not forget that a number of extensions on the Chrome Web Store have been found to steal user data.ĭepending on who you are and what you require need for your own privacy wants and needs, none of this may be a big deal to you perhaps your Google account is a "throwaway" account that you use when interacting with any other Google service in the first place. This is Google's hyper personalized recommendation system at work.Īlso, not to mention that some of the "privacy" related extensions and other related software may turn out to not to be as private or secure as advertised. You may also start seeing advertisements (can we recommend an adblocking solution while we're at it?) across the web for "privacy" and "secure" software. You may start getting search "suggestions" that relate to privacy extensions. What I mean by that 2nd point in the above sentence, is that you might start seeing more extensions related to "privacy" once you download a privacy related extension. This means that if you download a privacy related extension straight from the web store, 1) this gets directly linked your google account, which is subject to Google's privacy policy and 2) feeds some information straight to Google. This information can be relatively harmless, but we know how hard Big Tech mines any bit of information available.įor example, with the Chrome Web Store, you can only download extensions if you have and are signed into a Google account. Naturally, when you install apps and extensions from any kind of web store directly, you're trading some of your information. Installing extensions by hand or simply bypassing the Chrome Web Store, can improve your privacy. This is probably the biggest reason for most users choosing to install extensions manually. Why would you ever choose to install an extension by hand?Įxact individual reasons vary, but in general you can boil it down to a couple of points: appxbundle, and it should now complete installation. After enabling sideloading as in image below, double-click.It should attempt to install, but then prompt you that you need to enable sideloading and provide a link.Uninstall any Kiwix JS Windows UWP already installed.Set your PC to install apps only from the Store (Settings -> Developer Settings).This is now a lot easier than the previous procedure, thank you! I'll send you the bundle to test. You then have to re-run the installation by double-clicking. It does prompt you to turn on Sideloading in the settings, but provides you with a link to click to open those settings. This now makes it possible to install the app by double-clicking the. I've now managed to sign the app with the official Kiwix Certificate (see the Trusted info at top): PS: If you want to have a talk about this specific complex topic, I'm of course available. If you sign with it, Windows won't complain about an untrusted root certificate (which is the case today).ĭo you know how to sign the apxbundle with a custom certificate/key? I have verified twice and this certificate's root is trusted by default in Windows trust store (on least on my Windows 10). We have a trusted (and expensive) code signing certificate signed by Digicert which is available to you to use. Therefore Windows complains that this software is unsecure. This is why it proves nothing about the author of the software. I confirm that the apxbundle is signed, but this is higly probably done by a self-signed certificate and for sure not by a trusted certificate. As a matter of proof we sign Kiwix Desktop for Windows with a trusted certificate and we don't get any warning because of a certificate or have to activate a "developer mode" (you can download and check this by a right click on the Kiwix Desktop. But I can assure you that the principle of app signing is supported Windows wide and works fine with trusted certificates. I think this is only because they want people to use the App store. This is bad, because using a trusted (by an external certificate authority) certificate is the third way. I agree that all the Microsoft documentation seems to tell either to activate the "developer mode" or to add the certificate to the trust store. I strongly recommend you to read it to secure that we both are at the same level of understanding of the principles. Here is Microsoft general documentation about software signing: (v=vs.85). I think there is a misunderstanding here about what the code signing principles are.
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