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Unknown Publisher!

Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 6:22 pm
by wigwam
Hi

I have just tried to download Audacity 1.2.6 with windows XP. Macafee warns me publisher is unknown so cannot verify signature. Is this version safe? Why is the publisher not recognised? I hope there's a simple explanation!

Re: Unknown Publisher!

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 3:44 am
by jademan
wigwam wrote:I have just tried to download Audacity 1.2.6 with windows XP. Macafee warns me publisher is unknown so cannot verify signature. Is this version safe? Why is the publisher not recognised? I hope there's a simple explanation!
wigwam,

As with most open source programs, Audacity does not digitally sign it's programs for authenticity. This means that, as with any software you download from the internet, you should be careful where you got the software, that you should know what it does, and you should scan it for malicious viruses before installing or running the program. If you get the software from http://audacityteam.org/ and if you scan it for viruses, you should be OK. Audacity's guarantee to you is the availability of the source code itself, so that you can see exactly what it is doing.

For more on digital signatures and how they work, there is a very good explanation here: Digital Signatures: what are they, and how do they protect me?

I hope this helps.

Re: Unknown Publisher!

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:31 pm
by wigwam
Thanks for that. I have now downloaded Audacity. However, I don't know what I've done but I seem to have lost the sound on my PC. The volume is turned up but I'm getting no sound!!!!

Re: Unknown Publisher!

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:21 pm
by steve
wigwam wrote:However, I don't know what I've done but I seem to have lost the sound on my PC.
Have you just plugged in a USB microphone, or turntable, or similar?

Re: Unknown Publisher!

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:33 pm
by wigwam
No, I just used the built in microphone. It has played back that way. I'm not getting any sound through Windows Media Player either or when I turn my machine on or off.

Re: Unknown Publisher!

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:16 pm
by steve
Without knowing exactly what you have done it is difficult to give specific advise. You may have just muted the output. Have a look in the Windows Control Panel and see if can see what has become disabled and re-enable it. See the notes on XP here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... bar_Issues