Anti-virus (AV) programs are designed to examine all the executable program files that you download (file extension "EXE") suspiciously. AV recognize most of the popular programs, from big companies, as safe, such as Microsoft Word or Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Minecraft, Family Tree Maker, etc. The AV's "signature files" (with virus profiles) include these popular programs.
When an AV sees an EXE that it does not recognize, even a legitimate and harmless one (such as our Charting Companion), the AV takes the "guilty until proven innocent" approach, assumes that the program is a potential threat, and flags it to the user. This is called a "false positive". Better safe than sorry. Except that this position is inconvenient and unfair to the user, and harmful to the provider of the program, as it affects the provider's livelihood.
What is absurd about this action, is that Progeny's programs are signed by a digital certificate. The digital certificate guarantees the authenticity and provenance of the file. Hackers are not in the habit of digitally signing their viruses. First, because it would reveal their identity. Second, the certificate can be easily revoked, and invalidate the file.
To verify Progeny's digital certificate, simply right-click on the installer or the program file, click on "Properties", the "Digital Signatures" tab:
We try to keep up with the principal AV developers (Norton, Symantec, Kaspersky, Avast, etc) by providing them with a copy of our programs, which their laboratories can certify as safe and include in their signature files. However, it takes weeks to assess the programs, and we are constantly coming out with new versions.
Meanwhile, we recommend you temporarily suspend the AV or firewall when installing Charting Companion. Or you add Charting Companion to the whitelist of safe programs.
If you do see one of our programs flagged by an AV, please provide us with the name and version of AV program, the Windows version you are using, and the error message. We will contact the AV provider and submit our program for whitelisting.
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