Security Warnings

If you receive unsettling security warnings from your web browser or OS, this page might help you. We give you some background on these warnings, explain why they appear, and show you how to install Cinecred nevertheless.

Windows

Microsoft includes its security measure SmartScreen in both Windows itself and its default browser Edge. By default, it raises warnings when launching applications downloaded from the Internet. The developer can prevent these warnings by either buying expensive and regularly expiring OV certificates (Organization Validation) or even more expensive EV ones (Extended Validation) and signing his application with those (Code Signing). To make things worse, the warnings still do not disappear immediately when using OV certificates, but instead, both the application and the certificate need to build “reputation” over time, which could take years. For more information, please refer to the corresponding Wikipedia article or other web sources.

As Cinecred is a free and open source effort, we cannot afford to buy such certificates. Hence, sadly you have to go through several security warnings when installing Cinecred.

When Downloading via Edge

If you are using the Microsoft Edge web browser to download the Cinecred installer, you receive the following security warning:

To nevertheless complete the download, click the three dots and choose “Keep”:

Next, click “Show more”:

Finally, choose “Keep anyway” to make Edge unblock the installer:

When Launching the Installer or App

When launching the Cinecred installer or the “cinecred.exe” extracted from the ZIP, you receive the following security warning. First, click “More info”:

Then, click “Run anyway” to commence the installation:

macOS

Apple's security measure Gatekeeper prohibits launching applications downloaded from the Internet. The developer can prevent these warnings by signing his application with a certificate provided by Apple (Code Signing) and sending in the application so that Apple can check it (notarization). However, this requires a Developer ID account, which costs $99 annually. Because the certificates expire after some time, the signatures of installer packages need to be renewed regularly, hence we would need to pay this fee indefinitely. For more information, please refer to the corresponding article by Apple or other web sources.

As Cinecred is a free and open source effort, we cannot afford to subscribe to Developer ID. Hence, you sadly receive a security warning when installing Cinecred.

When Launching the Installer

When launching the Cinecred installer, you receive the following security warning:

To install Cinecred despite this warning, right-click the installer package in Finder and choose “Open”:

In the dialog which follows, you may click “Open” to commence the installation:

When Launching the App

When launching “Cinecred.app”, some users receive the following error message:

To launch Cinecred despite it, first try right-clicking the app and choosing “Open” from the context menu, like we illustrated in the previous section for the installer. The error window still comes up, but should now include an “Open” button. Clicking that launches the app.

If the “Open” button doesn't appear, the cause is likely the quarantine attribute, which is added to all downloaded files. To remove it, open a Terminal and type the following:

• If the app is in your user's Downloads folder:

  cd Downloads
  xattr -d com.apple.quarantine Cinecred.app
  

• If the app is in the Applications folder:

  cd /Applications
  sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine Cinecred.app
  

Afterward, the app will launch normally.