Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?

[HISEnberg]

@d-healey @aaronventure pray tell what your solution is! I've just been rawdogging my windows package installers.

[d.healey]

@HISEnberg said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

pray tell what your solution is!

Solution to what?

[HISEnberg]

You'll also need an Apple developer account which is about £99. And if you want to codesign on Windows you need to buy into the license cartel, although I think @aaronventure found a cheaper solution.

Apologies that was lacking context, I was referring to the Windows codesigning!

[d.healey]

@HISEnberg I think @aaronventure was using a self-signing certificate. I remember also that Christoph mentioned using Azure as a cheaper option - https://forum.hise.audio/topic/9857/shoutout-azure-trusted-signing

He posted that about a week after I'd renewed my subscription to the cartel so I'm all set for a couple more years, but once my subscription expires I'll be exploring the Azure option (and any others that are suggested).

[ustk]

Yeah Azure is about 10$/month
I find it rather painful to setup though

[d.healey]

@ustk said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

I find it rather painful to setup though

Can you subscribe for a single month only?
Does it require a dongle?
Does it give EV level trust?

[ustk]

@d-healey said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

Can you subscribe for a single month only?

Yes, I just cancel the renewing because I wasn't ready to codesign for my windows installer, and this has been easy.

Does it require a dongle?

I don't think so, why would it? It's just a signing procedure using a certificate

Does it give EV level trust?

nope, but should we be concerned? https://www.digicert.com/faq/public-trust-and-certificates/what-is-an-extended-validation-ev-ssl-certificate

[d.healey]

@ustk said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

I don't think so, why would it?

If you go with Comodo, DigiCert, Sectigo, etc, they all require you use a hardware license dongle. Also signing for AAX requires a dongle (iLok).

@ustk said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

should we be concerned?

Yeah, I don't want my installer to be flagged as potentially malicious by the smart-screen filter.

[ustk]

@d-healey said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

Also signing for AAX requires a dongle (iLok).

Oh yes for the signing procedure... Of course, I wasn't at it...

[aaronventure]

@ustk if enough people start your exe, defender will eventually stop throwing a warning. That's why I suggested an installer app for HISE where devs would just attach a payload. That way once it eventually got past the defender smart screen, it would stay so.

And it exists, check the Payload Installer in the tools directory of HISE. The windows one works, the one for Mac not so much. I'll probably be pesting Chris about it soon.

Also, you can just upload your exe files to the defender whitelist on the microsoft page (you gotta be logged into your Microsoft account), select that you're a developer uploading an app for whitelisting, and after 3 weeks it'll be whitelisted and smart screen shouldn't pop anymore. But 3 weeks is a lot, almost feels like shipping for PlayStation.

[DanH]

@aaronventure what page is this?

[bendurso]

@DanH I think is this one: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/filesubmission

[bendurso]

@aaronventure Can you submit installers made with inno setup?

[aaronventure]

@bendurso yes.

Keep in mind that every time you build a new installer, you'll have to upload it again and wait 3 weeks.

[aaronventure]

HISE/tools/payload_installer at develop · christophhart/HISE

The open source framework for sample based instruments - HISE/tools/payload_installer at develop · christophhart/HISE

GitHub (github.com)

This is an attempt to simplify the process for everyone. But the mac version won't load the payload.

[Christoph Hart]

@aaronventure said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

But the mac version won't load the payload.

It also won't write to the global library folder and other things. This is one of the things in HISE where the sunken cost fallacy is lower than the annoyances so I wouldn't recommend anyone to use that method.

[aaronventure]

@Christoph-Hart it doest need to, it just needs to run the packages installer you ship with it.

[Christoph Hart]

@aaronventure Hmm, so

1. Embed the .pkg into the payload
2. Run the payload installer
3. In the payload installer, run a shell script that launches the .pkg installer?

Haven't thought about that, but it gives strong "Yo Dawg I like you heard installers so I put an installer into your installer so you can install the installer" vibes...

[aaronventure]

@Christoph-Hart That's the whole point, because your shell says xattr -cr mypackagesinstaller and then runs it, which just tells the gatekeeper that the file is fine.

[HISEnberg]

@HISEnberg said in Cost Of Operations?: License Fees?:

You'll also need an Apple developer account which is about £99. And if you want to codesign on Windows you need to buy into the license cartel, although I think @aaronventure found a cheaper solution.

Apologies that was lacking context, I was referring to the Windows codesigning!

Just throwing this in the mix as it seems to be a relatively recent article with up-to-date info on codesigning for AU/VST3/AAX on Windows (Azure) and Mac, as well as the fees associated:

Code signing audio plugins in 2025, a round-up

One of the last pain points before launching an audio plugin business is dealing with code signing. The ecosystem has changed over the years, especially on Windows, so here's a 2025 roundup.

(moonbase.sh)